What Should Sabbath Look Like?

How do you live Sabbath in a busy, always-on world?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about being challenged with the idea of Sabbath. (You can read that post here.) Since I wrote that post, I've been wrestling with what it looks like for me to really make it a part of my life.

How do I live Sabbath in a busy world?
How do I live Sabbath in our always connected world?
How do I live Sabbath without it just becoming a day full of legalistic rules of what I can and cannot do?

I don't think it's something where we can tell each other what it should look like. When we try to tell someone else exactly how it should look, we're in great danger of wandering into legalism. It's okay if the details of what a Sabbath looks like are different from each other.

What matters is where our heart is at. It's the attitude that makes it a Sabbath or not. We have to start there when we look at creating a Sabbath in our lives.

The more I've wrestled with this in my own life, the more I've come to appreciate the way my pastor described some guiding thoughts for a Sabbath:

Pray & Play

Two words that don't tell you exactly what you can and cannot do, but capture what a Sabbath should be.

Pray: This is about our relationship with God. Time to talk to God and to listen to what He's saying to us.

Play: Fun. Activities we enjoy. A break from some of our usual responsibilities.

What falls into each of these categories will look different for each of us. What is play to one person, may be work to another. What spending time in conversation looks like for another may not work for someone else.

As I've been walking on this journey, I've realized that sometimes it's a bit of trial and error to figure it out. Some things will be what you need for a Sabbath and some won't. I think that learning what it is for you is a key part of it because it takes us to a deeper relationship with God. As we're figuring it out, we're pursuing God.

I believe God is issuing an invitation to all of us to engage in this journey of relearning how to have a Sabbath. Of learning how to make regular days for us to pray and play again.

For me, it's been about learning to disconnect from normal responsibilities with work and ministry - not because they're not important, but because I'm better able to engage there fully when I have regular breaks from them. About learning, again, how to "waste time" - doing something just because I enjoy it, not because it's accomplishing anything. About realizing that the vegging out in front of the TV I used to call my break really isn't as refreshing as I thought it was (doesn't mean I don't still do that sometimes, it just means I have a different mindset about why I'm doing it).

What about for you?

How are you learning to live Sabbath in a busy world?
How are you learning to live Sabbath in our always connected world?
How are you learning to live Sabbath without it becoming a day full of legalistic rules of what you can and cannot do?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Leave them in the comments below.

Are You Missing Seeing what God is Doing Now?

Do you limit what God could do now in your life by how He acted in the past?

This is a question I spent some time reflecting on after I was reading in Isaiah 43 recently. There's a few verses in that chapter that are more well-known and I've heard quoted often. They're powerful words, but I realized just how powerful when I read a couple of verses before them alongside them.

"This is what the Lord days -
     He who made a way through the sea,
     a path through the mighty waters,
who drew the chariots and horses,
     the army and reinforcements together.
and they lay there, never to rise again,
     extinguished, snuffed out life a wick:
Forget the former things;
     do not swell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
     Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
     and streams in the wasteland."
                                      -Isaiah 43:16-19

The last couple of verses are the ones most commonly quoted, but when I read these verses all together I was struck by the thought sin them.

In describing who the Lord is Who is speaking, Isaiah is remembering how God led Israel out of Egypt and defeated their enemies. When they were in the an impossible situation and defeat seemed almost certain, God made a way out for them and defeated their enemy.

This is something they needed to remember. But, Isaiah also warns of a danger here. When he asks if they are perceiving the new thing the Lord is doing, he points out the danger and the reason why he is declaring that God is doing a new thing. There is a danger that in remembering how God has acted in the past, they would not see what God was doing now, or they would try to limit what God was doing now.

We face that danger in our lives. We need to remember what God has done for us in the past. That's what gives us hope and confidence that God will act now on our behalf again. But, we can too easily become so focused on the past that we miss what God is doing now. Or we can try to put God in a box of "this is how God does things" and resist Him when He tries to do something new.

In our remembering how God has acted on our behalf in the past, we cannot stop looking ahead for the new things He is doing and wants to do. Our remembering forms the basis of our belief and our confidence that He has a plan, but we cannot become so focused on it that we miss the new thing God is doing.

Into the Light

Darkness, silence

Often hand-in-hand

To keep up bound

Fearful of the light

Hiding secrets

Carrying burdens

All to keep us down

Fearful to be found out

Slowly, carefully

Uncovering what's beneath

Will we be okay?

Can we bear the light?

Freedom, healing

Free of fearful hiding

No condemnation

No need to fear the light

Chains broken

Secrets freed

Now life can grow

In the presence of His Light