It is easy to approach a rule of life with a transactional mindset. “If I follow these rules, and do these things, then God will bless me.” But Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” We do these things not to earn God’s favor or blessing but because the actual doing of them forms things in us that we desire. At Open Church we are resisting the dominant culture of hustle and productivity by cultivating rhythms of rest before we add anything else to our lives.
Our Shared Way of Life puts it this way:
Sabbath is a gift from God that reminds us that we have good and healthy limits to our capacity for work and ministry. By choosing to rest we are recognizing that ultimately God is in control and we are not nearly as important as we think we are. Each week when we cease work we remember that the world will continue turning without us and that our work and ministry is a gift from God that we have the privilege of joining Him in. Observing a sabbath is one way that we resist the pull of this world to play god in our lives and grasp at self-sufficiency.*
“Rabbi Abraham Heschel says, ‘If you work with your hands, sabbath with your mind; if you work with your mind, sabbath with your hands,’ It took me a long time to figure out that I find physical labor like cooking and cleaning more restful and restorative than watching TV or reading. I still like to do those things but I also make sure that I include plenty of physical activity in my sabbath practice each week.” - Sister Heather Kristine
As you experiment with rhythms of rest and play notice what feelings and thoughts come up for you? It is often only when we slow down that we get present to how tired we actually are. Bring these thoughts into conversation with God. What might God be inviting you notice? How might you lean more into rest and play in the coming weeks? What activities do you find restful and restorative? How does resting make you feel?
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