Here is my attempt to answer “what is a Sabbatical?”. It’s taken me a minute to get this out, because I went back to work Jan 16th, I had to finish working with my clients who purchased my New Year Special (which was a great success) and I needed time to establish a healthy rhythm for my new career. It’s been amazing and I hope to share more about what I’m up to soon.
The Sabbath
One of the dictionary definitions for the Sabbath is: a day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by Jews from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and by most Christians on Sunday.
Keeping the Sabbath is one of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20) and Jesus said He was the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6). Jesus also said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Growing up, I’d heard all the things Jesus did on the Sabbath that frustrated the Jewish scholars of his time, but I’d never been taught “The Sabbath was made for man…” That scripture really perplexed me. I sat for hours trying to understand why something so important, the Sabbath, was neglected in my faith experience.
I was taught to do for God, to give to God and how to work for God. But I was also taught to have a relationship with the Lord, but never realize the gift the Sabbath was truly meant to be to help me grow in that relationship, until I received a book from my dear friend Nicole Williams. She knew I’d been studying the Sabbath for about a year and gave me THE REST OF GOD: Restoring Your Soul By Restoring SABBATH by Mark Buchanan (March 2015). In reading I came to appreciate why God wanted us to rest every six days. My workaholic nature was truly being disrupted.
All through scripture we are asked to come to God, call on Him, listen and accept His wisdom. I was doing this, but I was not living it day in and day out. I would spend time with God and then go do life (to the max). I prayed often, but I was always going, going, going, which would lead me to a weakened immune system, then being forced to “rest” to recover from being sick. Then the cycle would repeat. Mark Buchanan writes:
The apostle Paul says we’re only clay pots - dust mixed with water passed through fire. Hard, yes, but brittle too. Knowing this, God gave us the gift of Sabbath - not just as a day, but as an orientation to a way of seeing and knowing. Sabbath-keeping is a form of mending… Keep Sabbath, or else break too easily… Keep it, otherwise our dustiness consumes us, becomes us, and we end up able to hold exactly nothing.
…Sabbath imparts the rest of God - actually physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God - the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness.
WOW!! And that was only page 2! The book propelled me into a new way of thinking about God’s concern for my frailty.
There are many ways people keep the Sabbath, but for me it’s all about spending time with Daddy God and understanding that He wants me to be well cared for. This was something I chose to embrace when I decided to create my own Year of Sabbath Living. I knew I need great refreshing and some deep healing (physically and spiritually). I had developed a self-care practice, but I knew I needed more. As I studied I learned how much God loves and cares about us. I wanted to know more about this gift of love that Mark Buchanan highlighted in his book.
I began to see God as a loving father; I had never taken the time to know what that really meant. I wanted to know the loving side of my heavenly father. This was a real foreign concept, because my daddy didn’t know how to think pass himself to care for us girls well (I’m the middle of five girls). Most of those I called my spiritual fathers saw how self-sufficient I was, so they never played a fatherly role I hoped they would... But the deep feeling of “needing to be cared for” was a direct conflict to my natural “take care of things” way of being; something my husband is still baffled about. Studying the Sabbath led me to the very thing I was hoping the men in my life could provide and I had to accept that God wanted me to learn to rest and care for myself. The idea of choosing to be a Sabbath-Keeper was a great gift. In my decision to create a weekly Sabbath, I walked right into the loving arms of the Trinity. And through this, I learned to be ok with being very self-sufficient, while also accepting peoples lack of understanding that I needed the very love and care I gave away so freely. My finding a Sabbath rhythm, allowed me to find my voice to speak of my needs with the awareness that people may not be able to understand. But yet, in accepting my neediness, I realized the truth of the scripture: “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”! It took me months to fully understand that God truly cares about my weariness, simply because He loves me. The very thing that once perplexed me the most about the Sabbath has become my greatest gift.
What is the Sabbath according to Velshonna? A time to stop, everything if I choose to, to rest and spend time with God (in play, reflection, worship, conversation, etc.). For me it also means connecting with a peace I didn’t know it was ok for me to have.
Why a Year of Sabbath? I was unsure what to do next and realized I was burnt out from all my doing. I wanted to make sure that even in going back to work I would approach it with a Sabbath mindset and not my old workaholic way. I also connected the Sabbath to elevating my self-care travel experiences, because I wanted to give definition to my travel plans, making sure it was intentional and aligned with my professional and personal goals to be more peaceful.
How to become a Sabbath-Keeper? Study - become a good student and learn about all the good that comes from keeping the Sabbath. Define your why… Why do you want to learn about the Sabbath? Are you willing to make it holy? Holy in my world is to dedicate something to God for the betterment of my well-being. Find the time: consider starting with a half day of no work and then add an hour each week. AND download the YouVersion Bible app and start a devotional about the Sabbath.
Through my studies and devotional readings, I learned that God really does care about how I’m living, the way I’m feeling and my neediness. Though there are many times I have to learn to stop being whiny and get about what really matters ; ) That comes with the territory of becoming a mature believer in Christ.
My decision to keep the Sabbath and create a Year of Sabbath has brought many blessings. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely been worth it. So many amazing opportunities have come my way and I’m very grateful for all I’ve come to experience in my walk with the Lord.