Sabbath: Why Rest Is an Act of Faith

And so Sabbath really begins there.

And it's all about reconnecting with God.

It's all about recharging.

It's all about slowing down and giving thanks and recognizing that when I'm not working, God is still working.

The reality is we have to prioritize God in our schedule.

Just because we can't see him with our with our eyes doesn't mean that he's not there and not asking us to spend time with him.

But I do, I do think it's interesting how many of us don't want to slow down with the Lord and spend time listening to him and focusing on him because we're afraid of what might come out of it.

Yes.

Hello there, everybody.

Welcome to the Crossroads Podcast.

My name is Jake Christie.

I'm the discipleship pastor here at Crossroads Church in Mansfield, Ohio.

And so if you're watching us for the first time today, we have tons of podcast episodes.

You can go back and look.

We've done lots of different topics and things, but today we are talking about Sabbath and rest.

I'm joined here today by some of my teammates here at Crossroads Church.

Let's go around and just introduce ourselves really quick.

Um, Tyler, let's start with you.

Sure, and I'd like to hear this from everybody.

Uh, whenever it's your turn, um, we'll kind of go this direction.

Um, Tyler, tell us what you do here at Crossroads.

And tell us what your dream.

I'm a physical touch person, Tyler, if you can tell.

Um don't give me an outlook.

It's one of the five love languages, Chris.

We're there.

Tell us about you.

Tell us what you do here at Crossroads, and then also what's your dream vacation destination?

Yeah, so I am Tyler.

I am the I'm a I'm a resident, so um, so far just here for a year, but I uh I do student ministry worship and creative, so so uh discipling all the students involved in any of the creative ministries, whether that be like tech or uh worship team or photography, all those things, um, and and facilitating that, putting out services, all the things that go into student ministry services.

Um is what I do here, and I absolutely love it.

And my dream vacation spot um would definitely be Iceland.

Iceland?

Yeah, 100%.

It's covered in nuts.

There is there's uh it's not not anymore.

Greenland is.

Greenland is.

Wait hard.

See, they they flip them around real?

Yeah, I guess.

Let's talk Giannis, Jake.

Yeah.

I know there's a trick there.

I was just messing around.

Yeah.

Why Iceland?

Because the nature.

It's awesome.

I mean, I've only seen it on online, but I want to go see it in person.

Like, there's some crazy looking national parks there.

Isn't it like volcanic Iceland?

Some of it.

And so is it desolate?

Uh yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

That was why they called it Iceland, I think, is because they didn't want a lot of people living there.

They wanted to call it something to like scare people away.

Oh yeah.

Interesting.

Cool.

And now people think it's all icy.

Well, hopefully they get to go there one day.

Someday.

We'll see.

Chris, let's hear from you, man.

My name's Chris, and I'm uh the Ontario campus pastor.

So I get a chance to lead that campus over there and preach on a regular basis.

And uh man, just lead a team of wonderful staff people and volunteers.

It's a lot of fun.

So we got we got some really cool things happen at the uh at the Ontario campus that I'm excited about.

Um ma'am, dream vacation.

Dream vacation.

Um I mean a lot, that's gonna be hard.

Yeah.

So when Becky and I first got married, we always thought that we, for our 25th anniversary, would do like the big one because when you're young and you don't have much money, there's like there's no way you'd be able to do that.

We always dreamed of going to Bora Bora.

Oh, yeah.

Like, I want to go to Bora Bora or the Maldives, where where you can just get on one of those like over-the-water huts, those tiki huts.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

All I want to do is spend like two weeks on one of those bungalows and not see anybody else.

Um, and just you know, with the glass floors, and you see the fish and the sharks or whatever swimming under you.

That would be a dream vacation.

And so we had dreamed at 25 years when you know, far in the distance, when we had enough money, we would do that.

Well, 25 years came and we said maybe we'll do that at our 30th anniversary, and we're pushing 30 here in a couple years, and now I'm thinking maybe for 35 we'll do that.

But I would love to go.

I'm a tropical guy, yeah.

So, like you put me in the sand, you put me in your palm trees, and I'm good to go, man.

I couldn't tell by your shirt.

I know, right?

This was not planned, by the way.

Right.

That's awesome.

Cool.

Joelle, how about you?

Uh, my name is Joelle, and I work in the kids' ministry department here at Park Avenue.

So I do lower elementary, which is kindergarten through second grade.

Um, and I do, I absolutely love it.

This age group was so fun.

They they're so inquisitive and so receptive to just soaking in God's word.

And it's amazing um how much they're retaining it.

Like we do memory verses with them every month, and they get little pins and prizes, and they're so eager to come back and just say those verses.

And it's beautiful to see them practicing with their family and you know, all of that.

