A Day Off

Mondays are my Sabbath days. It is the one day a week that I protect with ferocity. I don't work at church or my retail job. I won't even answer the phone. From about 2p.m. on Sunday until 8a.m. on Tuesday I am just MK - not Pastor MK, not Sales Associate MK, not Student MK. I am intentional to carve out this time to rejuvenate myself. I play with the dogs, take naps, read fun books, avoid email and facebook, and spend quality time with my significant other.

My two jobs are draining work because they require a lot of people time and I'm an introvert. Being a youth pastor is additionally draining. I need my Sabbath time to heal the wounds I suffered the previous week. I need to reconnect with myself and my 'family.' I will admit because I am a pastor a big part of my Sabbath time is turning off God. Sounds awful or strange, but I know God is present with me always and I know God cares deeply for me so I know that God understands my need to be silent.

One of the hardest things for me while in seminary was to observe a sabbath rest. I was determined after graduation to not let that continue to happen. I needed a day off and a day of sabbath rest - just like everyone else in this world! I know I'm not alone. Many of my friends who are seminarians and pastors struggle with observing and remembering the sabbath.

What is a sabbath rest for pastors, when you handle holy things all week long?

Contemporary Jewish observances of the sabbath are beautifully simplistic. The symbols of candles and braided bread on Friday evening are reminders of God as light and God's presence entwined in our lives. A glass of wine and a box of spices at the end of the sabbath evoke the desire to bring the sweetness of the sabbath into the rest of the week. Married couples are encouraged to make love on the sabbath. Families often go for long walks. Many Jews attend synagogue.

Some pastors observe sabbath well. Their day away from work is markedly different from the other six, and there is something special and holy about what they do—and don't do—on that day. For others, the sabbath feels like another work day, another day of handling holy things that—even with the best of intentions—seems to have nothing particularly holy about it. It isn't set apart. It isn't even restful.

When you work with holy things all week long, what is it you are resting from when sabbath finally arrives?

Ben, the pastor of a small urban congregation in Seattle, keeps a Sunday sabbath. He is alone quite a bit during the week, so he relishes his time with people on Sunday mornings at church and with his wife's extended family in the afternoon.

Marva Dawn, a Christian theologian, writer and speaker, has described a Sunday sabbath pattern similar to Ben's. She is willing to engage in ministry on Sundays in the form of speaking or preaching, but she will not do any work of preparation.

Ann, another pastor of a church in the Seattle area, keeps a Friday sabbath. She has been a faithful sabbath keeper for more than 30 years. She found as she entered her fifties that she needed longer than 24 hours in order to feel rested. So she begins her sabbath at dinnertime on Thursday and usually continues her sabbath until bedtime on Friday. For Ann, the heart of the sabbath is taking off all the roles she wears during the week: pastor, teacher, building administrator, worship planner, etc. On the sabbath, she slides gratefully into the role of beloved child of God—and nothing else. She describes it as comfortable clothes that she looks forward to wearing each week. She spends the time largely alone, reading fiction, walking on a beach, riding a ferry.

Eugene Peterson describes in several of his books a day of rest not connected to a Sunday worship service. When Peterson was a pastor, he and his wife, Jan, spent Mondays hiking. On the first half of the hike, they kept silence, and on the way back, they talked with each other.

A Sunday sabbath affirms the connection between corporate worship and resting in God, but for many pastors, Sunday morning is such hard work that it doesn't provide the rest God intends. Abraham Heschel, in The Sabbath, suggests that we should cease from work and also from thoughts of work on this day of rest. Christians are called to partner with God in sustaining the creation and redeeming the world. Our profession is heavily weighted on the redemption side. We spend our days creating structures and working with individuals to help people grasp the great gift of redemption and eternal life we have in Jesus Christ. Those of us in ministry should rest from our partnership with God in redeeming the world by relishing God as creator of the world. On the sabbath, then, those of us in ministry professions may benefit most and honor God most by engaging with God as Creator. We rest from our partnership with God in redeeming the world by acknowledging God is Creator as well as Redeemer.

A key to healthy sabbaths for people in ministry comes from the root meaning of the word sabbath: stop, pause, cease, desist, or rest. The heart of sabbath is stopping, not finding more things to do. Several ministers I know observe a sabbath discipline of journaling/blogging, and they record prayers and thoughts, using journaling as a way to listen to God. The center of this discipline is stopping long enough to listen and pray.

What practices help you experience God as Creator? Perhaps walking, hiking, biking, gardening, painting, or reading poetry? What practices help you experience the freedom God has given us in Christ, our redemption from slavery? Turning off the computer, the phone, or the TV? Putting away the Blackberry or calendar? Turning off worry or the temptation to obsess with ministry issues? How are you observing and remembering the sabbath in your life?