Remember the Sabbath. — The Ten Commandments
Taking a “Sabbath” — whether a full day, a half-day, or even an hour — is a way to create the space for those things that grow only in time. Sabbath is the space in which we nourish our soul.
Although I am much more better at resting than I used to be, I still have many moments when I get caught up in all the work I “need to get done.”
In those moments, I fall prey to the conditioning of Western culture that prioritizes work and producing above all else. I start to believe that “there’s no time to rest” because I have “too much to do.”
This is why the commandment is to remember the Sabbath. Not “keep the Sabbath” or “honor the Sabbath” or “don’t violate the Sabbath.”
We can’t keep or honor what we don’t remember.
At its heart, the commandment is not about “Sabbath” at all. It’s a reminder that rest is essential to life.
The birth of all new things — ideas, projects, relationships — begins in the void created when we stop what we are doing and allow ourselves to rest.
As Wayne Muller writes in his book Sabbath, beyond the legalism around Sabbath is
an idea that by saying no to making some things happen, deep permission arises for other things to happen.
Some parts of our culture are coming around to understand rest; it’s become a new “lifestyle trend.” But rest is more than a “trend.” As Muller writes:
Remember to rest. This is not a lifestyle suggestion, but a commandment — as important as not stealing, not murdering, or not lying.
It is fitting that he compared this to the commandments about stealing, murdering, and lying.
When we pause to rest we create space to say yes to the essential aspects of life that grow only in the soil of time: relationships, vision, intuition, delight. When we fail to rest, we steal from ourselves these essential nutrients of life.
Without rest, our work depletes us. We lose the crucial soul nourishment that fuels our fire. Our passion and desire wane, and we experience “burnout.” We kill ourselves through overwork; we murder our dreams and our potential.
The belief that we “don’t have time to rest,” is a lie we tell ourselves when we desire to keep pace with our perception of what others are doing.
The truth is, pausing to rest gives us more time, because when we pause to rest we create space for life.
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