And then I have an amazing team of solid volunteers who they come in and they they bring their own flavor to it.

They add extra things and they build upon um the lessons, and it it's an awesome, awesome time.

I've been doing it for a few years now and I absolutely love it.

Yeah.

Well, it Joel, I want to just kind of I do want to hear your dream vacation destination, but I have to I have to brag on the kids' ministry team for a second.

Someone that's got littles, uh, little little girls.

They the amount that they come home from church with downloaded in their head from the from scripture is incredible.

So um I got every single Sunday after church, we always go to my wife's parents' house for lunch and everything.

We show up a couple weeks ago, or actually this was last week, and Addie's sitting at the lunch table, you know, eating stuff, and I was like, Hey baby, what you learn what'd you learn from church today?

And literally like like recounted with detail, like like deep detail, the story of Jacob and Esau.

Yeah, like my three-year-old did that, which is just a testament to your team and like what what you guys are doing for our kids, like the fact that they're able to like get this stuff, and she's probably gonna remember a lot of that stuff for the rest of her life.

She's gonna be in church, you know.

Like, I'm gonna make her, no, but um no, but those seeds are planted, and as they grow bigger and bigger, they expand more on it.

And the beautiful thing is is like all of our curriculum from nursery all the way through our preteen, it's all the same.

Yeah, it's all the same.

Everybody learned about Jacob and Esau last week, but how deep of that discussion it gets deeper and deeper the older they get.

So it makes it easy for families with you know multiple age children to come home and have those discussions and talk with them.

And it's really cool.

Yeah, it's so good.

So your team's doing a great job.

Parents, uh if if you live in the mansfield area, yeah, bring your kids, drop them off in the kids' ministry, go to church and worship and let them let them teach your kids some stuff.

But then like you guys like help parents, you know, they give them things to help them teach their kids and they do encourage them and have those conversations at home.

And if you need help discipling your kids, we're here for you.

We'd love to love to give you those things you need.

But tell us your your dream vacation destination.

I have a specific, I just want to travel.

You just want to travel, I used to see it all.

Well, I just want to travel.

Dave and I just took a trip last month.

What is month?

It's almost August and June, you know, just the two of us for our 15th anniversary.

We finally did what you did.

It's a 15-year-old, you know, left the grand left the children with grandma and did that.

And it was just, I've taken some trips I never thought I would take.

So to kind of like limit and say, like, oh, this is the one place.

Like, I never thought I would go to Japan.

And we went to Japan two years ago.

And it's just one of those things, like, just I but I want to travel.

I just want to travel, and I'm open to seeing everything that God created, and just just take me on a trip.

I'm letting me go.

I have nothing specific in mind, so I'm I'll go anywhere.

25 you can go to Bora Bora.

I think actually, maybe.

I think we're playing in Hawaii for 20.

There you go.

Oh man, there you go.

You've been to Hawaii a couple times, Chris.

A few times, yeah.

Yeah.

I've never been.

It's family.

I haven't either.

David was stationed there in the military and absolutely loved it.

And yeah, he tells me all about it.

And I'm like, okay, well, you need to take me now.

It's time to take me.

He owes that to you for all the seconds.

But it's too expensive to take all of our children.

Sound like it's an anniversary trip.

We lived out west.

We lived out in Colorado, so we drove down to Phoenix and we we took our girls one time.

I told them for years I'm not taking you to Hawaii when you're old enough.

Marry a man that will take you to Hawaii.

And then we took him to Hawaii.

It was only because Becky and I were already going and we had an Airbnb, and the plane tickets out of Phoenix were like$230 a plus or something.

Yeah, that's like cheaper when you live out.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's cool.

Well, thank you guys for sharing.

Thanks for being here today.

It's gonna be a cool episode.

The that we're talking about Sabbath and rest and what that is.

Um, part of the reason I wanted to have this conversation was because um a couple weeks ago we were uh I had a Saturday off, you know, and I did not want to do anything.

I just wanted to take a break.

I didn't want to, I didn't want to do any work outside, didn't want to go anywhere, just kind of wanted to to veg on the couch all day.

And so I looked at my wife, we're eating breakfast and I was like, Monica, I really want to have a like a true Sabbath day.

Like I really like just want to go all in.

And my oldest looks at me and she goes, What's that word mean?

Yeah, and so I explained it to her and I called it Shabbat because we had just watched a chosen episode and they had her using it, you know.

And that's I think it's what they actually called it, but the Hebrew word for, but so every Saturday now, Addy, my oldest, goes, Daddy, are we having Shabbat today?

It's like yes, I would really like to.

So I'd love to take to take a break and do nothing.

But um, but that kind of just like sparked the idea in me, like, man, we don't really like see this practiced very well.

Uh in the Western church, especially, this idea of taking it to that time every single week to just be with the Lord, to to not work, to to rest like he calls us to.

