“The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it is the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday–and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week.”
(Allander, Sabbath, p. 5)
The Traditional American “Sabbath” vs Sabbath in the Bible
In my mind, for as long as I can remember, church attendance has been equal to keeping the Sabbath. My father was a pastor, so Sunday was a work day for him, and I don’t recall there being a separate time or day set apart for the Sabbath outside of the communal worship experience.
In adulthood, I too ended up working on Sundays, either as an organist or Sunday school teacher, while my husband would often be involved in leading Bible studies. It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that many of us realized how hard we were working every Sunday, and what a relief it was to finally be able to rest.
Even for those who do not work or volunteer at church, a typical Sunday is hardly a rest day. It usually involves church in the morning, brunch/donuts/lunch after church, running a few errands, and then retreating back home to either watch football or do yard work. Truly, the amount of leaf blowers and lawnmowers that can be heard in any suburban neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon is staggering.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these activities, but a Sabbath of catching up on things or of entertainment is not equivalent to the Sabbath spoken of in Scripture. The Bible talks of rest from routine work, yes, but also of inviting joy and delight.
Consider the 7th day of creation, when God rested. Did God need to rest? Was He physically exhausted from all the creating on the other 6 days? Of course not.
The idea of “rest” in this case brings to mind the image of God soaking in the beauty and wonder of this thing He just made and marveling at its goodness. Our Sabbath should be no different. It is not a day to just physically and mentally shut off; rather, it’s a day to delight and enjoy God’s creation to the fullest.
Our God is a Joyful God
We are comfortable with our God being a God of love. But what about our God being a God of joy? When you think of God, do you picture a joyful being who delights in His creation?
Scripture is bursting with verses that speak of inexpressible joy that overflows no matter the circumstances. In the Old Testament God gives the gift not just of the Sabbath but of lavish feast days for celebration; in the New Testament, we see God as a father who throws a party for his prodigal son and then coaxes the older one to join in the festivities.
We see God as a giver of all good gifts; a joyful God, who genuinely delights in the joy of his creation–in our joy! Creation is His gift, and like any earthly father, God doesn’t just want the obedience of His children. He wishes to see their delight.
Sabbath as a Discipline of Celebration
Sometimes joy comes easily–at the birth of a new baby, on the first warm day of spring, or maybe when you see a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. We have many joyful moments in our lives. But God tells us to rejoice in all circumstances, and this is far from easy to do.
Joy is not a switch we can just turn on; it takes discipline and work to be able to grow in the ways of joy. In the darker seasons of our lives, joy is a conscious act of obedience to our God, an expression of gratitude for what there is. This is where the gift of the Sabbath comes in.
We need to see Sabbath as a discipline of celebration, a way that joy is delivered to us, as well as a vehicle that allows God to mold us into more joyful people. We delight in our life, in our place in God’s world. We delight in God Himself.
The Sabbath is not only commanded, it is scheduled: it comes, once a week, whether you’re ready for it or not. It comes in every season, in winter and in summer, in joy and in sorrow–to remind us to delight in God in every season of our lives. This life brings its share of trials and sadness. Yet through it all, the Christian has cause to rejoice and celebrate because of God’s unending goodness to us all.
When we truly recognize how great and lovely our God is, our faith turns to a wild joy that refuses to be contained.
Learn from Experience
But where to start?
First, it’s important to beware of counterfeit delight. The devil’s strategy is to make sin look good. True delight is not about frivolity or diversion; it requires engagement and will leave you feeling restored. Counterfeits will leave you disengaged, calloused, or even more depleted than when you began.
In our culture, where we’re constantly bombarded by endless entertainment and consumerism, it can be difficult to know where to find true delight at first. Ultimately, it is often stumbled upon through trial and error. Try something for a few weeks, and then evaluate: is this building up your soul or depleting it?
I can say from experience that trying to answer the question “What brings you joy and delight” is quite difficult, and will take time. As with anything, the best recommendation is to start small. You have a lifetime of Sabbaths ahead of you, weeks upon weeks to try new things and see what works.
For many, the natural thing to do is to get outside–find a beautiful hike, a place out of the ordinary that brings you up close to the wonders of creation. This isn’t always practical, however, especially for my family up here in England, but there are many ways to experience wonder and joy at home as well.
