4 Ways for Christians to Celebrate the Sabbath

I believe everyone should not just observe the Sabbath, but really celebrate the Sabbath! As it is with everything that God does, the things that He asks us to do are always for our good. Even people that have no interest in the God of the Bible have learned that things like rest, meditation, and a seven-day week are key to well being. Nothing gives space to usher in God’s peace and rest for our souls like observing the Sabbath. This is every bit as much for us Christians as it is for Jews.

JUMP TO CELEBRATE THE SABBATH

I’m writing this post as an exhortation to myself. We have observed the Sabbath in different ways over the past 15 years, but recently I have realized that our special day has resembled more of a day off than a day set apart that God has given us!

Just like in my post about having the best mornings, it takes preparation before hand. Recently, our Sabbath day has been a day where Charlie is home helping with the kids so I cram a ton of blogging work into that day. The family is separated, work is being done and nothing resembling peace, rest or worship is taking place. That means, for me, I need to plan my weeks better to make room for a day of ultimate beauty!

A Blessed Day

In Genesis 2:2-3, the Bible says “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day… So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word “Shabbat,” which means stop or cease. It is a literal day— not just a “spirit of rest” that we have now through Jesus (Hebrews 4:1-11). We have salvation through Jesus alone—not our work—yet, considering the fact that it’s in the 10 Commandments, we have to see it as more than a “spirit” and honor the rhythm that He has ordained. It is a day that trains us in the spirit of restfulness! That being said, I personally don’t believe that we need to celebrate the Sabbath on a certain day (Friday night and Saturday), but Charlie does! I draw my opinion from 2 Chronicles 30, where Hezekiah was implementing the Passover for the first time in ages, and they had to do it the second month instead of the first because they were not prepared for it on time. Verse 18 says, “May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God” even though they weren’t doing it exactly the prescribed way. It says that God heard Hezekiah’s prayer, accepted it, and healed the people. All that to say, it’s something to pray about and see where God leads you. Considering your schedule and finding the window that would allow for rest is key.

There’s Nothing Legalistic About Celebrating the Sabbath

I don’t believe that God “needed” to rest by any means, but he built this wisdom into the very fabric of the world via Creation Week as an example for us. He blessed the seventh day, where all he did was rest!

Several attempts have been made to forego a Sabbath in an effort for higher productivity. The French Revolution tried to adopt a 10 day week, travelers on the Oregon trail attempted to push through without taking a break, and every time, it only leads to a decline in physical, mental and emotional health and productivity. Clearly we need a day of rest, why not celebrate the Sabbath while we’re at it!?

God has given us the most beautiful gift in establishing a day of rest. It was so important, that He went so far to add it to the 10 Commandments to urge us to take Him up on His gift. We can try to resist it all we want, but He made us, and He made us for 6 days of work and one day of rest. As Jefferson Bethke said, “God’s playing the music… You can dance to His rhythm with any and all creativity you want, but if you try to dance outside of that rhythm, its a wreck! Submit to the beat.” Sabbath was made for man to enjoy.

I didn’t always see it this way…

My rejection of the Sabbath:

When Charlie and I were first married, he was a part of a Messianic movement. Three months in, I knew that we were in a dangerous place. When I read the book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, this church hit every bullet point of ways that wolves in sheep’s clothing infiltrate the Church and poison the wells that hungry people are drawing from. (I’m not saying all Messianic movements are abusive— I only bring up the specific sect that it was because it affected my heart towards the Sabbath.)

So, its no wonder that as soon as Charlie broke free from their grip, I couldn’t hear something biblical like “Fall Holidays” or “Sabbath” without my skin crawling and feeling the twinge of pain from those years. I’m so thankful that Charlie’s solid upbringing in a Christian home steadied him so that when he left, he still loved Jesus. (It’s part of the reason I love our church here in San Diego so much— it was the first church home that was OURS… 5 years into marriage!)

Beauty in Rest

It wasn’t until I heard Josh Garrel’s wife, Michelle, on a podcast talking about their rhythm with the Sabbath that my heart started opening up to it again. She spoke of it in such a rich, loved, and rested manner. The way that it added such joy to their week. The way that their family was able to come together and celebrate it as a holy-day (where we get our word ‘holiday’) that they all looked forward to every week.

Charlie was missing some of the rhythms that he appreciated from his old church, and I wanted the beauty that she spoke of in our family, too. I started cooking a nice dinner on Fridays (often, the only day of the week we would splurge on meat) and I would make Challah bread. (This is the recipe I used for years before I was comfortable with whole wheat sourdough. Now I use this, but I add 1/2 – 1 Cup less flour than it calls for, since I use whole wheat.) That tradition always led to a leftover challah French toast breakfast on Saturdays before my kids got big enough to eat the whole loaf at dinner!

4 Gifts of the Sabbath:

Years later, John Mark Comer and Jefferson Bethke got together and recorded a podcast on their eerily similar books: To Hell with the Hustle and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It’s called Fight Hustle End Hurry I encourage you to listen to all ten episodes, but their episode on Sabbath revamped my vigor for how we were celebrating the Sabbath in our home. (Funnily, I was listening to the podcast on slowing down while training for a marathon in Okinawa. Hard to push yourself to run fast when all you’re hearing is “slllllooow down!” ha ha.)

Sabbath Rest is a stark resistance to our culture the screams “hustle!” around every corner. Despite endless products being made to ease our workload, the end result is not rest, it’s time bought to be able to do more. Even if the “doing more” is actually wasting time and money. Our typical American weekends are a day off, but they are a far cry from restful.