So um, Chris, I'd love to just have you give us kind of like a biblical breakdown of of what Sabbath is.

What where do we get this idea from scripture of the idea of the Sabbath and why is it important?

That that's a loaded qu not a loaded question, it's a deep question with a lot of different tentacles that little different directions we could go with answers, but obviously it comes back to the creation, the creation account in Genesis, where where God created for six days and then he rested for the seventh day.

Not because God needed the rest, not because he was tired, not because he had created everything he possibly could and then just didn't have it in him to go further.

He clearly was capable of doing whatever he wanted to do, but he set that as a model for his creation that this is healthy, these are the rhythms.

And so Sabbath really begins there, and it's all about reconnecting with God, it's all about recharging, it's all about slowing down and giving thanks and recognizing that when I'm not working, God is still working, and that goes all the way into um boy, I feel like we could almost go through the old, the whole old testament into the new, but it goes all the way into Israel as they are slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

Their whole mindset, their whole value was in what they produced.

Yeah, it was all about producing, it was all about working, it was all about effort, and God says, I want to have a unique relationship with you, I'm gonna pull you out of Egypt and I'm gonna force you to rest.

Um, and that did not come natural to them.

And I always tell people too, like it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel because they all they knew was identifying as people who produced.

Yeah, yeah.

And God's like, it's not about what you produce, it's about who you are in me, who what I can do for you.

Yes, you contribute, but this is about what what ultimately I'm over all of creation and trust.

So Sabbath is Sabbath is rest, it's it's reconnecting with God, it's a a faith practice, it's uh it takes a lot of trust.

And yeah, I could go way even further into it than that, but we'll just keep it at the surface level right there.

Like this goes all the way back to the Genesis account, like specifically through the Jews and now even um, you know, the the the the Ten Commandments and the law of God and passed on to us, yeah, even today.

Yeah.

So um and so and you if you continue to read and you look at Jewish history, it becomes unfortunately more of a burden than it becomes a break.

You know, this is something we talked about this a couple weeks ago in our mini podcast when we're going through uh the seven series and about how um the Pharisees and the the the Jews in the time when Jesus was on earth really turned it into something that was um more about piety and holiness than it was about connecting with God and finding finding rest in Him.

Yeah.

Um it was is kind of a show more than anything, which is you want to hear something interesting about that.

Sorry to cut you off.

Oh, you're good.

I actually shared this a couple weeks ago when we were in John chapter five and preaching about the lame man at the pool of Bethesda who was healed on the Sabbath.

The reason the Pharisees were so upset about that is because they were the protectors of the religious law, right?

Yeah, and the reason, one of the reasons that hundreds of years earlier the uh the Israelites went into Babylonian captivity is because they weren't observing the Sabbath.

And God's like, Hey, if you're not gonna rest, I'm gonna force you to rest.

I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna take you out of the land.

Um, and so the Pharisees were a sect of Jews that understood that and they wanted originally their intent was to protect the Sabbath.

Yeah.

Like, hey, this is what happened the last time that we didn't observe this weekly rhythm.

So we are going to observe this, and they they were purists about it as well.

And then it becomes way more than it ever was intended to be.

Like it became show, it became all about the rules, and they took it somewhere that it was never intended to go.

But I believe that their original intent was to protect it, yeah.

And then they just got lost in all of it with their legalism.

Yeah.

I mean, like you you think about people like Paul, who like when he was uh persecuting Christians, you know, this like Christianity being the fulfillment of Judaism really was a massive threat to what he would have thought God called them to be.

And so in in their in his mind, you know, he's persecuting Christians because he wants to protect God's ways and God's people and to not you know let the people fall away to maybe what they would have thought would have been a false God in Jesus, you know.

And so I think we can look at some of these accounts sometimes and be like, man, they just don't get it.

Like you just watch this miracle happen.

Like, why in the world aren't you understanding?

Like you see Jesus fulfilling all this prophecy, you know it, like you can see that he is God.

But the reality is I think that that we can learn a lot from the Pharisees and like missing the force of the trees, you know, like missing what God is trying to do in us because we're just trying to follow rules, because we're just trying to to to to do our best instead of letting God do his best in us.

And I think that's why that's why the Sabbath is such a beautiful thing to talk about with this topic, because this is letting God do what God does, and us taking our hands off the wheel as much as possible in this, and just like like letting God take care of us like in a way that we may not be willing to throughout the rest of the week when we're when we're trying to grind, you know.

And we we live in a grinding culture.

Yeah, you got you guys know this, and like being busy is kind of a a badge of honor that we see a lot of people say.

Like majority of the conversations I have that are like the in-passing conversations in you ask somebody how they're doing, a lot of people say that pretty busy, you know, got a lot going on, you know.

