While we are on blog 5 of the Sabbath … I would suggest reading this blog, if you are still having trouble pulling the plug and taking the Sabbath. Push yourself to ask the question why? Why am I not taking a Sabbath? I bet you it comes down to not trusting God with the Sabbath.
One of the biggest things holding people back from taking the Sabbath is this: I already have no time, how in the world am I supposed to find a full 24-hours to-do nothing?
The Sabbath won’t just appear; it has to be done intentionally. You choose to make time for it.
And that takes a lot of trusting in the Lord.
This was our story too, it took weeks of studying up on the Sabbath reading about it, listening to podcasts, plenty of conversations, and loads of prayer before we finally decided to commit to it and take our first Sabbath.
It took that long for me to take the plunge because I wasn’t trusting God with the Sabbath. I could not seem to get myself to trust God with a full 24 hours of doing nothing. I couldn’t see that the Sabbath was made for me – a gift.
But more than that, I was painfully aware of the sacrifice it would take. Not everything on the to-do list would get done if I gave up an entire day.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t figure out how to take a Sabbath – the concept was simple – but rather that I wasn’t trusting God with the Sabbath.
And that is exactly what we are diving into in today’s blog: Trusting God with the Sabbath
Let’s Get You Caught Up
If we were looking at our Sabbath road map… let me show you where you are at:
We are on blog 5 of 6 in our Sabbath Series. And that puts us at Week 3 of taking a Sabbath.
In case you need to do some catching up, here are the latest Sabbath blogs:
- Our Experience Taking a Sabbath – 3 Years In!
- The Sabbath Study Week | No. 2
- How to Prepare for Your Sabbath | No. 3
- Ideas for How to Spend Your Sabbath | No. 4
- You are Here!
And if you haven’t already, be sure to join the BG Sabbath Challenge: 4 weeks of practicing the Sabbath with a community.
The Sabbath is not something you learn – it’s something you experience. It’s more like a mama bird pushing her baby bird out of the nest – you’ll find your wings on the way down!
And if you want more accountability as you go, be sure to join below (or click HERE to learn more about the BG Sabbath Challenge):
Speaking of finding your wings on the way down – this one is for the baby birds who are a little more nervous to take such a big jump out of a warm and cozy nest.
(I’m right there in the nest with you friend! And let me tell you if I can jump… so can you!)
… let’s talk about it!
Count the Cost
As I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t that I didn’t believe the Sabbath was amazing – It sounded great – but it seemed too high a cost to take a Sabbath …
… or even more, I couldn’t wrap my mind around how everything would work out if I did give up a complete 24-hours.
And for the moms reading this, I am sure it is an even greater cost for you —
How in the world are you supposed to:
- Feed the kids
- Shop for the groceries
- Maintain a tidy house
- Help the kids with homework
- Keep up with the laundry
- Prep for the upcoming week
- And more
While bumping down your hours each week from 168 to 144?
Is it possible? Sure. But ultimately something has to give… and it can’t be your sanity.
Listen, friend. Your thinking is right. Jesus tells us to count the cost of following Him.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30)
It is okay and valid to have these thoughts. It’s good to run the cost-benefit analysis… Jesus actually encourages that you do this.
But as Dallas Willard said, “The cost of discipleship is high, but the cost of non-discipleship is even higher.”
So when weighing the cost of taking a Sabbath every week, we must sit and realize what it will cost us to NOT take a Sabbath every week.
Spoiler: yes, following & trusting Jesus with the Sabbath will cost you, but it will cost you WAY more to not follow him.
John Mark Comer in his book Practicing the Way wrote, “It will cost you life with God, the very purpose for which you were created. It will cost you access to the inner life of the Trinity, the ‘peace… which transcends all understanding,’ and the ‘joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.’ It will cost you freedom from the bondage of sin, healing from the wounding of sin, forgiveness from the guilt and shame of sin, and adoption into the family of God out of the isolation of sin.”
He goes on to say, “People often complain about how hard the spiritual life is. And the honest truth is, yes, it is. But what’s missing from this diagnosis is that the unspiritual life is even harder.
Life is hard, with or without God. But what’s really hard-–nearly unbearable for some— is facing the pain and suffering of life apart from God. So is trying to save yourself rather than be saved. Living in a godless, shepherdless, meaningless universe— that’s really, really hard.
Ironically, in our attempts to avoid the difficult path of discipleship, we make our life harder, not easier. In our pursuit of happiness over obedience, we make our life less and less happy. In our resistance to Jesus’ yoke, we end up shouldering the crushing burden of our own unsatisfied desires.”
So, with that being said, let’s look at the cost of hurry in our lives and what the cost of NOT taking a Sabbath is.
The Cost of Hurry & Not Taking a Sabbath
Over the years, hurry is something that has come up so quickly and sneakily… we didn’t even realize it was happening to us.
