A couple Sundays ago, I preached about “holy work and holy rest.” I defined rest as “delight” and holy rest as “delight with and in God.”

From the very beginning of the world, God set aside a day to practice holy rest, which He called “the Sabbath.”

Delight and Set Apart. These two things have helped to form my practice of Sabbath-keeping.

As I wrote in my most recent post, I’ve been practicing Sabbath-keeping for about seven years. I went from feeling like I didn’t have time to take one deep breath to now practicing 24 hours of “ceasing” (“Sabbath,” most literally means “cease”), a full day that’s set apart for delight with and in God for me and my family.

As I thought about my journey with the Sabbath (one I’m still on and growing in, by the way), I thought about what was most helpful for me to begin practicing Sabbath. One of the most helpful things was hearing others talk about their Sabbath day. Not so that I could copy theirs (though I certainly stole many things from others), but so that their set apart day of delight could inspire my own Sabbath.

In hoping to do the same thing for someone else, I thought it might be helpful for me to share what my Sabbath days look like. I hope that it might inspire you to begin or grow in a set apart day of holy rest for you and your family. So, without further adieu, here’s what a typical Sabbath day looks like for me.

Day of the Week

Because I work on Sundays, my family Sabbaths on Saturdays, but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule for me. One of the things I’ve noticed personally about Sabbath is that, if I’m not careful, I can turn Sabbath into work as I try to keep up with all of the “requirements” I put on my Sabbath day. So in all things Sabbath, I try to remember that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

Occasionally, in my role as a pastor, I have responsibilities on Saturdays that are beyond my control in terms of scheduling (weddings, funerals, etc.). Or there are some non-occupation responsibilities I have that fall on Saturday that still feel like work (i.e. an event that I feel that I should attend that will be draining instead of life-giving). In those cases, I tend to move my Sabbath to Friday (the first day of my weekend as a pastor) or, if that’s not possible, I’ll take a comp day on another day of the week and Sabbath then.

The Jewish day begins at sundown (compared to the Western day beginning at midnight or sunrise). This is why in Genesis 1, the creation account talks about days by saying, “There was evening and there was morning…” Personally, I don’t think there’s anything “magical” or particularly spiritual about beginning a Sabbath in the evening rather than in the morning, but we’ve found it to be helpful to begin our Sabbath with a Sabbath meal (what we call our “Shabbat dinner”) the evening before our day of rest. So most Friday nights, we celebrate a Shabbat dinner together to begin our Sabbath.

Because Sabbath was made for people and not the other way around, one thing I love about the Sabbath is that I don’t have to feel ashamed if I miss a Sabbath. It’s not intended to be a shame-inducing ritual. Instead, the Sabbath is a gift from God. And because my Sabbath is so life-giving to me, I almost never miss a Sabbath.

Preparation

One thing I’ve learned is that preparing for Sabbath helps my Sabbath feel restful. If I crash into the Sabbath exhausted and worn out with the house a wreck, then I find that my Sabbath is helpful in terms of recovering from the week prior, but filled with relief more than joy. That’s not always a bad thing, but I tend to prefer my Sabbath to be a day of joy and delight instead of exhaustion and recovery.

To prepare for the Sabbath, I try to ensure that any necessities (grocery shopping, bill payments, etc.) are done before the Sabbath, partly so that they’re done but also so that I don’t have to worry or think about them on my Sabbath. That’s one of the reasons I prefer to Sabbath on my second day of the weekend, rather than the first: I can use the first day of my weekend to get things done, if necessary.

It’s not always possible to have all of the necessities done before Sabbath, though. One of the ways Sabbath has grown me is that I’ve begun learning how to rest even when things aren’t done.

When God lays out Sabbath-keeping as one of the Ten Commandments (fun fact: it’s the longest of the Ten Commandments), He says this:

“But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.” –Exodus 20:10 (NRSV)

In our 21st century American culture that so often thinks the greatest sin is rest, I haven’t yet figured out how to live in a way that my Sabbath doesn’t require others to work (especially when my Sabbath isn’t on Sunday, which I would think is the most common day to Sabbath). But I do believe that we have a responsibility to help those around us honor their Sabbath and not get in the way of their own Sabbath-keeping.

One way I’ve been doing this is learning how to prepare for the Sabbath in a way that allows my wife to Sabbath too. When the house is a wreck, it doesn’t affect my mental state all that much, which still enables me to rest. On the other hand, Haley is especially affected by a cluttered house. So in order to help her honor her Sabbath, on Fridays, we tend to spend a good amount of time cleaning the house so that she can Sabbath.

