We were able to have a much needed Sabbath this Saturday. Unfortunately, we haven’t celebrated a Sabbath in a very long time. And we could feel it. We needed it.
A Sabbath is something new to us. I mean, we’ve both grown up going to church each Sunday, but not really taking a true Sabbath. Not realizing what a gift the Sabbath is.
Exodus 16:29
“Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.”Exodus 20:9-10
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.Exodus 31: 12-17
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.’ “
Deuteronomy 5:12
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.Ezekial 20:12
Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.Mark 2:27
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”
Sabbath is a gift from God. We never really used to know what that meant, until we really started observing the Sabbath in a way where we actually rested.
For us, our Sabbath is on Saturday. We still attend church on Sunday morning (so I guess you could say our Sabbath is from Saturday to Sunday morning), but Saturday is our day of rest. I think a Sabbath can be any day – if you work on the weekends, then make it a Monday or Wednesday. It is still important to go to church, but to also have a true Sabbath. For some, that may be Sunday – the day you attend church and observe the Sabbath. But we do find it important that we celebrate our Sabbath together – as a family.
What are the rules of a Sabbath?
We aren’t legalistic about it. We just know this Sabbath is a gift from God, for us to spend time renewing and refreshing ourselves, but also to spend much needed time with Him. So we don’t have many ‘rules’ just what is refreshing for us.
For us, this means no electronics. How can we hear God’s voice with all this ‘noise’ in our world? We have no computers/TV/movies/iPods/music, etc. We spend the day in relative silence.
I also try not to cook on Saturdays (anymore, I was for a while when we weren’t observing the Sabbath). Or I’ll have something simple for dinner such as spaghetti (boil noodles, open jar of sauce – easy!).
We also don’t make plans. We leave this day for rest. Sometimes we do have friends over, because this can be renewing – to be with good friends. And we generally don’t do grocery/thrift shopping, but we will go to the Farmer’s Market (once again, it’s refreshing). Also, this means no laundry, no homework, and especially no working.
And we always try to spend some ‘time with God.’ Whether we just read individually, or study the Word together. Just depends.
What do you do all day?
Nothing really (cause that’s the idea!). I must admit, when we first started celebrating the Sabbath – the silence was hard for me. But it was good. It meant I needed to learn how to be silent. Be still. Generally we sleep in (always refreshing, right?), possibly make a nice breakfast (ie pancakes, eggs, etc.) – then we’ll sometimes head to the Farmer’s Market, where we sometimes meet friends too. We also like to get outside – be in God’s creation (we’ll see what we think when it gets cold though!). So this Saturday, we went for a bike ride to the library. Then we stopped at a favorite coffee shop and got some gelato. Then we returned and it was near dinner time, so we had some leftovers for dinner (ie no cooking) – then we spent the rest of the night reading/looking up scripture/studying and talking. Then we spent some time in prayer.
Basically we’ll do anything that’s not stressful – so we could have some friends over for dinner, or maybe go out pumpkin picking – doesn’t really matter, we don’t have ’strict rules’ we just try to keep it simple and easy.
We’ve really started to see what we’ve been missing all these years – a Sabbath is so wonderful and fulfulling.
What if I’m not religious?
I would encourage you, even if you’re not religious, to take these same basical principles and spend a day relaxing. Have some down time and spend it just with family and relaxing. We are such a busy nation – we need time to stop and relax.
What are your thoughts on the Sabbath?
papasteve said,
September 25, 2007 @ 10:41 am
I’d say we’re close to being on the same page. I think now it’s a principle of taking one day in seven to stop your normal routine . .to get out of the temporal and enter in the eternal . . to spend time with God and focus on what matters for eternity. It’s also a time to refresh and recharge one’s batteries. For those who do very physical work during the week it may be to just shut down and vegitate a bit. For those who sit at a desk all week some of the Sabbath rest may include going hiking or playing a game of touch football. I think part of the key is the break in the routine to help us realign our priorities with what’s really important.
I personally do not think the day of the week is important but I do think there is probably something to the one day in seven . . probably something related to some type of cycle in our bodies as well as how many consecutive days of “toiling” begins to effect our attitude and priorities.
Steve
bretmavrich said,
September 25, 2007 @ 5:19 pm
Hebrews 4:11– Doing the Sabbath right is hard work.
dd said,
September 26, 2007 @ 3:43 am
What a great post, with quotes from the Bible, and very clearly written. The idea to not use computers and electronics is interesting, since it seems so unusual these days. Although for me, I actually have been reading the Bible on the Web and using the Web to learn about the Bible and Christianity.
So, how has observing a Sabbath affected you and your faith?
liveh2o said,
September 26, 2007 @ 8:48 pm
Its funny you mention that the idea if a “true” Sabbath is new to you, because I felt the same way when I was introduced to the idea. I suppose this should be expected as we grew up in the same house, with the same idea of what the Sabbath was: wake up, go to Church, eat lunch (sometimes out), watch sports, go to church, eat snacks, watch a movie, go to bed.
Chores and cooking were never really considered “work”. Dad would talk about how whenever he decided to do some “work” on Sunday, something always seemed to go wrong, but looking back, I don’t feel like we really experienced a true Sabbath.
It seemed like our Sabbaths were more American than Biblical. When did we abandon the Little House On the Prairie style Sabbath — where Pa sat in his chair and Ma sat in her chair and the children sat in silence? I remember picturing that and I thinking “holy crap… that would suck.” Now I am not so sure.
While my current Sabbath doesn’t look exactly like yours, I have found that stopping to take a break can be very refreshing. Taking a Sabbath is a spiritual discipline. Which is actually kind of funny when you think about it: disciplined rest.
Suffice to say that I too am attempting to remember the Sabbath, and keep it holy.
Oh yeah, and I’d also like to draw your attention to the irony of Hebrews 4:11: “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…” That Paul, he kills me.
jessica said,
September 26, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
Religious or not, sounds like a great idea! I think I will try to incorporate it into my life!
carrie said,
October 2, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
Another thoughtful post, Megan. We have done variations of this in the past. I consider Sundays our Sabbath–we attend church and meals are low-key. However, in addition to reading, praying together and talking to family over the phone, we do check e-mail and sometimes watch TV. We have done “technofasts” before where we abstain from electronics, but don’t do so on a regular basis.
Shabbat & Kashrut « charlieDEAN’S Blog said,
October 10, 2007 @ 6:24 am
[...] I admire David & Megan…they already practice both Shabbat. [...]
jc said,
April 3, 2008 @ 4:57 pm
Sabbath is a rest day, i think, it was not writen in the bible that the sabbath is saturday? But as long as in a week u have one day to rest for the Lord. I think sunday or saturday is an earthly traditional as a human being. But God knows ur heart when is ur quit time for Him.