Don't Skip Sabbath

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 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, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:8-11

I knew this week was going to be busy. Between my to-do list for working growing by the minute, the Christmas shopping that still needed to be done, the gatherings with friends and family I had planned, and a couple of basketball games, I was going to be going non-stop. But if I wanted to be able to take some time to rest at Christmas, I was going to have to deal with the busyness now. 

So as this past weekend approached, I started to figure out what work I could accomplish over the weekend so that I could offload my to-do list for the week. But as I was thinking it all through, I felt conviction. It was like the Holy Spirit gave me a gentle tap on the shoulder, asking when I was planning to rest, to take a sabbath day. 

If I'm being honest, I've been really bad at resting recently. I've been going from one project to another without little time in between to take a breath. So I was grateful for the reminder to rest, because I needed it. However, I simultaneously panicked a little because like I said, I had so much to do. And I wasn't sure how in the world I was going to be able to get all of it done if I didn't do any work on Sunday. But I knew I needed to obey. I needed to listen. And I needed to rest. 

So that's what I did. I didn't do any work on Sunday. No checking email. No writing. No easy, mindless tasks that would have been easy to do while watching a Christmas movie. I didn't do any of it. I just rested. And boy, did I need it. 

When Monday came around, I was a bit flustered after getting a late start. I only had a handful of hours in the office before I would have to leave and drive across town to a basketball game we had that night. I was planning to spend close to 4 hours in the car over the course of the day, which was frustrating because there's not a whole lot of productivity happening while you're operating a motor vehicle. 

But after my very busy morning, my dad calls me. Our basketball game had been cancelled, so I now had the rest of my day wide open. My drive time was cut by more than 50%. My evening was completely free of commitments, and I had so much more time to get more work done. 

It took a couple of hours before it sunk in, but eventually, I realized what a gift this was. In my experience, the Lord hasn't always honored obedience so quickly, but in this case He did. He gave me the time I needed to get things done, because I'd given Him my time the day before to rest and take Sabbath. It was such a sweet reminder of how the Lord takes care of us and how He is always trustworthy. 

So if you need to rest (as I'm sure we all do this time of year), I want to encourage you to carve out the time to do so. Don't skip the Sabbath. Don't assume that you won't have enough time to get everything done if you take a day off. The Lord modeled for us perfectly what it was like to rest, and He commands us to follow His example, even when we're tempted to keep hustling. My prayer is that you will be obedient to this command, and that you will see firsthand, just like I did, how the Lord will come through and provide when you honor Him with your time.