Have you ever heard someone say, “I just got back from my vacation, and I need a vacation to recover from my vacation!”  Maybe you have said that?  Or, you take time out of your regular schedule to go to what is called a “retreat” and the event is so crowded with lectures, or talks, or group sessions that you “wear yourself out” while at the retreat?

Do we sometime think of Sabbath in the same way?  As a vacation from our normal work schedule or as a retreat?  To carry the question to the next step, “Do we wear ourselves out on the Sabbath?” Or, is a Sabbath for you a day on which to do “nothing?”  Or maybe Sabbath is merely another name for Sunday (or Saturday or Monday)?

As I am drawn to more and more consider Sabbath, I think I am discovering, Sabbath is not really part of my routine.  Is is a word I throw around but it is not something I experience or, dare say, enjoy.  I wonder why?

Let me share something Wendell Berry wrote about Sabbath,

“Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world’s beauty and abundance.”

What has Sabbath been in your life?  Is it all you want it to be?