Sabbath. Intentional pausing. Stopping. Resting. Refueling. Like this plant, you can see the distinct line on its leaf where it was dry from where it has soaked up the water. Sabbath is soaking our roots in water, which then rises and rises permeating our whole being.
My body’s wisdom lead me into observing Sabbath several years ago because it just crashed and craved rest come the weekend. Still does. I was consistently worn out from all the DOING and I just wanted to BE. And then I found that our family craved a similar rhythm. On Saturdays, our only day to not rally and get out of the house in the AM, was met with little people wanting to stay in their pajamas and make a pancakes together. They would literally complain and fight us if we had to go anywhere on Saturday. Our bodies were dry and our roots just wanted to soak up water.
I am just finishing the book, Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab. Several highlights:
“Our culture strongly links productivity with worth. The sabbath teaches us grace because it connects us experientially to the basic truth that nothing we do will earn God's love. As long as we are hard working…we are always in danger of believing that our actions trigger God's love for us. Only in stopping, really stopping, do we teach our hearts and souls that we are loved apart from what we do. On the sabbath, I am just a child of God.”
“We are creatures, completely dependent on the One who created us and sustains us. God alone is in control, and upholds the Universe. God alone preserves us and empowers us. We rest in that love, on that reality, on the day we stop. Part of Sabbath is learning dependency on God. It's the only form of dependency that works.”
“We need to dethrone the quintessentially American belief that more time equals more productivity. We say, ‘I don't have time to get it all done.’ Life is not about filling every moment. Life is about gift, embracing and receiving God's gifts. God may want us to be inefficient sometimes in order for is to receive his gifts more fully.”
“Our culture is obsessed with production, possession and accomplishment. The sabbath teaches grace because it invites us to rest and rejoice in what we have, rather than focus on what we do not have. The sabbath invites us to practice thankfulness.”
“Resting allows us to live in grace the other 6 six days”
“It convinces us of the goodness of God. The more we practice it, the greater privilege it becomes, the more essential it feels, the deeper it connects us to the river of life that provides fruit for all seasons.”
After our third was born, desperation and survival lead Raf and I into developing practices of individual retreating. I am learning that a full day of Sabbath as a family is different, however. We are going to keep experimenting with what that looks like for our family (the book gives lots of good ideas). While our bodies’ wisdom lead us into Sabbathing, this book has been catching my heart and mind up to the WHY of sabbathing.
Culture and society dictate so much of our inherent assumptions about our worth. We are chronically tired. We feel empty. We constantly focus on the negative. We believe the distortion that we are not good enough. We ruminate on what we don't have. We measure ourselves by what we have not, yet, accomplished. Could there be a connection to this 24/7 frenetic pace, endless activity and insurmountable demand on us without any built in rest?
I am only a rookie Sabbath keeper, but I am ready to unlearn many of these toxic messages through Rest. I want to learn how to be this plant - dependent on living water and stopping to soak my roots in God’s abundance, goodness and grace.