As an example, my family is very artistic, and my children love to draw–but instead of just working on whatever we would typically pursue during the week, on the Sabbath I would perhaps set up an activity for us to do together that we wouldn’t normally do, like fingerpainting or playing with clay. Something where the experience trumps the outcome. It’s a day for large pillow forts, baking elaborate multi-tier cakes, learning new card games, carving stamps out of potatoes, seeing how fast we can do a 500-piece puzzle, or trying our hand at found poetry. A day of wonder and delight, with no phones or outside distractions.
If you don’t know where to start, pray! Ask God to lead you into Sabbath delight and show you how to experience His joy and love.
But let’s talk about this idea that delight requires engagement. What I just described might sound utterly exhausting to many a mother, due to the planning, time, materials, and patience required. Even if you don’t have children, so many of us are left completely worn out by the nonstop lives we live, and it’s all too easy to fall back on old standbys for relaxation rather than stepping out into the unknown and choosing to do something bold and different.
This is important: if you’re tired, you won’t have the energy to do the things that restore the soul.
Pursuing joy, entering God’s delight–these things take effort. If you’re going into the Sabbath completely exhausted, something in your life needs to change, allowing you to have more opportunities for rest during the week (or perhaps cutting out an activity or two). Once you’re not running on fumes, you will be able to properly enter into delight.
A Meal of Joy and Gratitude
Often, a good place to start is with the Sabbath meal. Once a week, invite some other Christians over and have a feast. Sabbath joy is ultimately about gratitude, and nothing quite stirs gratitude in the heart the way good food and company do.
Find a way to mark the meal as special: common examples are the use of candles, china, really good wine, or a dish that wouldn’t normally be prepared due to the effort or expense. As a mother of five with no dishwasher, I mark our Sabbath meal a little differently: we use paper plates, giving me a weekly break from having to do the dishes. The children also enjoy requesting fun desserts that I normally wouldn’t bother with–a fancy self-service ice cream bar with all the fixings, tiramisu, Nutella banana bread.
Whatever your Sabbath meal looks like, the idea is not self-gratification or satisfaction, but rather a delight that, like gratitude, is multiplied when shared with others.
What will your Sabbath look like?
If this take on the Sabbath is new to you, take a few days to ponder what in God’s creation brings you the most joy. If the only criteria for the day was the pursuit of delight, what would you do? Don’t be afraid to try new things, and don’t be afraid to fail.
Two weeks ago, I had planned a few fun activities for our family for the Sabbath, but my husband ended up spending all of Sunday in Urgent Care. We were in the middle of storm Isha and the high winds made going outside impossible, and it was one of those days where my children were feeling cooped up and were constantly at each other’s throats. Without backup from my husband, I threw up my hands and let go of the Sabbath, telling myself there was always next week. The day was instead spent with me engaged in a battle of wills with my littles, and lamenting the fact that my pregnant self couldn’t have a martini. It wasn’t my finest hour, and looking back, I can now see ways that the day could have been salvaged and joy could have been found.
The point is, the Sabbath is a beautiful gift–24 hours of delight with our Lord, enjoying all His wonderful gifts!–but it absolutely still takes discipline.
Through the Sabbath, slowly, God shapes our character and teaches us to rejoice, even when your day wildly deviates from what you had planned. But there is always much to be thankful for. The Sabbath is yours to enjoy!
May your delight grow to a tipping point, spilling into the other six days of your week and shining a light for the world to see.
One Response
When I was a child, I remember Sabbath as being totally wonderful. Many times, my grandparents would have us over to their home, even though we were a family with five children. The basement was done up nice and we could run and play down there and also outside. Grandma made a pot roast and the adults would sit around and chat and sometimes my aunt would play the violin or the piano. After lunch, my aunts would do the dishes and my grandmother would doze off a little in the chair with an ottoman. my grandfather would give us each a dollar to spend which we took and spent on candy or riding mechanical horses. We might walk to a park and sit on a swing, or pick raspberries in a small little raspberry patch. It was fun, relaxing, and a day I looked forward to . Of course we always went to church first, which was a very welcoming place but a little bit scary as the pastor would sometimes do fire and brimstone sermons. Later, when I had children, I did not keep this tradition up, because I never lived close to my family. I imagine this is often the case for many people, but i’ve always felt like something was lost that my grandmother had in her generation that I didn’t have in mine.