Honor a Sabbath Time

Keeping the Sabbath is an ancient spiritual practice, one known to us in the Biblical creation story which included the divine rest on the seventh day. Setting aside the one day for rest, renewal, relationship and worship is a way to make all the other days holy as well. We rest from our labors, liberate ourselves from the grind and obsession with earning and consuming, so that our souls may receive the gift of the Sabbath, the mystery, beauty and power of it.

This is indeed a challenge as we are surrounded by the 24/7 barrage of expectations to stay busy, perform, and keep the schedule. Today it is a counter-cultural act to say “no” to Sunday morning soccer, “no” to those things tearing our family away from worship, “no” to those things that prolong and continue work and not rest. To say “no” to these distractions is to say “yes” to renewal, spiritual recharging, family time and rest. Again, it is a matter of priorities. Perhaps there is no greater witness among Christian families today than the witness, making the statement, about what they value most.

“No, we cannot practice on Sunday morning; our family will be in worship.”

Honoring the Sabbath is loving ourselves as God loves us. And honoring the Sabbath is making a small, but determined effort to keep life holy.

When keeping the traditional Christian Sabbath (Sundown Saturday to Sundown Sunday is impossible due to the necessity of life-sustaining work or other important reasons, we can carve out other times that are Sabbath times. We may even carve out regular, protected “Sabbath mornings” or “Sabbath evenings” or “Sabbath hours.”

Our Sabbath time may include “unplugging” from our digital world, fasting from technology, setting aside work, hosting an ingathering of family and friends for conversation and play, and breaking bread with glad and generous hearts.

Honor a Sabbath Time …