Soul CareSample

Replenishing Your Soul

I suffer from a disease called more-itis. It’s likely you do too. I define it as the insatiable desire for more. More house, more cars, more holidays, more stuff, more time, more fun, more money, more never-ending everything. (And because we want more of everything, we add more to our to-do lists!)

This desire for more is actually from God. Solomon explained that God plants in our hearts an ever-growing longing for more of Him and His perfections, which we see in Ecclesiastes 3:11. When our desire for more is in a healthy place, it directs our hearts towards God and the truth that there’s more to this life. And, in the very beginning, God created a habit to help us remember all this.

The first chapters of Genesis give us the creation story, culminating in day seven, when God rested. This God-given rhythm of rest – the sabbath – combats our unquenchable desire for more. God commanded a weekly downing of tools so His people would stop, rest, delight, contemplate and do no paid or unpaid work, surrendering to Him as their Provider.

Except, the Jewish people took God’s sabbath law a bit too seriously. They began to worship the practice of sabbath instead of the God who designed it. One sabbath day, however, Jesus corrected their thinking. Hungry, He and His followers ate some grain from a field. The religious leaders were immediately critical of this activity, forbidden on the sabbath. But Jesus pointed out that the sabbath isn’t something we have to do. It’s something we get to do.

Two questions will help you discover the riches of a weekly sabbath. Ask yourself:

1. Do these activities drain me, distracting me from God’s goodness in my life? (If they do, don’t do them on your sabbath.)
2. Do these activities replenish me, causing me to rejoice in God’s goodness in my life? (If they do, do them on your sabbath.)

Next, there are four simple steps for practicing the sabbath.

1. Stop. Pause your paid and unpaid work for 24 hours.
2. Rest. Your body and brain need it.
3. Delight. Do things that fill your tank. Celebrate God’s goodness.
4. Contemplate. Reflect on God’s goodness in your life and worship Him.

Like silence and solitude, sabbath will look different for everyone, so don’t compare. Choose practice over perfection and just begin, watering the garden of your inner life with rest and replenishment, to ease your thirst for more-more-more.

You may think you can’t afford to take a sabbath. The truth is, you can’t afford not to. And again, sabbath isn’t a have to, it’s a get to. Wayne Muller puts it beautifully: ‘Sabbath requires surrender. If we only stop when we are finished with all our work, we will never stop – because our work is never completely done. If we refuse to rest until we are finished, we will never rest until we die. Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished.’