The Gift of Sabbath

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day… Exodus 20:11

Sometimes in life we can get swept up like a hamster on a treadmill. We are going-going-going in circles and losing perspective of reality. It might be that we are circling in the sweat of productivity, production, and work, with burnout always creeping in. Other times, we are furiously running on the treadmill in the needs and wants of other people, with little awareness of or advocacy for our own well-being. Or maybe other moments, we are moving slowly on the treadmill, stagnant, unfocused, and numb or out of sorts, but not knowing how to get off and reset. In our own ways, we all get stuck in the chaos, busyness, or numbness of a treadmill. 

I’ve found that Sabbath, for me, is my moment of stepping off the treadmill. Sabbath is my must-needed and anticipated time of pause, reset, and rest. In my moments or at-best day of Sabbath, I reconnect to myself, God, and others. 

Abraham Heschel, in The Sabbath, writes about Sabbath as the most precious gift from God to humankind. Let’s take a moment to dwell on some of the markers Heschel suggests that make Sabbath distinct: 

“How should we weigh the difference between Sabbath and the other days of the week? When a day like Wednesday arrives, the hours are blank, and unless we lend significance to them, they remain without character. The hours of the seventh day are significant to themselves; their significance and beauty do not depend on any work. Profit or progress we may achieve. They have the beauty of grandeur.

Beauty of grandeur, a crown of victory, a day of rest and holiness… a rest in love and generosity, a true and genuine rest, a rest that yields peace and serenity, tranquility and security, a perfect rest with which Thou art placed.” 

As we step off the treadmill and receive the gift of practicing Sabbath, would we all continue to find God in a rest of love, generosity, peace, serenity, tranquility, and security. 

- Dottie Oleson