Digging Deeper: Missing Out

I once had lunch with a friend who serves as a pastor at another church. The church was doing well, and people were being saved. I’ve never been on a church staff myself, but I have known many who have. Ministry has been described to me as one of the most difficult jobs you never want to quit. Every person I’ve known in ministry has been an extremely hard worker, and this friend was no exception.

There was just one problem as our conversation continued.

He was utterly exhausted.

I mean the kind of exhaustion you can see on someone’s face. It prompted me to ask him a simple question:

“How is your Sabbath?”

“Terrible,” he replied.

I’ll share with you over the next week what I shared with him, but there’s one overarching theme to my view of the Sabbath:

If you’re not observing the Sabbath, you’re missing out.

It isn’t another checkbox to mark off each week; it’s the complete opposite. It’s the absence of checkboxes. If the Sabbath is meant to be enjoyed and was designed for man—not man for the Sabbath—then why wouldn’t you want to keep it? You may need to change some settings on your phone, decline a few appointments, or let the house get a little dusty. It may feel like work is piling up for 24 hours, but you can accomplish more with six days and God than with seven days on your own.

One disclaimer: while some teachings about the Sabbath seem clear, others are not quite so obvious. “Do not work” seems fairly straightforward, but “What counts as work?” may not be. We need to approach different people and situations with humility and grace. So, if I describe ways that my family and I have found helpful in observing the Sabbath, feel free to adapt them—or disregard them entirely. After all, the moment you create a definitive list of do’s and don’ts surrounding the Sabbath, you begin to sound an awful lot like the Pharisees and their traditions.

Having said that, let’s make sure you don’t miss out.

Ask Yourself:

• Do I observe the Sabbath? Do I view it as another checkbox or as the absence of checkboxes?

• Do I enjoy the Sabbath? If it came up in conversation, would I describe it as a “delight” the way Isaiah did?