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In April, I made a quick trip down to Virginia Beach to lead worship for a women's retreat there. The topic of the four sessions was Sabbath. I was very challenged by the excellent teaching of my friend Laura Shibut, who has learned the "hard way" how necessary the Sabbath is to the life of faith. My "take away" from the weekend was that I have been willfully and wantonly disobeying one of the Big Ten. Once I realized this, I was repentant, eager to make a huge change in that regard. But I am finding that it is much harder than I thought it would be. Still pondering my own failure to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, I then heard a fantastic sermon by John Saldanha, one of the pastors at my church, who announced that the next four Sundays, he would be preaching on Sabbath. Then, this week, I listened to the latest sermon from Woodmen Valley Chapel, "The Tightrope of Time," by Jimmy Dodd. It is a great sermon on time management to the glory of God, with the admonition that being busy is not something to admire or strive for. OK GOD! I HEAR YOU! NO NEED TO SHOUT!
Then I felt really guilty. I felt like a failure. "Where is the self-control here?!?!" I asked myself. The strange thing is, there was about a two-year long season of my life, back in about 2002-2004, when I set Mondays as my "Sabbath" day, and was pretty faithful in keeping it consistently. And there was SO MUCH good fruit in my life during that time. What happened? I forgot. And wasn't careful. And wasn't intentional. And I slacked off, and the next thing I knew, I was too busy again. So I'm going to try again, and I'll keep ya posted. What place does "keeping the Sabbath" have in your life? Are you too busy too? If you DO observe a full day of rest, how do you do it? What does your Sabbath observance look like? I want to learn from you... |
I read in a devotional recently this quote from 
So I have committed myself to setting one 24-hour period each week that I will devote to Sabbath. So far, I have failed to do it this week. The day I set to be the Sabbath was pretty good, until around 2 p.m., when I was interrupted by a work emergency, and then I ended up paying some bills, which led to another rabbit-trail. I decided to write thank-you notes, which led to my needing to check my email to get someone's address, and after a couple of hours I realized that I had spent the afternoon of my "Sabbath day" working.
Comments
Alas, I don't do this every weekend, but ... on Sundays I catch up on my Bible study homework and one-year Bible reading, pray, take a long walk, try to eat properly, and don't turn on my computer. I attend a Saturday evening worship service.
I liked Angry Conversations with God! It raised issues in my mind about the difference between hypocrisy and failing to live up to your standards, and Psalm 66:18 ("If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; . . .").
Sounds like Sabbath to me!! That is one of the best things about going to an alternate church service (i.e. on a day other than Sunday). I wish I had that option, but, alas... I not only attend two services, but I often lead worship for BOTH. Morning and evening, and both services are over 2 hours long (not including the rehearsal time with the band!) Not complaining, just acknowledging the challenges of being in ministry service AND holding down a full time job. Not quite the way God designed it.
I am writing this on Sunday morning - I pray your day of Sabbath is blessed.
Good for you! Keep up trying- it is well worth the effort.
I keep Saturday as a Sabbath, though I'm not Jewish or Seventh-Day. Here's what it looks like for me:
Start at sundown on Friday. Looking forward helps a lot. Usually I do a bunch of housecleaning on Friday, maybe cook something extra good, or a sweet treat like cinnamon rolls. Light candles if I feel like it- sit down right at sundown to start it of with God. Pray, sing a bit, whatever. We had a family tradition of going around the room naming things we were thankful for, or things that had happened in the past week that made us happy. I think the best part of this little meeting was that it made a separation between the normal work week and the Sabbath. On one side is work, on the other no work.
While I was in college for a year it was so difficult to keep because I was insanely busy all week long. Come Friday night I could hardly sit still I was so keyed up. I would turn out the lights, lie on the couch in the living room and tell myself I couldn't move until I could be still and peaceful inside. Sometimes it took a LONG TIME.
Saturday I sleep in, then spend the day reading, walking, catching up on sleep, visiting friends, surfing the web (cough, cough).
When we were kids Daddy would have a devotional time in the morning, Mom would make popcorn, and then we would sit around the living room playing with toys while Mom or Dad read out loud. Narnia books were a favorite.
Here are some suggestions for starting to keep the Sabbath:
Decide ahead of time what you consider off-limits. What do you consider work? Will you try to avoid business transactions? Travel? Busy social gatherings?
Plan activities to replace the work you would normally be doing. Its really hard to have this whole empty day- a sudden void in the middle of your week! Trying thinking of something special earlier in the week and save it for that day.
Start your own rituals or traditions: candles and quiet music to start the day, something special to eat, special music that you only listen to on that day...
Get somebody else to do it with you. Sabbath keeping is a lot easier with other people backing you up.
Take time to read what God says about the Sabbath in the Bible- wonderful stuff!
The benefits are great! Not just the spiritual benefits, buts physical and emotional as well.
Yay! I am so excited for you!