It's it's crazy right now.

Like, I even find myself saying that.

Yeah, like, oh, you must be important, you're busy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

My schedule is full.

So um, I'd love to know.

Uh Joelle, you're a parent, you know, you work with our kiddos and everything, you're you're interacting with them.

What why do why do we like place busyness and doing and grinding on such a such a high pedestal as opposed to creating that space to take a break and and I think it kind of stems from like what you were saying though, Chris.

Like the people were so used to producing.

And I don't think that's ever changed.

I think people still thrive on what they produce and how much they produce of it.

And they get this notion in their minds that if they stop for even half a day that that production halts.

And like you had said, you know, even though we stop, God doesn't stop.

God never stops.

You know, so it's it's something that we have struggled with in our family with being busy because you know, I have three boys, all of them are involved in at least two sports apiece.

If you look at my calendar, it's it's bananas, it's nuts.

And I don't know how we do it sometimes or why we do it sometimes, but it boils down to it's something that they love, it's something they enjoy, but it's not who they are.

Sure.

You know, and so if we can make it work, we make it work.

If we can't, we say no to some things.

And I think it's just keeping the perspective in mind that our busyness and our production of things, our achievements that we make, they don't define who we are.

Yeah, who we are in the midst of doing those things, that's who we are.

How are we holding ourselves while we're going through the motions of running here, running there?

Am I crabby?

Am I tired?

Or am I having conversations with people?

Am I using those moments of when I'm going to different things to continue to further God's will for my life?

Maybe I'm meant to encounter someone at that soccer practice, you know, using looking for those moments in the midst of that, but just remembering that like I don't get a mother of the year award because I took my children to 15 practices this week.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's the stuff that doesn't matter.

What matters is I'm I'm there for my children, I'm showing up for them.

They know they have parents that love and support them, and then we can be an example to the other people around them and us, you know, that you don't have to be bogged down by your busyness.

Yeah.

Like I think it's a a mindset perception that we have or some people have.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I I love your clarification on this because I mean when you when we look at the creation account and and God taking this this final day to rest, the seventh day to rest, like at that point, everything's completed, you know.

Like he created us to have dominion over the earth.

And so I'm sure there's an element of it too where he just kind of wants to see, okay, I've been doing all this, I want to watch this go.

I want to like enjoy the fruits of my labor with this.

And then um, yeah, and us being made in his image, that like watching the things that we have worked so hard for, it's important to appreciate those.

Thrive and go and take the opportunity to thank God for what he's provided and to thank God for for the opportunities that we have to live in the time that we do, and the place that we do with the people that we do, and the fact that we get to to uh be blessed by the power of the gospel in our lives is so important to slow down and focus.

That's that's our identity.

Yeah, you know, oh that's I I because you created your children and you are are stewarding them and you are teaching them, and so for you, rest may be just like watching them being pockets of moments, yeah.

Sure.

Like as getting the kids to soccer practice is not easy, but at the same time, yeah.

No, but we've been intentional as a family.

Like I I definitely accredit David for for making an importance on resting, you know, like and unplugging from things.

You know, if we're home on Saturdays and we're not running, we're not on phones, we're not on video games, we're not like we we unplug from that, yeah, and try to take time to be together as a family out whether it's outside or playing board games or you know, watching a movie as a family together, just taking those moments of rest together, but just unplugging from all the other distractions that there are.

Yeah.

And that that kind of makes me want to ask, ask Ty have not really heard from you, bud, so I'm I'm gonna point this in your direction.

That's okay.

For sure.

Um there's an intentionality that Joel's talking about here.

What what is that difference between like living in like like approaching Sabbath from like a laziness perspective?

Oh man.

And approaching it from a like an intentional rest perspective.

Because honestly, that's something that I really struggle with.

I really struggle.

With the idea of of rest being intentional.

Sometimes I just want to we call we we call it the nothing box.

Yeah.

Um yeah.

Have you ever heard the example?

I'm I am tangenting really hard.

Um you're supposed to be talking, but I'm gonna preach for a second.

Um you ever heard the example of how men have waffle brains and women have spaghetti brains?

Okay.

So I like learning grids and women are everywhere.

Kind of so for for women with spaghetti brains, and there are guys that have spaghetti brains and women that have waffle brains.

This is just something we may have just offended half of our crap.

Yeah, so yeah, I'm curious where you're going.

Let's not limit to men and women.

It's just what I learned in premarital counseling.

So with spaghetti brains, everything's connected, everything's a noodle, everything one thing leads to another thing, and so it's hard to stop thinking about stuff.

And waffle brains, everything has its own little box, uh-huh.

And that's what you're thinking about at that time.

And then I'm very much a waffle thinker.

