sabbath
My day of rest may have been a gift from God, but like most gifts from God, it involved sacrifice.
I'm not gonna lie: this week was exhausting. It very much reminded me of the bad ole days of undergrad when I would wake up early in the morning, get a pile of food and water, then work on homework and study until it was time for bed. You can only repeat days like that so many times before you go stir crazy.
Partway through my time at Rice (that's Rice University for those who still think I'm talking about the food!), I started forcing myself to be lazy, shiftless, and less productive. I began planning to do absolutely no work for an entire 24 hour period once every seven days! It was part of my desperate attempt to regain ground in my battle against the little stress and anxiety monsters who love to kick me when I'm down.
And let me tell you, my day of rest may have been a gift from God, but like most gifts from God, it involved sacrifice.
what is the sabbath?
If you want to skip the Biblical analysis today, you're welcome to skip this section.
the nine commandments
One very insightful pastor of mine once gave a sermon on what he called "The Nine Commandments and the One Suggestion." As the sermon progressed, I quickly came to realize that my western, Christian culture is generally accepting of 9 out of the 10 commandments that summarize the ancient Hebrew law: prohibitions on making idols, cursing God, dishonoring older family members, murder, adultery, theft, lying, and jealousy. But most people I know have genuinely no hope or desire to accept the prohibition against working for one day out of every seven.
Here's how Moses put it in Exodus 20:
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
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.
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
-- Exodus 20:8-11 NIV
And here's how it appears in Deuteronomy 5:
"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
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 ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
-- Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NIV
I've always known about this commandment, but I was recently shocked to discover that the day of rest is actually a consistent theme from the very first page of the Bible to the very last page. I think I was like most people thinking that it was just an interesting Jewish law that had little bearing on the actual narrative of scripture: boy, was I wrong.
sabbath year
In addition to the sabbath day coming once every seven days, there's also a sabbath year that comes once every seven years. Read about it in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. It's a year that even the land is supposed to have a rest–which we love to point out lines up quite well with our state-of-the-art agricultural science. Unfortunately for our state-of-the-art science, this year of rest is actually a bit more intense: any produce or food that's produced naturally during that year is not allowed to become profitable for the owner of the land. The owner of the land, the poor people, and the people who are visiting the country are allowed to eat that food to their heart's content as long as they don't store it up. The food that they can't finish eating has to be left out for the animals to eat.
I was absolutely floored when I read about the sabbath year. It makes no sense to me and it sounds more stressful to me than restful (especially since I put myself in the shoes of the landowner rather than the poor people or the visitors). The only thing I can think about is how much production I would lose every seven years if I was unfortunate enough to have to follow ancient Jewish law.
And did I mention that slaves were also set free once every seven years? Don't forget about that. This seems to be more in line with the Deuteronomy version of the commandment (resting every seven days so that your servants may rest–remember that you were previously slaves).
I find it very ironic that the slaves and poor people look forward to the sabbath year while the groups who don't look forward to the year of rest are the ancient property and slave owners and modern, western Christians. This might be an insight that I pray more about in the days to come.
the first sabbath
The first time someone rested after a six-day workweek was God himself after he created the entire world. This is on the first page of the Bible. One of my favorite self-quotes is, "I know God rested on the seventh day, but if I did that the world would surely fall apart."
other sabbaths
Take note: there were other days in the Bible called "sabbath days." We might call them holidays (or holy days) in English. These are not the same as the weekly rest days, but you can read about them in Leviticus. They are still important to the relationship between God and Israel.
what it means for me
After many months of resting one day per week, I realized that I was, in fact, getting less done. This scared me until I recognized that, despite accomplishing less every week, I was still okay.
Okay, Bible analysis is over. Further, none of the ancient Jewish laws apply to anyone but ancient Jews. This leads to an obvious question: "Should I observe a Sabbath day? How should I do it?"
It seems like more and more people are discovering the benefits of resting for one day each week, but it took me a long, long time to be convinced.
Some time in the middle of my time at Rice, I started resting on Saturdays (it doesn't matter which day you pick). The first time I did it, I was so anxious the entire day that I went to bed super early and woke up super early to make up for the lost time. (And yes, I know biblical sabbaths start and end at sundown, but that's not how we count days in my culture so I'm counting midnight to midnight. Again, it doesn't really matter.)
Why did I start resting one day per week? I really don't know. It has more to do with mental health than any spiritual or religious reason. Jesus says that the day of rest was made for humans. Do I have to do it? I absolutely not. Should I do it? I think so.
After many months of resting one day per week, I realized that I was, in fact, getting less done. This scared me until I recognized that, despite accomplishing less every week, I was still okay.
At that point in my sabbath-day adventures, the most important thing I gained had nothing to do with the amount of rest I got each week. Instead, my biggest takeaway was that I don't have to work all the time to be okay. I was working because I was afraid of falling behind, not because I hoped to accomplish anything. Resting on Saturdays gave me the chance to slow down and really think about how much and which type of work is actually necessary to accomplish my goals.
This is one of the purposes of sacrifice: you give something up because you trust that you'll be okay without it. Paradoxically, giving up a day of work gave me more freedom the other six days to be more choosy about which tasks I take on and less anxiety about how much those tasks would affect my life.
This week, I learned something new. For the first time in years, I couldn't wait for my day of rest. Starting on Monday when I still hadn't finished (or started) my homework that was due on Tuesday, the anxiety set in. When I got the new homework assigned, I was dreading starting the cycle all over again, except this week I was intentional.
This week, I decided to finish as much as possible before Saturday so that my rest day would be as sweet as possible. It made the other days less fun and I had to skip happy hour with my cohort on Thursday, but it was worth it! I finished as much of my homework as possible on Friday (leaving just a few things to check later) and planned how I would study for my upcoming exam.
I woke up this Saturday morning, no alarm, just as the sun was coming up. I breathed in some cool autumn air and I laid in my warm bed as long as I wanted to. I rode my bike and went hiking with a friend. I worked on knitting a scarf. But most of all, I refreshed my mind and body exulting in the fact that I am free from the worries of the world for 24 hours in a row.
I think this is the feeling most sabbath-evangelists get from their day of rest, but it took me multiple years to arrive here and I felt like sharing.
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