Finding the Gift in the Sabbath
Sabbath.
The word always seemed to stir up dread and shame for me. I’ve long misunderstood the Sabbath and God’s command concerning it. It felt like an imposition, a heavy burden, another thing on the never-ending check list of things to do. And I thought the idea of a Sabbath was boring. Wasn’t it all about reading my Bible and praying for an entire day? No, thank you. I’ll pass.
It wasn’t until I was reading Peter Scazzero’s books Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Leader that my paradigm about Sabbath shifted dramatically for me.
This quote from Henry Ward Beecher describes the new paradigm I discovered.
“A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.”
Can Sabbath truly be a gift, a miracle, really, in a Christian’s life? The best day of the whole week?
Peter Scazzero certainly believes so. He see the Sabbath as “a twenty-four-hour block of time in which we stop work, enjoy rest, practice delight, and contemplate God.” He describes it as “an essential delivery mechanism for God’s grace and goodness in our lives.”
Wow! Sabbath is intended to free God’s people from the bondage of slavery and release them into the compassionate and wise care of the Creator.
Doesn’t that sound good? Do you want to know more about this kind of Sabbath?
I would highly recommend you picking up one of Peter Scazzero’s books, even just for the chapter on practicing Sabbath delight. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0310342465
Or, if you’d just like a little more information about the four characteristics of the Sabbath that Scazzero outlined above, check out his blog post: https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/4-steps-to-a-meaningful-sabbath/
May you find that the Sabbath is indeed “God’s good gift to his people.”