Um, and I have my nothing box that I have to live in sometimes.

Where when my wife asks me the question, what are you thinking about?

Legitimately, it's nothing.

It's just I'm just driving, you know, or I'm just looking at the wall, not thinking about anything at all.

Um I'm way too ADHD for that.

So maybe you have a spaghetti brain.

Yeah, my yeah.

So um, but anyway, it's really easy for me when I think about Sabbath or rest to to want what my instinction or my my instinct was for when Addy asked me what it was to just be able to just veg and do absolutely nothing and just you know be honestly be lazy.

I wanted to be lazy instead of restful.

What can you help us define that difference a little bit?

Yeah, well it's an interesting um kind of dichotomy, right?

It feels like two sides of the same coin of not experiencing rest.

Like you have the the busyness that that results in in us not taking any time to to relax or to spend time with the Lord, but you also have the laziness side, which can be equally as as as damaging.

Um, but it's the complete end of the spectrum.

I mean, I think of like every major cultural innovation of the last 20 years has been intentionally making us lazier.

Like DoorDash or AI or things like this is just things that that, oh, you can do this for me?

Great.

Like this that's perfect.

Now I can take time to do nothing.

Um I think of of of an example for myself would be uh a staff retreat actually a couple months ago.

So um obviously we took the staff down to uh I I forget what the the camp was called.

Beula Beach.

Behlah Beach.

Shout out.

Not a sponsor of this podcast, but and all yeah, well, Beulah Beach sponsors, please.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Uh but I remember coming away from that feeling really rested um spiritually, but I was also like physically tired because we were doing a lot.

Yeah um there wasn't a lot of time for us to just just veg.

I mean, we were on our on our feet um out uh making connections and and and learning and being in the word.

Uh so I was I felt very spiritually rested coming away from that, but I was also physically tired.

So what did I do when I came back?

I I took a nap and then I got on my phone and scrolled Instagram.

And then I remember after that, I felt really like kind of physically rested, but spiritually tired.

Right.

Yeah.

Um I'm like, man, it's an interesting difference here because I was busy and then I felt spiritually rested, but then I was not busy at all.

And I I felt the opposite, I felt drained.

Um and like speaking for my culture, or not not my culture, my generation specifically, um, just the amount of of tools that have been placed, tools that have been placed in our laps for us to to lean into that and to to get away from from genuine rest, uh is it's it's just insane.

Like there's so many cop-outs, there's so many easy ways to do things that that we um put put our put our faith and our our our work on the back burner.

And we gotta be careful to not have it be too regimented to where it becomes um uh like like like we're just doing the work to do the work.

Right.

Um but but there's also an importance to doing work, and there's also an importance to being being active in all walks of life.

Like I think of of of maybe like keeping up with our physical bodies.

It's important to be healthy.

Our body's a temple and we need to to protect it while I also think of of uh like our mental health, um keeping it keeping up with that and making sure that we're seeking wise counsel uh and doing the work to protect ourselves from from spiritual warfare that can seep in when we uh don't take the time to to care for our bodies and our minds the way that God intends us to.

Um and coming coming full circle with this, I I feel like that's that's really where I rest.

Um I didn't yeah, I didn't mean where I where I where I come to when I when I think of Sabbath, right?

Um and the connection you talked about how how how they observed this as a as a literal one-day practice in the Old Testament.

But um I think of Jesus after he was tempted in the wilderness, comes back to start his ministry, and he starts it on the Sabbath.

He starts it on the day where you're not supposed to be doing any work.

Um and and and and I know that wasn't on an accident.

Like that there's there's there has to be a reason that he did that, and that's because he's showing us that it's it's just another example of how he's come to not abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

Like he's he's not here to say the Sabbath isn't important anymore.

He's not saying that that we we shouldn't even take a day of rest.

He's saying that that true Sabbath is in me.

He says I'm the Lord over the Sabbath.

Yeah.

Um, he says that that that take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Because true rest is is found in Christ.

It's not found in in taking a literal day anymore.

Uh it's also not found in doing nothing, it's also not found in staying busy.

Um, so it's it's sometimes it's hard to find where we find it because it it feels like can't do anything to experience true rest.

Um but there is.

Um, and I think of like good, healthy community with other believers as a place where I personally feel rested.

Um and and times where I'm intentionally seeking out genuine rest, I guess.

That was kind of a long way to answer that.

Yeah, no, it it's so good because there is like a very real difference between brain rot laziness and and finding true rest.

Um it's kind of crazy.

There was a a season about a year ago where I was like really struggling with some like mental health stuff and just like spiritual health things too.

And um I had a bunch of uh wood in my backyard I needed to cut up.

And some of you guys maybe have heard me talk about this before.

And it's like, oh man, it's just another thing to do.

