Being and Becoming: Practicing Sabbath
Written by Megan Hinkle
I grew up in a Christian home, but Sabbath was never something we ever intentionally practiced. I remember asking my parents what it meant to honor the Sabbath, and their response was that it meant to go to church on Sunday. Until the last couple of years, I haven’t spent much time thinking about the Sabbath.
Over time the Lord has been working in my heart to reveal ways in which I have been passive or stagnant in my faith. This led me to study and be more intentional about spiritual disciplines which then forced me to re-examine what it means to observe the Sabbath and why it should be an important part of my walk with the Lord.
My starting point was to view the Sabbath as a day of rest from work. When I was in grad school and worked in a research lab, I was always going to the lab on the weekends because experiments don’t always happen on a 9-to-5 schedule. So I made an effort to pick one day each weekend when I wouldn’t go to the lab. It was an intentional choice to make changes to my work week out of obedience to the Lord. Now that I no longer work in a lab, it’s easier to implement rest from my job as a part of my Sabbath. Now there are other tasks I try to avoid doing on the Sabbath, like grocery shopping and household chores. At this point when I thought about practicing the Sabbath, I thought about a list of things I had decided I couldn’t do, but then I started to find that I wasn’t sure what I should do on my Sabbath day.
A new question I came across while thinking about the Sabbath is “How can I rest in the Lord on the Sabbath?”. I found this helpful to frame the way I think about Sabbath, in that it’s not just a day to rest from work but to delight in the Lord and the relationship we can have with him as a result of his love and sacrifice for us. I think some of the ways I find rest in the Lord are more obviously “spiritual” activities like prayer and worship. But I also think other important ways of finding rest are spending time with other believers and enjoying being present in the world God has created. Ways that I enjoy doing that are baking, spending time outdoors, and enjoying a cup of tea with a friend. As I’ve tried to be more intentional about incorporating spiritual disciplines into my life, I find that the more I spend time in prayer and Scripture, the more I feel God’s presence in regular activities that aren’t usually defined as “spiritual”. I think that God is glorified when I open my heart to his goodness while going for a walk or baking a loaf of bread for someone to enjoy.
Sometimes I find that reducing some of the distractions and tasks that are present throughout my week brings up emotions about events from the week. Having time for quiet on the Sabbath makes me ready to see the hard things and the good things and remember to bring them to the Lord instead of trying to distract myself from the thoughts and feelings with the next task that needs to get done. I think that’s one of the gifts I’ve found in practicing the Sabbath; processing what’s hard with the Lord instead of dwelling on issues has given my mind rest to prepare me for the next week.
The Psalms remind me that the Lord’s rest is good and taking time to intentionally reduce work and distractions on the Sabbath reminds me that God is sufficient to meet all of my needs.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 23