Entering the Sabbath

As I mentioned, our Sabbath begins with a Shabbat dinner, a set-apart meal where we linger and converse, frequently with good friends. When we lived in Kentucky, we had a standing Shabbat meal every other Friday night with our closest friends up there, which made Sabbath all the more meaningful.

Over the span of our seven years of Sabbath-keeping, I’ve found that for me, delight includes good food. So we typically try to have a special meal for our Shabbat meal, whether that be just one of our go-to favorites that we haven’t had in a while, smoked or grilled meat, or a new recipe we’ve been wanting to try. I also try to limit my sugary drinks intake during the week, so to set apart our Sabbath meal even more, I’ll typically have a drink I’ve been looking forward to all week at our Shabbat meal (recently, for example, Haley and I were on a Dr. Pepper Strawberries and Cream kick).

For the last several years, I’ve been writing Shabbat reflections—Scriptural reflections during our Shabbat meal with discussion questions for the family. It’s been a really meaningful way for me to get to know my family and friends better while focusing on who God is and who He has created me to be.

Our Shabbat meals tend to be longer than our typical meals as we chat and linger (and often enjoy dessert!!). For us, it’s been such a good way to reconnect after the week and just begin our rest with each other.

In the wintertime, I typically like to start a fire in the fireplace at the start of Sabbath. My wife and I love chatting by the fire, so it’s a very relaxing way to enter into our Sabbath.

Additionally, when I read throughout the week, I tend to read non-fiction books. However, on the Sabbath, I’ve been setting apart my Sabbath by reading fiction (recently, C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, which are the peak of delightful literature to me).

Sabbath Morning

Several years ago, I listened to a podcast episode where the guest shared that he and his wife had individually written down their 10 favorite things that they could do in a typical week. Earlier this year, my wife and I sat down to discuss our 10 favorite things we could realistically do in a typical week.

I encourage you to try this exercise; it’s been very clarifying for us! One of the ways it’s been so clarifying is that we like to do what Jefferson Bethke has called “pleasure stacking” on Sabbath: adding multiple pleasures or delights into our set apart day of rest. Many of the things that were on my top 10 list are things I tend to do on my Sabbath.

Sleeping In

One of my top 10 favorite things that ended up on that list was sleeping in. Most work days, I wake up in the 5:00 hour, so setting apart the Sabbath by sleeping in is one of my favorite things. With a baby in the house, though, this wouldn’t be possible without my incredible wife who wakes up with the baby and, when I’m needed to help out with feeding the baby or a similar task, she comes and wakes me up (often, by setting Edith in our bed to wake me up, a particularly delightful wake up for me).

Good Coffee

Another way I set apart my Sabbath is through the coffee I drink. On work days, I drink my coffee black. In setting apart the Sabbath, I typically drink a latte or make a French press.

Cinnamon Muffins

One of the ways we set apart the Sabbath is by having particular things only on the Sabbath (i.e. sugary drinks and different coffee, as I’ve already mentioned). Haley and I love the Krusteaz Cinnamon Swirl Muffins, so on Sabbath mornings, they’re our breakfast. We’ve also learned that they freeze well, so most Sabbath mornings, we just have to heat them up, rather than bake them!

Bath & Body Works Sundrenched Linen Candle

One of the families from whom we’ve learned a lot about Sabbath-keeping is the Pryor family (founders of Family Teams). One way they set apart the Sabbath is by lighting the same scent of candle every Sabbath. By engaging as many senses as possible, they’ve trained their brains that when they smell particular smells or taste particular tastes, their bodies can be in a state of rest. We buy Bath & Body Works Sundrenched Linen Candle and light it during our Shabbat meal, then have it lit through our Sabbath day.

Walking

Work is so much more than just a job or career. It’s anything that you do to be productive. One of the ways I try to be productive during the week is through exercise by running or attending a fitness class. On the Sabbath, though, I actively cease my work. So instead of running, I like to get up and go for a leisurely walk on my Sabbath. However, given the fact that I also like to sleep in, this means that walking on the Sabbath is typically a fall and spring Sabbath activity and not a summer activity in central Alabama.

Pray as You Go Saturday Examen

During those walks, I like to listen to the Pray as You Go podcast’s Saturday episode, what they call “The Saturday Examen.” “Examen” is a lot like the word it sounds like: examine. It’s a practice of reflecting back over the day or the week and noticing God’s presence throughout. I love the Pray as You Go daily podcast, but I especially like the Saturday episode of reflecting back over the week.

