“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”
(Exod. 31:12–13)
I never really knew much about Sabbath. And then we moved to a South American culture and I randomly came across the book Subversive Sabbath by A.J Swoboda. And in the middle of adapting to a place where siestas are daily, efficiency isn’t top priority and life is just slower in general, I figured out that I am really bad at Sabbathing. So here is a hodge-podge of reflections/take-aways from this incredible book that I HIGHLY recommend. It’s given me nuggets that have, and I hope will continue to shape life for us here in San Ramón as well as something that I’m excited to take home with us someday.
From Scripture we see that it’s God’s desire that we work – it’s all over in the Old and New Testament and our culture is super great at making sure we get this. We’re bombarded left and right with messages telling us that if you want to get ahead, have a life of value and see continual progress, you can’t stop.
And hard work is pleasing to God. How many days did it take for God to create the world? We all know the answer is six and on the seventh, He rested. To image God is to work and rest as God worked and rested. He built Sabbath into all of creations DNA. I never really picked up on this example that God showed through the creation of the world: our work is never really complete without rest. In fact, work is simply a reflection of Sabbath-keeping, a benefit of our rest. God knew right from the get-go that we would sin, and He knew that we would be prone to worship our work which is why He initiated rest and Sabbath before the fall.
Sabbath keeping is a time to remember. Often, we know God as the Lord of the harvest and forget that He is Lord of the Sabbath as well – and this forgetfulness is often driven by doing stuff for God. Ministry. Relationships. Good stuff. Sabbath is a time to remember that “our time” was never ours in the first place. It’s all God’s time. And the time that He has gifted us is intended to be used faithfully in worship of Him. It’s a time of celebration, looking back on those past six days and acknowledging how awesome He is and how awesome walking with Him is.
Swoboda sums it like this which, coming from a family whose love language is food, I found it impactful: “In His goodness, God delights in giving us food that did not have to be this good. And then, if we did not already grasp His goodness, He decides to give us taste buds. To this day I can’t eat a mango and say with a straight face that this is a world that has been invented by a jerk. Creation is good because God is good, and His goodness is reflected in what He makes. A mango, as part of creation, is God’s love letter to humanity.” That’s what Sabbath is designed for. To reflect and absorb those love letters that He has sent us throughout the past six days. How many little love letters does God send in a week that we’ve grown common-place to – it’s a day of celebration! (And if you think mangos in the States are a nice love letter, try a mango from Peru holy cow He loves us so much.)
Swoboda goes into specifics about what Sabbath looks like for his family and there really is so much freedom in it. Only do things that are life-giving, even if it may be something that looks like work to someone else. Avoid all things that are draining, stressful, or leave you feeling poured out. It doesn’t have to be Sunday. Make it a family ordeal and something that you anticipate and prepare for throughout the week.
Other ideas:
spend time being creative without pressure of your end product turning out,
make pancakes,
catch up on your gratitude journal,
spend time memorizing Scripture to meditate on throughout the next week,
clean the house and food prep your favorites the day before,
go for the extra-long jog that you never have time to finish,
write a letter to your grandma,
light a candle for breakfast,
Sabbath is inconvenient, especially in our culture/day-in-age. It causes problems, it’s weird, and will no doubt, cause double takes. That’s good. We don’t live differently just to live differently, but because the contrarian patterns become signs to the world of who we are. We serve a God who has gifted us the incredible gift to stop and, knowing that He knows us better than we do, take that seriously. When we plan our lives around a day to spend with our Father, no doubt it will raise questions.
It’s obvious that Sabbath is not popular. The lack of Sabbath is seen all throughout the world through all of creation – overworked people, broken families, overuse of the environment. To paraphrase Swoboda he says that we have believed that we can eliminate from this finely tuned environment something that God created. That even if we snip out this one command, life will continue to go on the way it should. But in doing this, we have been messing with the creative rhythm that God made for the benefit of humanity and the rest of the world. And in reality, a world with no Sabbath is a genetically modified world.
Swoboda talks about limiting technology on Sabbath, give your mind and thumbs a rest – let your family know which day you will practice Sabbath and tell them just to call in case of emergencies. Sabbath helps us remember that we aren’t God in the sense that we’re not able to be there for everyone at every moment, and others shouldn’t depend on us in that way anyway!
Things not to do:
spend the day catching up on all the errands/small to-do’s you forgot throughout the week,
forget to spend time “being” with God,
feel guilty for a day without work,
think of this day as a “freeby” and fill it,
forget that margin in your day/life is good – God so wants to use that space
I don’t want to forget to remember anymore so as we figure out what Sabbath will look like for us here in Peru, I encourage you to find your rhythm of Sabbath. Like I said, I’m so new to this and it’s still hard. I would LOVE to hear what Sabbath looks like for you and practices that you’ve implemented.
“At a feast there is something…brimming over. That is why guests are invited for a feast, why a chair stands ready for the stranger and why expansiveness predominates. Solipsism and individualism are not appropriate for a feast. This very sin is being overcome. And that gives joy, lightness, radiance.”
Wiel Logister