Why Keeping a Sabbath is Good For You

We are more than what we do.

This might seem obvious, but it so often ignored or forgotten. The Sabbath reminds us of the fundamental fact that we are created in the image of God, invested with inherent dignity, and our value is not dependent on what we do but simply on our existence.

I am as guilty as anyone else of thinking that my worth, my value, is dependent upon my busyness, on how many people are asking me to do things, and on how successful I am. The frenetic pressure to fill my diary, to attend the next meeting, or to read this book or listen to that podcast, all drive people into burn-out and depression.

Modern Culture and Anti-Sabbath

The dominant culture we live in tells us that our value is determined by our efficiency, our achievements, and our capacity to be busy. This is what led to a distinction between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor. It leads to discrimination against the disabled, increased hardship for mothers, and the prioritisation of intellectual and physical ability while reducing the value of creativity, craftsmanship, and the arts. To determine human value based on productivity is a destructive and damaging cycle that reduces us to consumer-producers and results in the objectification of people by companies, corporations, and the State.

But what can we do about it?

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m too busy to take a break?” Or maybe you are the person who has felt pressured to work through your lunch break, or to check your emails when you are on holiday, or maybe you have worried that if you do not go the extra mile at work, then people won’t value you as much? It is easily done and very difficult to push back against. Everything around us, including some really deeply seated cultural assumptions, drives us onwards to find our value in the wrong place and to believe the lies that tell us our value is tied to our ability to labour, to produce, to accomplish, and to earn.

We Have To Choose To Stop

The reality is we cannot fight back against the destructive norms of our culture without intentionally determining to stop. It is difficult. It is not easy. It means working to take apart the damaging and destructive cultural drives, which, when we start to push back, often result in anxiety and fear. Taking time for yourself, not to be productive but simply to rest, can be really difficult and genuinely leave you feeling really anxious, at least to begin with. But that is because we have commodified time. As soon as we could count time in a regular way, counting the hours, we started to turn time into a commodity. It means that time became something that we could spend, invest, take, spend, save, and waste. If you stop and take time for yourself, it can be so easy to feel that you are wasting time. However, you need to resist that impulse!

This is where Sabbath is helpful.

At the beginning of the Bible, we are told that when God created everything, God took the 7th day to rest. To stop and rest from the task of creation. Exodus 31 tells that the Sabbath is the day when God rests. In Hebrew, the phrase is Shauvot Vayinafash. The root of the word for rest is linked to the word for ‘soul’ or the spirit/breath of life, which vivifies and enervates us. It could be read that in resting, we regain our soul. We are ‘re-souled’ in the sense that the dynamic power of the breath of life is restored within us when we rest. The source of our being is worn out through work and must be restored within us. We need to stop and take a breath. To breathe in deeply from the breath of life.

Whether we are talking about the Biblical Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, or the Church Sabbath, which is Sunday as the day we remember the resurrection of Jesus, or taking a day as a Sabbath during the week, it is essential to understand that the Sabbath is more than just taking a rest. It is more than a day off. Sabbath is a way of resisting the demands and drives of our culture and society. Sabbath helps us to fight back against the destructive lies which make us put our value where it doesn’t belong. Sabbath is the Kingdom of God being established for a day in the middle of our everyday life.

What Does Sabbath Mean Today?

Sabbath means slowing down and stepping away from the demands of our lives. Not necessarily by following a set of rules, or by cutting ourselves off from technology. It is important not to let Sabbath become another demand, another way of feeling we are not good enough. I am not advocating for the adoption of the Biblical Sabbath or the complexities of Talmudic debate, nor am I suggesting that we need shops to shut on a Sunday and to spend the day in prayer and contemplation. I am suggesting that we should make our Sabbath more than just taking a day off.

Whether it is a special meal or a series of prayers and ritual activities, it is important to mark the beginning of our Sabbath. To enter into a different kind of space and time. To mark our transition from one way of living to another. From the time and space of the world into the time and space of the Kingdom of God. You could create your own rituals, write your own prayers, gather as a family for a meal, or take time to simply recognise the transition in our own life from work to rest. Then we need to work out what does it mean for us to rest, or at least what does it mean for you to rest.

Are there things you would do well to cut yourself off from for a while? It might be social media, or your phone, or the internet. Or perhaps you intentionally embrace these things as a way to connect with people. Perhaps you will not cook or do housework, but will only eat what you prepared the previous day. Or maybe actually preparing and making a meal is something that can help you take your time and rest if you more frequently eat only ready meals or fast food. What practices can you do to help you slow down, to rest, and to breathe fresh life back into your soul?

Sabbath is More Than What We Do

However, there is another element to the Sabbath beyond understanding it as a resistance to the oppressive and destructive aspects of our culture.

When we keep an intentional Sabbath long enough, Sabbath can get to the stage of keeping us. When we build a habit of taking a Sabbath each week, of taking time to rest and slow down, to be open to the breath of God in our lives, and when we get into a rhythm of the ritual and prayer which marks the entrance and exit of Sabbath, then we are preparing ourselves for a time when our life becomes too much.

When life pushes back, having a regular rhythm of intentional rest provides a form of resilience which can keep us safe and secure. We have roots deeply planted in the Kingdom of God, which reminds us that we are made in the image of God. That our value and worth is not dependent on what we do. That our value does not decrease when we take time away from producing or consuming, and that our wellbeing is grounded in something other than our own capacity. We learn a new way of being.

It’s difficult. I’m rubbish at it myself. But taking the time to develop a regular rhythm and practice of Sabbath is not only good for us now, but is good for us in the future. Take time to find the Kingdom of God here and now and enter into a new way of living.

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