And um, but like once I started like getting into like cutting the wood, and like I was like, I was like, I'm just gonna take this opportunity to pray and just like chop this wood.

It's a repetitive motion with my body, it's gonna make me tired, whatever.

At the other at the on the other end of that, I felt fantastic.

Yeah.

Like like I was very physically tired, kind of like what you were talking about with with the the staff retreat.

Um, but I also felt accomplished, and I also had a very intimate, serious time with the Lord just talking about with him the things that were going on in my heart and mind at that time, and just connecting with him.

And uh I slept really well that night, and I have a hard time sleeping.

So it was it was it it was truly a restful moment for me, even though it was like harder manual labor.

And I kind of looked into it a little bit uh after that, and I found I can't remember who said this.

I'll have to look it up again, but um some quote that I found that said a man that that works with his mind rests with his body, and a man that works with his body rests with his mind.

And so, like I'm either sitting with people or at a computer typing a lot or doing something like this, it's very mind-heavy work, and so getting to like do something hard with my body to be active, playing basketball, like oh, that rests me so much, yeah.

Even though, like on the other side of it, I'm a sweaty mess and you know, yeah, tearing ACL or something like that, you know, it's just like it can it can be really exhausting, but at the same time, it re it's rejuvenating.

Um, so how about for you guys?

Where where do you find for you you guys personally?

Uh we kind of gave like a little bit of an example of just like some traps we can fall into when we're supposed to be resting, but really it's kind of just laziness.

Where how do you guys find rest?

Um, what what what's what's generally restful for you and what maybe what are some traps you can fall into?

Um I have a few things that I like to go to, but the interesting thing about all this conversation is again, it's not about it's not about what you do or don't do.

It's more about like what draws you closer to your savior, what makes you like feel um complete in him, what develops your trust in him, yeah, and what like what brings you joy?

Yeah.

Where you when you when you're doing this thing, even if it's playing basketball.

So for me, I wouldn't say this is the answer for me now, but I would say 10, 12 years ago, I was running probably eight miles a day, maybe nine miles a day.

I was trying for a half marathon.

And it I mean that's the hardest, that's the hardest I'd ever really pushed my my body physically.

And um it was it was difficult, but man, the time that you're out there and you're just like clearing your head when you're running, you know, eight miles a day at the rate that I'm running, you get a lot, you get a lot of time just to just kind of you and you and your thoughts and you and the Lord.

So that was not physically restful, but it was actually really spiritually good for me.

Yeah.

What I you know, the things that I do now, the things that I that I find joy in where I'm thankful is I know I give this answer a lot because it's one of my hobbies, but I love to just jump on my motorcycle and ride anywhere and nowhere.

Because a lot of times that's my time to pull away, and I intentionally shut my mind off, and I I I get a chance to observe creation around me more than I do when I'm in a car because you have to be more aware of what's around your surroundings when you're on a motorcycle.

And then sometimes I'll just um man, I have I have my Bluetooth is connected to my helmet, and so I can listen to music and I can listen to podcasts and whatever, but a lot of times I'll just shut it off and I'll just pray.

And when you're on a motorcycle and you've got a full helmet on and you're praying out loud, no one else can see you, no one else can hear you, and it's just good.

Yeah, it's just good.

And so I like doing those kinds of things.

It's funny that you talk about chopping wood because about 10 years ago, I took a sabbatical at my last church.

I had uh our church was gracious enough to give us pastors 10 days of just Sabbath every year.

And that was separate from our vacation, but it was very intentional time, it was structured time.

Um, it wasn't lazy time like what you're talking about.

It wasn't about doing nothing, it was about being intentional about connecting with the Lord.

And one of the things that I loved doing is we had a huge pile of wood that the previous homeowner, because we lived up in the forest in the mountains, and he had cut a bunch of trees down on the property and left them in like 10-foot logs.

Oh wow.

And so I took my chainsaw out there and just went to town.

And there's not much that m makes some men happier than just like getting the chainsaw out and just cutting wood, you know.

It just felt productive, but it felt good.

Yeah, um hard, but good.

And so those are the kind of things that um I I've enjoyed doing.

Like when we lived in Colorado again, did a lot of hiking, a lot of time in nature just with the Lord, and a lot of time in prayer and worship and doing the things that I enjoy doing.

Yeah.

So how do you all?

Um, for me, I sometimes it's hard to take a full, full day, of you know, Sabbath.

And so I think a lot of people get in the rhythm that if I can't take a full day, then I'm just not doing it.

Yeah.

Because they they have that misconception of, well, they rested for a whole day every week, or you know, the festivals, different things like that.

That's not what it is.

It's to me, with taking Sabbath or rest is pockets throughout the day.

It's something that's keeping me energized because when you're resting, you do feel energized.

