Seizing the Sabbath
/By Betsy Stalcup, founder and executive director of Healing Center International
Sam and I have been Sabbath-keeping for at least 28 years. I know because we started when we lived in California. Although I do not remember what prompted us to begin. I know why we have continued.
As we have practiced the Sabbath, we have become more and more aware of its beauty, and why Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for humans and not the other way around. Words fail me to describe how deeply Sabbath keeping has affected our lives.
But let me try anyway.
There is something about stopping, ceasing from my labors that exercises my trust muscles. Quieting, lying on the sofa in the sun, hiking in the woods near my home. Delighting in God and experiencing his delight in me means that at least once a week, for 24 hours I can quiet my soul and remind myself that it is not all up to me. To me this pause is more valuable than getting more done. I am reminded of Dallas Willard’s words: “The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity.”
Sabbath keeping has given me an opportunity to be and not do.
I’ve also found that keeping the Sabbath creates a lovely rhythm for my life. We work hard during the other six days of the week. Knowing that the Sabbath is coming sustains us when we are weary. We know relief is coming. A time when we can rest and say to ourselves, Yes, that needs to be done, but not now.
For the last few months God has been talking to me about hurrying. It is not a long lecture, just two words that frequently run in my head. No hurrying. Our hurrying makes it hard to hear God or even ourselves. Recently a friend sent me this quote of Dallas Willard’s: “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
Yes Lord, I hear you. Help me obey. Show me how.
Over the years, I’ve learned that keeping the Sabbath well requires a little planning. If I am not going to shop or cook elaborate meals, I have to do those chores on the other days of the week. If I have a seminary paper due on Sunday night, I have to finish it on Saturday.
My need for Sabbath is increasing. For the last year, God has been saying to me. No deadlines, no watch, no hurrying. Let me order your day. I am learning that I not only need a weekly Sabbath, I also need to get away, to be submerged in natural beauty and rest without thoughts about all that needs to be done. As our ministry grows and the demands increase, I need more time away. In December, God began nudging me to take a real break, a break where I did not have to care for anyone else. A girl friend and I went to the Virgin Islands and snorkeled each day. I continue to be amazed at how restored I was upon returning.
While away, I heard God whispering, While you rest, I work. Within weeks of returning, several projects that had long been on my heart suddenly began to take form.
Interested in trying to keep the Sabbath? Here are my thoughts about getting started.
1. I would start by engaging your will by purposing in your heart to obey all of God’s commandments—including Sabbath keeping. At times I have wondered why keeping the Sabbath is so important to God. Deep down inside, I wondered, why was it even included in the ten commandments? Breaking the Sabbath certainly isn’t the equivalent of murder or adultery. Or is it? In Exodus 35:2, Moses told the Israelites, “Whoever does any work on it (the Sabbath) must be put to death.” Sounds like God took it very seriously.
Keith Boyd, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, says we need to keep the Sabbath because “if we don’t keep that commandment well, then we won’t be able to keep the others.”
2. Just do it. I am convinced that the only way to understand the Sabbath is to just do it. Some things must be experienced. We have to stop and cease from our activities to fully recognize what God is doing in our lives.
Ruth Haley Barton says, “sabbath keeping is a discipline that will mess with you, because once you move beyond just thinking about it and actually begin to practice it, the goodness of it will capture you, body, soul and spirit. You will long to wake up to a day that stretches out in front of you with nothing in it but rest and delight.”
3. Recognize that you need a break from the work of this world to see your life from God’s perspective. “The purpose of the Sabbath,” says Keith Boyd, “is to rest, recreate, and reflect on God’s work.” We can’t rest while we’re working. We can’t recreate unless we cease from our labors. We can’t take time to reflect on God’s work in our life without being still.
When we don’t take a break, we get caught up in the notion that worldly achievements will give our lives meaning and satisfy our longings, but only an intimate relationship with Jesus can meet those needs.
William Wilberforce, a leader in the fight to abolish slavery in the British Empire, once said, “Blessed be to God for the day of rest and religious occupation, wherein earthly things assume their true size. Ambition is stunted.”
