Book Review: Sabbath

For the past few months, my husband and I have been trying to intentionally build Sabbaths into our schedule. Our Sabbaths included a break from work, errands, household tasks and we made sure to go for walks, play games and spend extra time in our Bible reading.

This is what we typically think of when we imagine "taking a Sabbath." But author Dan B. Allender says that we have greatly misunderstood what the Bible means by "rest" and stripped the Sabbath of its truest intentions into a litany of "do's" and "don'ts." He delves into this and more in his new book, Sabbath, which I received a complimentary copy to review from BookSneez Dan B. Allendere.com.

In Sabbath, Allender states that the kind of Sabbath that God envisioned on the seventh day was not one of rest from six days worth of hard work (because it was not hard work for Him!), but one of celebration and delight. That word there—delight—is the crux of Allender's interpretation of what a Sabbath ought to look like: Our Sabbath day should be one in which we take full delight, as we are simultaneously taken back into the Garden of Eden when the Sabbath was first initiated and as we look forward to the joys of heaven.

"The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight," Allender writes. "The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it is the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week."

I've never heard anyone position the Sabbath in that light, and yet, it rings true in my heart. But what does delight even look like? That is one of the greatest hurdles to remembering the Sabbath, Allender points out. We hardly even know what brings us true, God-honoring delight. And that is the journey that Allender takes readers on in Sabbath, where he opens eyes to a new way of seeing and savoring the Sabbath and helps readers tap into the possibilities of what Sabbath can look like in their own lives.

Find Sabbath by Dan B. Allender on Amazon.

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What doing "nothing" for a day taught me

photo by safetylast

Last week, Michael and I attempted our first-ever "Sabbath." I had always thought the Sabbath was about resting and giving our bodies and minds and spirits time to stop and breathe. I do think it's about that, but if that's all it were, wouldn't we all embrace the replenishment wholeheartedly? Why do we instead fight it? Why is it so hard to spend a day not doing?

In our Judaism class, we touched on the Sabbath and our rabbi pointed out something that I'd never really thought about: In Old Testament times, these people worked with their hands whether farmers or sheepherders, etc. Taking a day off from work was not just a day off from running errands, but a day off from their livelihood. What would happen to the soil? To the weeds cropping up? To the seeds that need to be sowed? To the animals creeping around the plants? Taking a day off could really impact your seasonal harvest and whether you have enough to eat, to keep warm, to live. It was literally a sacrifice.

And so for them, taking a Sabbath was an act of trust and faith. Trusting that God will stay faithful and help you get everything done that you need to get done, that he will multiply your efforts, despite the fact that you took a day off to spend with him.

Hearing that, I realized, that has been the root of my lack of Sabbath. The resting part sounds great, but really I need to get this done or that done, which trumps God's command. Which is a lack of trust that what I sow into him, he will reap into a harvest that I cannot fathom. This time is not lost, but invested in such a way that to-do lists cannot capture.

So we Sabbathed last week, from sundown to sundown. I knew I'd be laying my computer aside and not touching any work. I worked ahead to have our next day's lunch ready. But there were little things I hadn't expected to be difficult to me: Wanting to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, wanting to pick up around the house, wanting to fold up the laundry. They were just little things--not really work, I reasoned. I had to fight the urge to "do" and to trust that when it came time, it'd all get done, it'd all be fine.

And, of course, it was. Because God is good.

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