You want to keep going, you want to keep pushing.

When you're just kind of vegging out lazy, it makes you more tired.

Yeah.

You just feel run down and you feel like crap.

And so to me, maybe it's a whole speedy brain thing, you know, constantly going and doing something throughout the day.

Sometimes it's hard just to sit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's hard just to sit.

I look around the house.

Oh, well, this needs cleaned or this needs picked up, or we got to run here, we gotta run there.

So for me, it's kind of taken, you know, small moments of whether it's doing menial tasks, making dinner, folding laundry, taking that time to pray, taking that time.

Although I'm doing something for my family, I'm also taking those moments of I'm just going through the motions of this.

Yeah.

I can spend this time praying.

I can spend this time talking to the good Lord, casting my questions.

Or sometimes it's just, you know, listening to worship music in those moments.

Um, for me, I have found that the Lord talks me through that.

And I'm not musically inclined.

You do not want me on stage singing, but I kid you not, when I'm going through certain things, I will either wake up with certain songs that will be stuck in my head.

And it's just those little reminders.

And so I think just slowing down enough to hear that and being open to that, you know, and every, you know, being intentional every morning.

I sit down, I've been going through the Bible in the year and reading that every day.

But my husband reminded me the other day too.

It's like, so even once you pray, how quickly are we ready to just get up and go to the next thing?

Yeah.

You know, how long are we sitting there kind of just patiently waiting for a response?

You know, so trying to take that, and maybe it's a woman thing, maybe it's a man thing.

I don't know.

It's hard to just just stop and not let my brain go in a million different directions.

Yeah.

So that's been something I've been trying to work on too, is like specifically after I do before and after I do my own personal Bible reading time and I almost said Bible story, like I'm in classroom again.

Um just making sure that like I I'm taking that intentional time that if there's something that he's working on me with within me that I can I can hear it.

Yeah.

You know, instead of just trying to jump to the next, to the next thing.

So I think it's important to find those moments of rest throughout the entire day to keep you going.

Yeah.

I I want to ask a follow-up question if I could, because you you represent probably a lot of people that are watching podcasts like this, um, younger moms that have um families and have real responsibilities that don't stop just because you need rest.

Um, you've said you've said some things that that that gives us a picture of how you slow down little pockets during the day.

Do you feel guilty about doing those very things when the kids may not understand why is mom not doing anything or why is she detached right now?

Um, do you feel guilty about that?

And how do you fight against that at the same time?

I used to.

I used to feel guilty about that.

Um it's just something that like I've been stru I've like I've always struggled with.

So through a lot of prayer, I've just gotten to the point where I have understood the importance for myself.

If I don't put that time into myself, whether it's going to the gym, reading my Bible, doing those little things for myself, I can't be the best me for my family.

So it took me a long time to finally say, okay, I need to make myself important.

I need to pour into myself so that I can pour out to them.

Because if you're constantly pouring out, you're gonna get lazy, you're gonna get tired, you're not gonna want to keep going.

And that's kind of where I was a few years ago.

Yeah.

Because you get so busy and you just constantly, but if you don't have anything that's fueling back into you, and we're all different with what that is, you know.

So being intentional and saying it's okay to maybe put me first, yeah.

You know, because I need, I need that in my life, you know, to keep being able to do different things and it's setting a good example for them too, that it's important to, to do those things and to to care for your body, to recover, to, you know, this is something we've been struggling with, our oldest.

He's very athletic and involved in a million things, and he's constantly wanting to drive, drive, drive.

But it's like, okay, you need to recover, recover, recover.

Like you need to put just as much importance on recovering as you are with your perfor your athletic performance, because that will break down eventually.

Yeah, yeah.

And our lives will break down if we don't continue to put in God's word in our hearts, we have nothing to sustain us.

Yeah.

So I think that's finally something that was like just a shift in me that I recognized it was a struggle and that being like, okay, this is what I need and I'm okay with it.

Yeah.

That's a really good explanation.

Yeah.

I think there are a lot of moms that carry guilt because they feel like they have to be everything to their husbands and everything to their kids all the time.

And in some ways, maybe even hide behind that.

Yeah.

Right.

Because they don't know how to slow down or they don't want to slow down in their flesh because they want to be important, they want to be needed to their families.

Um, I've watched my wife over the years learn this concept.

And she's she, you know, she was a young mom at one point too, with three young girls.

Um, but the thing I think about her, but I also think about you and other women is what's the most important thing that you can model for your kids?

It's not just how you're a great servant to your husband.

It's not just how you make great meals, it's not how you get them to practice on time.

It's that when they grow up, they look back and they say, Man, my mom knew how to pull back and be with the Lord.

You know, that's a picture of a godly woman for them.

And that's probably something that we in the West, even as Christians, don't give enough emphasis to.

