Dropping The Burden: Rest As A Gift

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This guest post is part of a series on Sabbath Rest for Small Church Ministry LLC, where we help women create joy & success in small church ministry. Any opinions expressed within this blog post are those of the author and not necessarily held by Small Church Ministry.

From The Heart Of A 25-Year-Old Worship Leader

For women in ministry, specifically in small churches: Is Sabbath rest a burden or a gift? I know that a lot of people have differing thoughts about this, but I urge you to consider these thoughts from the heart of a 25-year-old worship leader.

Dropping The Burden: The Gift Of Rest

Sabbath. The word comes from the Hebrew Shabbat, meaning to “cease, stop, be at a standstill.” If you’re anything like me, sometimes just hearing those words sends shudders down your spine. A day off? Are you kidding me? Have you seen my to-do lists?

It’s not that we don’t want rest. Most people I talk to on any given day want rest, especially after a long day. But the whole notion of actually getting true rest is the part of the equation that never seems to register. Even the long-anticipated “day off” seems to get swallowed up by leftover obligations, yesterday’s chores, and tomorrow’s worries. 

And I don’t think it’s a “time” problem – not at the heart of it.

We call it that sometimes. I’ve called it that sometimes. And sometimes it really looks like that. The days of the week fly by. We’ve penciled in our long lists of obligations until our calendars look like they’re about to burst, and then the Sunday sermon buzzes into our heads like a dreaded alarm clock saying with Jesus, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27b, ESV). Then we hang our heads and think, “Oh, great. Another thing to add to the calendar. But how am I supposed to do that? I don’t have time to rest!”

Have you been there? Me too.

I’m a 25-year-old college graduate with a “tent-making” job in customer service. Though my job seems to claim most of my waking hours, I strive to devote my real energy and focus to ministry and daily reading. I’m a worship leader and a teacher, two roles that I love but require hours of prep work. 

My college friends used to joke that college students were told to prioritize good grades, sleep, and a social life but that the reality of college meant you could only actually choose two of the three. Three years out of college, I’m not sure that’s just a college thing. Maybe the list replaces “good grades” with “good work” or “good ministry”, but it still feels like I can’t choose all three. Even with the early mornings and late nights, there’s still not enough time.

And the society around me doesn’t help.

Half the time, I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants, trying to stay afloat in the hectic, image-driven bustle of Orange County, California (you know, the epicenter of outrageous expectations). And serving in a small church, by definition, comes with the constant temptation to say “yes” to way too many hats. Then there’s the strange pressure of young adulthood, figuring out how I’m going to change the world and stuff …

You get the picture. To say all of that in short: Life is overwhelming.

And not just for me. In your own story, I’m sure you’ve been there — or are there too.

But Jesus keeps saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” So what do we do?

This is going to sound crazy, but hear me out.

What do we do? I think we listen to Him.

In this passage in Mark, a group of Pharisees got their feathers ruffled when Jesus’ disciples committed the grievous offense of plucking heads of grain for food on the Sabbath day, and were thought to have broken one of the Ten Commandments. I’m paraphrasing, but the conversation went like this:

Pharisees: “Jesus, what the heck? Your disciples are breaking the law! They’re working on the Holy Sabbath!”

Jesus: “Haven’t you read the story about David? He ate the holy Bread of the Presence — you know, the bread that the law said only priests could eat — when he was hungry and in need. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

What? you might be saying. How does that fit? David eats holy bread, and that means Jesus’ disciples get off the hook?

But the key is in the summary He gives: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” 

That doesn’t help! You might be saying, “I’m still confused. What does that mean?“

Let me put it this way.

I said that I didn’t think a lack of real rest was a “time” problem. We’ve all got things that fill our time, of course. And I think we would all do well to sit down every now and then to evaluate what exactly is filling up our schedule. Maybe we need to find different ways to do things.

But the reason I don’t think our lack of rest is a “time” problem is because we’ve all had moments where we do have time — like, hint hint, a global quarantine — for the first time, we had all the time in the world. Still, we don’t know what to do with the time and still don’t feel rested.

So if it’s not a “time” problem, what is it? To what do we attribute our lack of rest?

I think it’s a posture problem.

No, not the kind of posture that pushes your shoulders back so you can balance books on your head. I mean the posture of our souls.

The group of Pharisees that Jesus addresses in Mark 2 were flustered by Jesus’ disciples because they were so intent on resting on the Sabbath because of their fear of the Lord, that they couldn’t even rest on the Sabbath. They couldn’t comprehend the reality that Jesus was introducing: the fact that the Sabbath (the command to rest) was really an invitation to God’s grace.

Jesus’ little summary statement might make more sense if you hear it in a bit of a different way.

Picture the face of Jesus; picture His eyes fixed on your own eyes, flooding with God’s love, compassion, and the most gentle smile. He says, “I didn’t create you to obey so many commands that you fall on your face in exhaustion. I didn’t write the command to rest so that you could add that to your to-do list. I didn’t command anything to wear you out. Rather, I instituted Sabbath as a chance for you to reset. I made this day of rest for you.”

This was God’s plan for us.

These befuddled Pharisees were trying so hard to obey that they made the mistake of assuming rest was another thing they had to do in obedience. Then they tried so hard to rest that neither they nor anyone around them could actually rest.

But Jesus’ disciples? And David? They understood that there was grace for their needs, their hunger, and their weakness. And they were able to accept that grace in humility. And that posture, friends, is where they found rest. Here, they delighted in the presence of God.

What I want to leave you with is this:

Jesus offers Sabbath as a chance to stop, to stand still, and to cease. Find a quiet place in your heart and lean into it. It’s a chance to cease striving and to let Him re-posture your soul so that you can interact with Him and your world with your hands open, ready to receive His grace. 

I think a lot of times we say we don’t have time to honor the Sabbath because we’re scared that we’re not going to know what to do with ourselves when we stand still. This is a scary thing sometimes, trust me, I know. However, I think that is why it is so important that you do it! Allowing yourself the opportunity to truly rest in God’s presence can be so beneficial.

Sit in the silence. Sit in the absence of monetary tasks. Remind yourself that it’s okay to be afraid of a time that is free from any chore of schedule. But face that fear. You don’t have to be going all the time. It’s okay to sit with your thoughts, to sit with God! In fact, I would even say it’s highly encouraged!

Perhaps what we need to hear is the reminder that resting is not another chore to add to the list. Resting is a grace — a chance to reset, to let ourselves recenter with Jesus, to let Him tell us who we are and what really matters in this journey called life.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Rest was made as a grace for you, it’s not meant to be a burden or a trouble. We operate from Sabbath, not for it. And I’ll tell you—when I calm down enough to see it like this, suddenly it becomes much easier to carve out time for Sabbath in my schedule. It has become more important than my schedule. It becomes not another “thing” I have to do; it becomes a regular rhythm of peace, an anchor amidst the storms. It’s a simple habit that keeps me going. I’ve even come to rely on it, and crave it.

So, in closing, I invite you to stop. I invite you to stand still. Breathe in. Recenter in grace. Let Sabbath become a gift, not a burden.

*A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, ed. by William L. Holladay (1988), p. 360.

Read More

Sabbath Rest: How This Busy Mama Found Time

Think You’re Too Busy For Sabbath? Think Again