Stop, Relax, Delight, Worship
"Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath."
Mark 2:27
Stop
Step 1: Stop
The word “sabbath” means “to stop.” In Genesis, God worked for six days but then rested on the seventh. In doing so, he built a rhythm into the fabric of creation. When we live in alignment with this ancient rhythm, we find peace and joy, but when we fight it, we fracture our souls.
Relax
Step 2: Rest
We hear about Sabbath rest and we imagine sleeping or taking a day off to chill. But Sabbath rest is a form of resistance. There are powerful forces — both external and internal — that war against a Sabbath spirituality. To sabbath will require that we resist.
Practice: Make a list of what you will not do on the Sabbath, and explore a prayer exercise.
Delight
Step 3: Delight
Sabbath is not an onerous day for dour religious duty, but a life-giving day of delight — a weekly party. It’s a full day set aside to celebrate our life with God in his world. And it’s designed to be done in community, not alone. Few things are more provocative in the modern world than communities of joy.
Practice: Throw a Sabbath feast with our community and pick one to three of our favorite activities to curate joy.
Worship
Step 4: Worship
Sabbath isn’t just a day to stop, rest, and throw a feast in community. Ultimately, it’s a holy day — set apart for and dedicated to God himself. Early Christians called it “the Lord’s Day.” It’s a weekly day of worship by which we cultivate a spirit of worship all week long.
Practice: Identify one to three of our sacred pathways (ways we deeply enjoy God with our personality and stage of life), and learn to spend the day in worship.