College Football

In the fall, Haley and I love to watch college football. Not only does the TV schedule dictate that college football is a set apart activity for Saturday but because I don’t watch TV during the rest of the week, it helps to set apart my day of rest.

Plus, it helps make a Saturday Sabbath a day of delight when your team wins a lot. (Sorry, Florida State, Florida, and Auburn fans.)

Going Outside

One of the downsides of Sabbathing on Saturdays is that my day of delighting in God isn’t on the same day that I’m worshiping communally with the body of Christ. And though it’s not the same, I enjoy getting outside on my Sabbath—whether through a walk, a hike, or simply throwing the ball with my dog—to enjoy God through His creation. Nature helps me slow down and notice the small things, something I’m not very good at doing on days of work.

Napping

You may have picked up on the fact that I enjoy sleep. Part of the reason I enjoy sleep is that I don’t get enough of it during the week (something I’ve been trying to work on over the last few years). But on my Sabbath, I especially enjoy sleep because, for me, there’s no greater way to remind myself to cease than to literally fall asleep. Sabbath is a reminder that we are not in control of the world, our lives, or even our work. God is. Sleeping is a reminder that the world doesn’t need me and yet the world is better because of me.

Because of this, I occasionally nap on the Sabbath. I found this to be particularly helpful when my daughter was in her first few months of life because, let’s face it, a lot of mine and Haley’s work in those months required giving up sleep. So when she would go down for a nap, I would too.

Ways I Hope to Grow in Sabbath-Keeping

Sabbath-keeping has been an act of growth for me. I began with just a few hours of ceasing and then slowly expanded that to 24 hours of ceasing. I’ve also learned more about what’s Sabbath-ful for me and have added more of that and less of that which isn’t Sabbath-ful for me. I’ve also personally changed over my seven years of Sabbath-keeping and with that, my ways of setting apart a day of delight have changed too.

After a Sabbath, I like to just reflect on what was and was not restful for me and make adjustments. Not out of a perfectionistic nature of endlessly trying to hit the “perfect” Sabbath. But out of a desire to fully rest with and in God.

Based on those reflections, here are a couple ways I’m hoping to grow in my Sabbath-keeping:

Worship

Because I’m a pastor, the corporate day of worship (for my tradition, Sunday) is a day of work for me, so I’ve had to be intentional about how to worship on my Sabbath. As I mentioned, we enter the Sabbath through a Scriptural reflection, being outside, and listening to the Pray as you Go Saturday examen as an act of prayer. But I’m prayerfully considering how to include more acts of worship throughout my set apart day of rest.

Phone Off

As I have reflected on in previous blog posts (“Thoughts on Rest” and “Thoughts on Recreation“), because so much of my work is connected to my phone, I’d like to turn off my phone for several hours at a time when I’m not the pastor on call during my Sabbath. I’m hopeful that this will help me be more present to God and those I’m with on my Sabbath.

Final Thoughts

As you read about my Sabbath, my prayer is that it doesn’t become a barrier to you beginning right where you are to practice your Sabbath (“My Sabbath will never look like that.”) or a burdensome list of to-do’s (“If my Sabbath doesn’t look like that, then I’m doing it wrong.”) but rather, an inspiration and permission to craft your family’s Sabbath in a way that’s life-giving and restful for you.

My best recommendation for Sabbath-keeping is: Start where you are. If it seems impossible to stop your work for 24 hours straight, just know that I have been there. Keep the Sabbath for one evening. And if that seems impossible, then keep the Sabbath for one hour. Then grow from there.

And if the first time you practice keeping the Sabbath is terrible (you get work calls, you’re stressed out, anxious thoughts invade your mind, etc.), don’t ditch the Sabbath altogether thinking it’s not for you. Sabbath is a holy day (how we’ve gotten the word “holiday”). If your first Christmas together as a family was a disaster, you don’t throw away the Christmas decor and say “I guess Christmas isn’t for us.” You reflect on what went well and what didn’t go well and try again next year. One of the beauties of the Sabbath is that we get to try again 52 weeks a year.

Whatever God has stirred within you in reading these reflections on my Sabbath, let me pray for you:

Lord of the Sabbath, when You created the world, You set aside a day to rest, giving us permission to do so too. Thank You for Your gift of rest. Would You stir within our hearts the ways You desire us to rest with You and in You, that we may learn to delight with You both now and forevermore. Amen.

Shabbat shalom!