I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Sabbath’?

As I mentioned in the introduction to Living Well, Sabbath was the word God used to draw my attention to a richness of life that I had been missing for so long – a way of walking in step with His unforced rhythms of Grace. I heard the idea of it first described when I became aware of ‘Hygge’ – a Danish concept that focusses on rest, delight and thankfulness. As I explored that a little further, God lovingly and patiently drew my attention to Sabbath – a life-giving, soul-nourishing rhythm of life that I had overlooked and misunderstood for way too long!

Growing up in charismatic Church of England churches, I had picked up 2 main messages about Sabbath -neither of which were particularly helpful or accurate and which, together, contradicted each other!

The first was about the mention of Sabbath in the 10 Commandments when it talks about remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy. As far as I could work out, in practice, this pretty much meant that some Christians feel it’s not OK to go shopping on a Sunday!

The second message was based in a passage in Mark 2:23-27. Jesus is walking through grain fields with his disciples who pick some heads of grain to eat as they walk along. In the Jewish faith there are some very strict rules around what you can and can’t do on a Sabbath day and picking grain was not allowed. Eagerly seeking to catch Him out, the religious leaders – the Pharisees – had been following Jesus and His friends and when they saw this they immediately challenged the law-breaking behaviour. Jesus responds by saying:

‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’

I had heard this story used together with a verse from Galatians 5:1 which says “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”, with the conclusion that Jesus came to set us free from legalism and heavy rule following and so we don’t need to worry too much about the Sabbath – so don’t feel too bad if you’ve run out of milk and need to pop to the shops!!!

Unfortunately, I think we have often totally missed the point when it comes to Sabbath! Somewhere along the way we have chosen to ignore the life breathing rhythm of life that God designed for us through the Sabbath that brings freedom and fulness of life, labelling it old legalism that we have somehow moved beyond.

Somewhere along the way we have chosen to ignore the life breathing rhythm of life that God designed for us through the Sabbath that brings freedom and fulness of life.

We live in a world today that never stops and that prizes high capacity. Developments in technology mean we never have to fully stop – with email on our phones 24 hours a day and video calls and shared files accessible at all times – we can work at any time and in any place. I have heard colleagues in the staffroom trying to better each other with their stories of how few lunch breaks they have taken this term or how many hours of work they clocked up at the weekend – wearing it as a badge of pride that somehow defines them as effective and accomplished. In this toxic environment of continual striving and business it can be easy to begin to define ourselves by what we do or by how much we do, rather than by who we are.

In his book ‘Sabbath’, Wayne Muller writes:

‘Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something – anything – is better than doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever-growing expectations, we do not rest.’

Wayne Muller – Sabbath P1

I have had to recognise that achievement has become an addiction for me. I love my work. I love the feeling I get when I create a new process or structure that will enable what we do to be more effective. I love creating a new piece of training that will better equip staff to journey well with children. I love creating an intervention programme that enables children to flourish and learn and celebrate a little more of who they are. I love having the opportunity to remind people that they are seen, known and loved by God as I write a talk for church. And there is nothing wrong with any of that! I am made in the image of a Creator God – creating is in my DNA. I also share the heart of a loving Father God who desires good things for each of the children, staff and volunteers that I journey with and who, by His Spirit, inspires the work I do. 

The problem comes when, in the midst of that business and accomplishment, we forget why we are doing anything at all!! We forget that, first and foremost, we are made to love God and enjoy Him forever; that we have the privilege of being part of His story and, instead, we begin to make Him a small part of ours.

I have found that, in that space, very quickly I hit a downward spiral. The feeling of accomplishment feeds my drive to succeed – I throw myself into ‘opportunity’ after ‘opportunity’ eager to achieve more. And as life gets busier, my head begins to drop as, increasingly, I draw on my own reserves.

When I was growing up, my dad was a coal miner. There is a phrase down the mine that says: ‘Keep goin’ wit y’ead down’ – or, for those not fluent in Lancashire speak ‘Keep going with your head down.’ Down the pit, that makes total sense, when you spend your day walking through narrow tunnels. But I recognise that I have picked this up and, in many ways, made it a mantra for how I approach life. When life gets tough, I put my head down and plough on regardless – a bit like a hedgehog – head down and roll through it. 

Isaiah 40:31 says that ‘those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’

We are not called to be hedgehogs – we are called to be eagles – who put their heads up and look to God for our strength rather than putting our heads down and drawing on our own depleted reserves!

Sabbath is a radical rhythm of rest that smashes through our pride and through our destructive addiction to achievement and instead creates space for us to breathe and to remember who we were made to be.

Eugene Peterson puts it this way:

‘Sabbath is a deliberate act of interference, an interruption of our work each week, a decree of no-work so that we are able to notice, to attend, to listen, to assimilate this comprehensive and majestic work of God, to orient our work in the work of God.’

Eugene Peterson – Christ plays in 10000 places – p110

Sabbath is a radical rhythm of rest that smashes through our pride and through our destructive addiction to achievement and instead creates space for us to breathe and to remember who we were made to be.

Sabbath is a time for our heart, our soul, our mind and our physical body to rest – to stop and notice the wonder of God – to take delight in His presence and be reminded that He takes delight in us – to be reminded that we are part of God’s story, not the other way around.

There is so much to explore and enjoy as we begin to unwrap the beautiful gift that God has given us in Sabbath – We can explore how it fits beautifully with a world that is shaped around rhythms – We can consider what it means to keep it Holy and call it a delight…. and we’ll unpack some more of that as we journey further into Living Well.

But, for today, I love this quote by St Augustine who was bishop of Hippo in the 5^th century:

‘You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.’

What does a rhythm of rest look like for you right now?

How do you feel about the thought of having regular time each week when worktime is interrupted?

What is your approach to achievement and work? Are you comfortable with the place it has in your life?

Talk to God about it and ask Him to shine a light on motivations behind anything you might feel uncomfortable with.