Working in a university ministry means that when people are joining the staff team, they are usually newly graduated students who have come through the ministry themselves. These new interns bring energy, passion, enthusiasm, and fresh perspectives and insights. They don’t bring a lot of life experience or practical wisdom. Once they get onto the campus, they hit the ground running and then just keep running until they crash and burn. To try and protect them from this, the staff team provides regular training, covering things that we considered key to longevity in ministry and setting them up for a lifetime of walking with the Lord. One of the early sessions, revisited often, was about the idea of Sabbath rest. Even after years of experience, preparing the training was always just as needed and beneficial for me as it was for our interns.
In ministry, and in all of life, the idea of Sabbath rest is a tricky one. We recognize it as good and valuable, yet so often we fail to think seriously about it or to practice it in our own lives. In a world that so often celebrates busyness and is filled with things demanding our time and attention, rest is lost in the commotion. When we genuinely love the people we are working with and when we feel the weight of eternity and the call of God on our lives, rest can seem almost like a sin. We feel shame and guilt when we choose to rest instead of spending our time ministering to others. Or maybe we know the value of rest and fight to make space for it, but when the time comes, rest proves elusive. Our hearts and minds are filled with all the things that need to be done—there is always more that can be done—and we spend our time in restless agitation.
The training we did with the interns helped to reorient us to what the Bible says about Sabbath and rest. We learned that Sabbath rest is something modeled by God right at the beginning of Creation. In her article for the Bible Project, Missy Takano explains that there are two Hebrew words used commonly in the Bible for rest and both are introduced at the same time in the Creation story. Shabbat – to stop work. And nuakh – to dwell. On the seventh day, God, seeing that his work was good, rested and dwelt with his people. Later, the Sabbath, laid out in the Law as a commandment for the Israelites, was one of the things that set them apart as a people belonging to God. On the seventh day, they would stop their work, trusting that in God’s hands what they had done was enough, and gather to share a meal and honor their God. And then generations later, Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, declared himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. This pattern of pausing and dwelling had been pointing to him and to his reign all along. Now when we practice rest, we are setting aside time to “honor Jesus’ rule, enjoy his presence, and extend rest to the world around us.”
It’s a rich and beautiful picture, one we’ve barely scratched the surface of. And it raises questions about what rest is meant to look like. In the article ‘Wisdom and Sabbath Rest’, Tim Keller outlined some of the different components of rest. He included things like simply doing nothing; contemplative rest, which meant time to be with God; recreation and just doing fun things; and aesthetic rest, taking the time to see the beauty and work that God is doing and delighting in it.
On our staff team, we implemented these things by having a day of prayer each month when we stepped back from our normal routines to seek the Lord. We encouraged daily time with God in his Word and in prayer, and we tried to keep at least one day each week free from work. After that, it looked different for everyone. I would ask the interns to make lists of “gainers and drainers”. What were the things that filled them up, in body, mind, and soul? Our temperaments and interests meant that these lists looked very different. Gainers listed over the years included singing lessons, skateboarding, time alone, time in big groups, kid-free date nights, whole family outings, playing sports, and getting massages. As a team and as individuals, we practiced intentionally making space for things that filled us up and enjoyed them as good gifts from the Lord. We actively delighted in the world God has made and the work he has done. We practiced letting go and remembering that we can trust all things into his hands. And we practiced spending time with him.
Although they may not have realized it, the interns had the luxury of time and resources that is not always available to us in the different seasons and roles that our lives hold. As a staff team, we wanted to build in them a lifelong habit and mindset of finding rest in Christ. As we intentionally practiced rest in all its forms, whether for whole days or snatched minutes, we were practicing for eternity when we will experience perfect rest and everlasting joy in the presence of our King.
What would your list of “gainers and drainers” include? What does your Sabbath practice look like?