4. We’ve all heard Allan Schore’s famous quote: that being able to quiet yourself is the strongest predictor of good mental health for a lifetime. Being able to quiet takes practice. It is not easy to go from a frantic pace to real internal quiet. When I work too long without taking a break, I reach a point where my body is so tense that it is not easy to undo. I have to stop. Get somewhere without distractions, breathe deeply, yawn and relax my body. I have to work at it. I have to give it my focused attention. I have to do it regularly to be able to access it when I need it most.
We need to master quieting both on our own and with a group of family and friends. If we can’t quiet, we can’t regulate the intensity of our emotions which will lead us to turn to all kinds of counterfeit comforts. Learning to quiet doesn’t happen quickly, we have to see it as the prize it is—something worth sacrificing for.
5. Practicing the Sabbath helps us learn to be satisfied with what God has given us–materially, emotionally, and physically. We are a restless generation, rarely satisfied with what God has given us, always wanting more. We want to make things happen and we think that our efforts will yield the desired results. We need to come to God, admit our desire for control and die to it. While you rest, I work
6. If you don’t Sabbath, illness will become your Sabbath. I have experienced this. When I could not let go of caring for Sam when he was in the hospital, I got ill. I knew I needed to stop and rest more deeply, but I could not do it.
7. Let go of the idea that you have to get ‘er done. I am embarrassed to confess that I used to think that I had to do it all or it would not be done right, but as I have watched all of you, our leaders bloom, I have seen many wonderful things flower in your hands. I am learning to let others take the lead. I am learning to let God do what only he can do.
Jack Hayford, pastor of Church of the Word in Van Nuys, California, says, observing the Sabbath is a “regular reminder, on a weekly basis, that you can’t get it all done. You can’t do it without God, not well, and not fulfillingly, not adequately, and not as creatively and not as satisfyingly as with God’s help.”
8. Prayerfully ask God what he wants your sabbath to look like. If you are married, agree with your spouse on a time and day of the week. Most will want to have their Sabbath on Sunday. Pastors who work on Sunday need to choose another day. “Most of all don’t let the choice of day, an issue that has caused denominations to split, keep you from keeping the Sabbath,” cautions Ashey. In our family, we cease our labors at 5:00 PM on Saturday and break the Sabbath at 5:00 PM on Sunday.
Once you settle on a day, make some ground rules using some guidelines. Don’t do things that you think of as work.
We don’t do laundry, clean house, go shopping, or cook elaborate meals. We take walks, read, visit with friends, nap, or putter in the garden. We journal. Play the piano (badly). We sit quietly and listen to God. On snowy days, we go sledding. In the summer, we often swim in the local pool.
I find it especially important to eliminate any activity that is stressful. For me this means almost all entertainment or shopping. I like to focus on activities where I can delight in God and let him love me, such as being outside in nature.
If you fail and get caught up in doing, repent and ask God to forgive you. Then try again. Ask God to give you strength and wisdom to keep a Sabbath that pleases him. It took our family many starts and fits before we were successful Sabbath keepers.
If you and your spouse can’t agree on every rule, don’t despair. My husband, Sam, and my son, Sammy, think watching Sunday afternoon football is a wonderful way to celebrate the Sabbath! That’s not what a Sabbath looks like for me, but I let it go. While they watch the game, I take a nap or read a book. When the game is over, we take a walk together.
In 1924, Eric Liddell stunned the world by refusing to run the 100-meter race at the Paris Olympics because the trials were scheduled on Sunday. His dedication to God’s law still convicts me, paltry Sabbath keeper that I am. Liddell went on to win a gold medal in another race–the 400-meter–a race that he was not expected to win.
I believe God gave us the Sabbath because he loves us. He doesn’t want us to become enslaved to achievement, performance, and perfection. Instead, he wants us to know the satisfaction and security that comes from knowing his power, his provision, and his purpose as we break from our work and turn to see his creative work in our lives.
Barton, Ruth Haley, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation, Green Press Initiative, 2006, p. 133.
Willard, Dallas, Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God, Intervarsity Press, 2014, p. 144.