*go back one writing for part I and you’ll better know how we got to this conversation
Our family has ebbed and flowed in the practice of Sabbath, and every time we re-start incorporating this day of rest, even if only a handful of weeks have passed, I am immediately reminded of some innate standard that allows productivity to be the marker of a good day. The influence of culture’s ever surging drive towards accomplishment has me confusing what I have been taught with my personal make up. Sabbath can indeed come more naturally to some than others, the personality differences speaking to that, but I think we’ve all been convinced to a degree, myself included, that forward movement is always preferable to non-movement.
An odd thing happened when we found ourselves at home, well before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Without meetings to attend, church services to lead, or artists to coach, my responsibilities began to fall almost exclusively under mama hood. Even though we rarely used sitters when our jobs were intact, I found rather immediately that to throw yourself solely into being a parent is still to run a 24-7 life. Not taking my children to meetings with me meant creating more messes at the house that required creativity and cleaning. Not having staff lunches meant cooking more meals at home. My life of children+work simultaneously, although certainly requiring adaptation in its own way, did not mean that the removal of work would meant the acquisition of rest. It just meant that work was no longer a balancing act, and that my children required just as much of me, if not more.
Now mix in the ambitious artist with the unemployed, and I found that my sipping wine and reading a good book during nap time was only satisfying for so long. I longed to create, to lead, to influence, to build in whatever ways I could concoct. Although I have been given space to simply tend to and be with my children, I have found my mind and even my body itching for forward momentum that requires more than the next meal on the table or cleaning the same toys off the floor. (Side note: New parents: Embrace the mess or go crazy.)
And then the world seemed to join us. One nation, one state, one home at a time, we were asked to stay inside, shut our doors, lose our jobs, and we were overwhelmed to the point of anything but rest. Rather we have become consumed by worry, at a loss for what to do with our children, unfamiliar with our spouses, and strangely discontent with a chill afternoon and a glass of wine. The opportunity to stay home only created instead a longing for something else. Something out. Something without fear. Something without walls.
Here is, I believe, why- only because I have felt it for myself.
We are unfamiliar with rest.
Sabbath.
One day that will influence all other six. One day to recalibrate your sense of self. One day to diminish the noise of accomplishment or the noise of Netflix. One day to eliminate the influence of a fear filled, desire led, relationally confused culture.
Books have been written, researchers have researched, and I am a measly reason for you to begin doing anything. But if you might be willing, I would love to practice this day with you. You may have questions as to what constitutes a “successful” Sabbath, and although I can only speak from my in and out experience, here’s what I have learned:
No need to be legalistic about it.
Yes, clean the food off the floor that your children spilled. Sabbath shouldn’t require unnecessary work the next day. i.e. Warding off ants.
Even Jesus said to some overly religious dudes who often got on his nerves, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
But…
Don’t cut yourself short.
Just one load of laundry won’t hurt, right?
If I listen to a podcast, does that count? I mean, I know I’d have to turn on my phone but I’m sure I can resist all those other apps.
How about perusing my favorite catalogue? I’m not going to buy anything – Sure I’m appeasing my socially acceptable desire for more and justifying materialism, which is what stirs up in me a discontentedness with what I have, but shopping can be restful, can’t it? (By the way, this is me and the Crate and Barrel Outlet. I love home and I love beautiful things.)
Embrace the non-hurried, fully present, deeply contented, one thing at a time life – because even doing “nothing” is by no means that. You are being still long enough to engage your soul, giving only your full self to those in front of you, and reflecting your Creator. Even the God who has far more capacity than we do in all things, took it upon himself to rest on the seventh day, and we were made in His image. No need for us to idolize the accomplishment of self any longer.
I’m right there with you. I live in the same world, am incessantly advertised to by the same companies, have equally noisy children, and baskets brimming over with laundry.
We’ve got this.
No.
We need this.
EXPOSITION: Rest. Are you good at it? Me neither.
RISE: Sabbath. Done.
DENOUEMENT: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (from the beginning of time)