My body rhythm was all thrown off by trying to sleep 8 hours a day.  I got up earlier than I had planned.  I got up in the middle of the night, multiple times.  One of those nights a flood of thoughts came to mind about all the things I need to do.  I even stayed up late Friday evening in an attempt to catch-up on all the things that I felt I needed to do.  This Sabbath practice is harder than I thought.  And yet, it’s not a goal to be accomplished, like finishing a marathon or walking the Camino de Santiago; it’s a mindset and lifestyle change and it’s harder.  Much harder.

I’m also encouraged because in my struggle to keep the Sabbath, I feel like I’m changing.  I feel a subtle shift from treating the Sabbath practices as goals to conquer to embracing them as part of my new life apprenticing under Jesus.  When anxiety or thoughts of busyness creep in, I rebuke these thoughts and feelings, knowing that they do not come from the LORD, and I invoke the power in the name of Jesus to free me from the FOMO and anxiousness of my to-do list.

Without a doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed my first Sabbath day last week (I’ve been working 7 days a week) which is currently set as Monday 3:00pm to Tuesday 3:00pm.  I cracked open a Mexican Coke, not as my usual escape from a hard day, but to mark the beginning of my Sabbath.  I didn’t check email.  I put my phone away.  I stored my laptop in my briefcase.  I sat on the living room couch with the sun coming through the window and a gentle breeze and just read books.  After some time, I fell asleep for about three hours.  Then, I went to a dinner with some friends and smiled as I looked forward to being able to continue my Sabbath the next day.  I like to think that I was more present at dinner with friends because I had nothing on my mind to do the next morning.  In fact, when we left the restaurant, we were among the last there and they had closed the lanai where our table was.  I literally lost track of time.  When’s the last time that happened?

This should come as no surprise.  I felt close to God just reading.  And, it’s as if my Heavenly Father looked at me reading and with a smile on His face, gently allowed me to rest. Although my very first Sabbath, I believe that I caught a glimpse of God’s design for each of us.  I experienced in a small way His “Cosmic Rhythm (6:1)” as God modeled for us in Genesis 2: 1-3 and the Sabbath references in Exodus 20: 8-11.  And now this week, I’m really looking forward to practicing the Sabbath again with the added motivation of the Sabbath also being an act of resistance to our culture and society, the “New Egypt,” that is all-to-eager to spin us into a frenzy of more, more, more.