Sabbath

People who work in a church are terrible at taking a Sabbath. I have spoken to Sami (my boss and the young adult leader with whom I have gone on many a mission trip) about this fact. I have also asked her to define sabbath for someone who works in a church.

When I talked to her about personal sabbath days, I was struggling to understand what I should or shouldn't do. The way she explained it to me is that her sabbath means taking a day to do something intentional for herself. That may mean spending it with her kids and going to Zumba.

I was struggling with housework, laundry, paying bills, working in the garden (I don't remember when the conversation took place, but clearly it was not in the winter time), etc., and this was before my job at Baker!

I still haven't been religious about taking a sabbath, but Saturdays have always been a day when I try to do something for myself. Which I came to accept that might mean doing laundry, paying bills, shoveling/gardening, etc. I intentionally try not to check my email. Sometimes I fail at ignoring my email, mostly because I neglect my email the rest of the week.

What I really need is a sabbatical from my email. But what I've actually done is unsubscribed from many emails lists. That has helped.

Taking a sabbath day has not become a discipline for me. I am still working at it. I think my fault lies in that I was a volunteer first, and I still consider it fun. For instance, last night we combined Apples to Apples Bible Edition with Apples to Apples Jewish Edition. The hilarity that ensued was side-splitting. Laughter is good for the soul on a sabbath day or any day.