On the podcast, they broke down Sabbath into four pillars: Stop. Rest. Worship. Delight. If we do those four things, we celebrate the Sabbath well! We have implemented so many things that they shared on the Sabbath, so at this point, you could just stop here and go listen to the podcast. We put our family spin on it, of course. But I was so thankful for the fresh perspective they brought me!

Stop

We stop whatever it is that keeps us busy and distracted from fixing our eyes on Jesus. This is often more than just working. Stop hustling. Stop scrolling. Practice gratitude for what we already have instead of shopping for more.

Rest

The difference between stop and rest is that stop is what you don’t do, and rest is what you do do! Do the things that nourish you— get at least 8 hours of sleep, take a bath, soak in the beauty of Creation. Whatever you do that nourishes your body, soul and spirit without draining you.

Worship

Spend time in the Word, meditate on the attributes of God, think on where you see Him moving in your life and PRAISE HIM! Song can be a part of it, but is by no means the extent of worship! We move towards what it is that we spend our thought-life on. If we’re fixating with our sinful nature… we’ll find ourselves trapped in it! If we magnify the One who LOVES us, we’ll find ourselves becoming like Him. Giving Him ample space in our thoughts begets a heart of worship.

Delight

This is a special day! Right now, I’m doing black coffee in the mornings during the week, but will allow myself cream on Saturday morning. I don’t wake up early and work out. We eat a fun breakfast. I usually don’t make lunch or dinner. Charlie is home. Delight, delight, delight! Whatever it is that makes the day feel special, no matter how small— save it for your Sabbath and give yourself all the more reason to look forward to the sweet gift of a day set apart that God has given us.

If Sabbaths were treated like Christmas:

On Christmas, most people stop working. It’s not a day off to catch up on things around their house. No one spends Christmas organizing the attic or mowing the lawn. (I live in San Diego, so I can say that!) No. People rest on Christmas. It is the peak moment in the year where families solidify their identity and traditions. Christmas usually revolves around close friends and extended family. It is a day of delight where we eat our favorite foods, and celebrate some of our (new) favorite things! We start it off the night before, Christmas Eve, celebrating the birth of Jesus, the One who came to save us from our sin— and worship the good God who had a plan to bring us back home to Him.

Christmas only comes once a year, so we can do it up big. Obviously, with the Sabbath coming every seven days, we have to look at how to do it sustainably. We can’t go crazy with sugar and blowing money!

How can I create the best day of the entire week!?

On the podcast, John Mark talked about “pleasure stacking.” Basically, you save up all the things you love and put them together on one day. Eat your favorite foods, be with your favorite people, wear your favorite clothes, do your favorite activities— all the things that bring you joy! How would your ideal 24 hours look? Build your Sabbath around that.

In the Hebrew tradition, each new day begins at sunset. How beautiful! Every day actually begins by resting in God! So we like to begin our Sabbath the night before, too.

(Missing Gabe this night— he had a youth group event, so we had to celebrate without him.)

Our Family’s Way to Celebrate the Sabbath: The Evening

• Have our best meal of the week, and usually try to make enough for leftovers the next day. We invite people over to eat with us. Always have bread. And meat. Often make dessert (even if it’s just honey on our freshly baked bread!). I often spend more time being creative or making detailed meals that I would never make time for the rest of the week. (Homemade pasta lasagna is a Sabbath fave in our house!)
• Light four candles. We have four kids, so each kid lights a candle and prays a prayer of gratitude for one of the gifts of the Sabbath. You could come up with your own themes behind however many candles you want to light! We light candles representing stop, rest, worship and delight.
• Take communion. I love taking the intentional time to remember what it is that Jesus did for us in dying on the cross. Training our kids to remember that God made a way for sinful people to not only be able to be in the presence of a holy God, but actually make their heart His home…!? It’s wild. The love of God makes no sense that He would make that trade. But He did, and it is humbling, and an honor to teach my kids to remember every week.
• Sing worship songs together. The kids and I usually work on a new hymn each month, so our Sabbath night is a time to have Charlie join in with us. We also play some of our favorite worship songs. Sometimes I play the piano, sometimes we listen to a recording.

We “Sabbath” the night before pretty well. But our next day could really use a tune up. Hold me accountable, guys!!

How our family needs to grow: Celebrating The Next Day

• I think the best thing we could implement is a 24 hour no-phone routine. It’s hard to see the beauty that ushers in both delight and worship when we’re so distracted. If we changed this one thing… I think it would revolutionize our Sabbath.
• No shopping. Again, it’s a matter of being prepared. Not being a part of the hustle and bustle all seven days of the week.
• Prepare food for lunch the next day. I don’t know why breakfast is a joy to cook and take our time with, but the other meals are not! I don’t mind making pancakes or English muffins on a Saturday morning, but having both other meals taken care of would be helpful.
• Be intentional about worshipping throughout the day too, not just the night before. Being outdoors usually stirs that up in us, so making being outside a priority would usher in a heart of worship.
• Spend quality time together. If phones and work are out of the equation, and we’re outside, this it’s a natural consequence!

Start where you are!

You guys know my motto “easy plus one”— this is a GIFT for us. The Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. So whatever you can manage to do to set apart a special day every week, I hope you’ll consider doing it. However, we are not under the law, so meeting up with friends or grabbing a pizza and watching a movie sometimes is perfectly okay! This is nothing to be dogmatic about— it’s just a beautiful rhythm to incorporate, bringing the holy into the mundane.

As a military family without the extended family traditions anchoring us, I’m so thankful that the kids have grown up with a Sabbath Dinner shaping our family identity and values. It is everyone’s favorite day of the week!