With the rise of the digital age, our world has sped up to an insane all-time high level.
In the 50s as they were slowly adding in new digital inventions that would save people time, their biggest concern was that future generations would have too much idle time on their hands.
Ironically, it’s the complete opposite effect – everyone is busy.
I’m busy. You’re busy. Even your elementary-age children are busy these days.
24-hours is still 24-hours and all that technology has done for us is allow us to do more in that time frame. Causing us to move faster and faster …. More and more hurry.
And most of us, don’t realize how damaging this is on our lives.
Even if we would agree that yes hurry is bad, we don’t know the level or extent of damage it is doing to us.
Wayne Muller in his book, Sabbath, observed, “A ‘successful’ life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our own bodies, pushing them beyond their limits; war on our children, because we cannot find enough time to be with them when they are hurt and afraid, and need our company; war on our spirit, because we are too preoccupied to listen to the quiet voices that seek to nourish and refresh us; war on our communities, because we are fearfully protecting what we have, and do not feel safe enough to be kind and generous; war on the earth, because we cannot take the time to place our feet on the ground and allow it to feed us, to taste its blessings and give thanks.”
It’s no surprise they are calling it ‘hurry sickness’ – our bodies are showing physical symptoms to the negative effects of hurry in our lives — and that it is a major epidemic in our world.
John Mark Comer spends the first half of his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry laying down the proof and showing how hurry is destroying our bodies, minds, souls, relationships, and life. I would highly suggest giving it a read!
“Hurry kills all that we hold dear: spirituality, health, marriage, family, thoughtful work, creativity, generosity… name your value.”
One of the many excerpts from the first half of his book, that really hits home is this: “Violence is the perfect word. Hurry kills relationships. Love takes time; hurry doesn’t have it.
It kills joy, gratitude, appreciation; people in a rush don’t have time to enter the goodness of the moment.
It kills wisdom; wisdom is born in the quiet, the slow. Wisdom has its own pace. It makes you wait for it—wait for the inner voice to come to the surface of your tempestuous mind, but not until the waters of thought settle and calm.
Hurry kills all that we hold dear: spirituality, health, marriage, family, thoughtful work, creativity, generosity… name your value. Hurry is a sociopathic predator loose in our society.”
Something has to change otherwise it’s not hard to look down the path and see where this road is heading.
And the Sabbath is one weekly action we can take to push back against that hurry culture.
One day to pause and practice stopping, just being, resting, enjoying, and delighting in the Lord’s good gifts. A day to practice trusting God with the Sabbath.
And allowing you to carry that same slower pace with you into the rest of your week.
The Twin Gods: Accumulation & Accomplishment
For the sake of transparency, this is the last big part of the puzzle that needed to click for me. It convicted me and made me aware that I was struggling to start Sabbathing because I wasn’t trusting God with the Sabbath.
Instead – and maybe you’re in the same boat – I was unknowingly worshiping the twin gods: accumulation & accomplishment.
Accumulation & Accomplishment: our world today, does everything in pursuit of these two goals.
Accumulation: By doing this what will I get? What possessions can I have? More time, more money, more material possessions, more status…
Accomplishment: And by doing this will I be more accomplished? A better job title? A higher-education? Again a better status? And so on …
Again the Sabbath is a practice that pushes against this. When you practice the Sabbath, you don’t accomplish or accumulate anything.
You are okay and content with where you are at and with the good gifts God has given you.
Your Action Steps
Like I said, this blog is for the fellow baby bird who is feeling nervous to jump out of the nest and learn to flap their wings on the way down.
Here’s the thing: Just like how a baby bird can’t stay in the nest. It’s too small. There’s not enough food and they need to learn to provide for themselves. You can’t go on living how you are living with hurry wrecking every aspect of your life.
Your action steps for this week are to sit, even journal on the cost of you staying where you are at and not taking a Sabbath.
Can you stay where you are or is it leading down a path you don’t want to be on?
Run your cost-benefit analysis.
It is going to take sacrifice and trusting in the Lord —
But rather than asking yourself “How much do I need to surrender and give up in order to Sabbath?”
Ask yourself, “How much peace, joy, freedom, and life do I want to experience?”
Join the BG Sabbath Challenge
And if you would like more help and accountability when it comes to starting, be sure to join the BG Sabbath Challenge. You can click HERE to learn more or sign up below:
Here’s to pushing against our hurried culture & slowly trusting God with the Sabbath! Cheering you on in this friend!
See you next week for our FINAL blog in the Sabbath Series: Resting & Praising the Lord – a day to dwell with God.
Mamas, you aren’t going to want to miss this next one… I’ll be diving into how your Sabbaths can still be restful despite your job never-ending (ahhemm … toddlers don’t just stop having meltdowns because it’s the Sabbath) Can’t wait to dive into it!
