I let God choose the books I read.
I know that sounds ultra-spiritual, but I’m serious.
I don’t try to plan out the books I read. I set some goals and pull from those goals occasionally, but most of the time, God will send books to me through a friend, my wife, or randomly within the different services I use for books.
Recently, I was starting to read The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and I stumbled upon a similar book, To Hell With the Hustle. After reading both of those, a friend mentioned The Rest of God, so I read that too.
Ultimately, they were all about Sabbath.
Ok, God. The message is clear.
So I embraced the Sabbath fully. We typically go to church and spend the day together as a family, but I had been working before the family woke up and sometimes using Sundays to clean out the garage and do other work around the house.
That was the problem.
I wasn’t taking an entire day to connect with God and rest. I was giving God part of the day.
Sundays are great for prayer, rest, and self-reflection. Sabbath isn’t all about rest, but that’s a big part of it. So if you’re going to sleep in one day a week, let it be Sunday.
You can ask yourself questions each week about how the previous week went. It can be a time to address any issues in your life.
The Rest of God brought up a couple of good questions to ask yourself:
- Where did I feel most alive, most hopeful, most alive in the presence of God?
- Where did I feel most dead, most despairing, farthest from God?
It’s questions like this that help you gauge how you’re spending your time and how you can be a better steward of your time.
I think it would defeat the purpose to make an entire list of what to do on the Sabbath and how it works. The idea is to rest and spend time with God. So spend time with your family, go to church if you choose, but most importantly, spend time with God.
I’m curious to know your experience with practicing Sabbath. Comment below and let me know what Sabbath means to you.