Like, what is the picture you're painting for your kids about what a godly woman looks like?

Yeah.

Because they're going to be looking for that and what you model for them over the years.

And so when you pull back to say, I love that analogy because you have an athletic family, you have to recover physically, otherwise, you're going to burn yourself out.

Man, that principle is so true spiritually as well.

Then they make the connection and then they see, oh, this is what a godly woman looks like.

She knows how to rest, even though she grinds six days out of the week.

So really good.

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there's so much other things that you mentioned in that as well that I want to get into.

Like you're talking about the recovery process.

You talk to any trainer, you talk to any professional athlete, they'll tell you that the recovery is just as important as the workout.

Because if you don't recover, then you're going to injure yourself.

And man, like it that that makes me think about what Jesus said in Mark 2 when he said that that the set Sabbath was made for man, not man made for Sabbath.

That's so like this this idea of of God implementing and calling something holy for us to that that is to help us recover from the things that He's called us to do because He knows it's tiring, because He knows that like having dominion over something takes something out of you, even though it that's where all the blessings are found, you know, as like your relationship with your kids is where where the majority of the blessings of your life are going to be found.

You know, it's it's incredible.

Like um your your the ministries that we get to be a part of are where the majority of our blessings are gonna be found.

But the reality is it's taxing.

And like if we're not intentionally connecting with our king, if we're not intentionally connecting with our creator, man, like we we're not gonna recover well.

And that just makes me again think of like what you're talking about.

So much of what we have all defined as what true Sabbath is in this conversation, is prayer and time in the word.

And you talked a lot about listening.

It's really easy to pray and to not listen when you're busy.

Like we're we're to pray continually, you know.

But sometimes, like especially when you're checking the next thing off the box, you can pray in between the box checks, you know, and that's fine.

Um, but like having the the the space, cutting up the time and the space to just listen is so hard.

It's so hard.

It's so hard.

But man, when like you have to listen, or it might happen with without you hearing it, and it catches you by surprise, or it's gonna be a hard time to to become more in tune with your master's voice, you know.

Like it maybe if you're not tuning, you may use somebody else to kind of nudge you, like, hey, I'm trying to get this point across to you.

Yeah, right.

You know, so it's just being open to, you know, it's Go back, it's a whole mindset.

Yeah.

It's a mindset of how you want to live your life and what what do you want your character to speak to other people?

You know what I mean?

Like you can walk past somebody by the way that they carry themselves, by the way that you watch interactions with others, you can kind of tell how that person is before you even walk up to them and say hi.

You know?

So I think it's just if someone who is rested and who is eager and energetic, you can you can see them glowing from a mile away.

It's like, how do I be like that?

Yeah.

Makes me think of the story of Mary and Martha too.

Yeah.

Like when Jesus is coming to their house, Martha chooses to um spend her time working and and and cleaning and getting the house prepared for him to enter.

And and Mary chooses instead to sit at his feet.

And the Lord says that she is actually the one that chose the better thing.

Um and that's that's that's the correct thing to do in those situations.

That's where true rest is found, is is sitting at the feet of the father.

Um and that's that's where we're gonna be be spiritually healed, that's where we're gonna be energized, and that's where we're gonna avoid that burnout too.

And I've even had it, you know, things come up in my mind like saying, Oh, I can rest once I get X, Y, and Z done.

You know, kind of thing.

It's like, no, that can wait till tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah.

Like that is something that I think needs to be more I don't know, communicated or, you know, talked about more because it's like we don't have to constantly produce 24-7.

Right.

You know, let it hile up.

It's okay.

Yeah, it'll be there tomorrow.

Oh yeah.

And the thing about that too is it's really easy to say, well, I'll rest when all this is done, and then we never rest.

That's something that is what comes up.

Yeah, that that is one of the beauties of when you look at the old testament and even the the the Jews into the New Testament is like the the value of Shabbat, right?

Yeah, they stopped on Friday night, like they stopped everything, and then they they hung out with people, they enjoyed a meal together, it was very intentional.

They would do that for 24 hours and then they would resume Saturday night.

It became legalistic, but there's something beautiful in that rhythm to say this is built into our week.

This is something that we so highly value that we're gonna stop everything at you know, sundown on Friday, and we're just gonna enjoy each other and we're gonna enjoy the Lord and all the good that he has done for us.

And uh yeah, I understand in our society that's a uh I've never practiced that well, right?

We've tried it a couple of times, but it's just so hard.

But anything worth doing oftentimes is hard.

Any habit worth forming takes a lot of work, and to be completely transparent, I've probably never disciplined myself and my family well enough in that area because I want to fight against legalism or because we're just too busy.

But there have been times where my family has intentionally sabbathed, and I just think it's so good because then you have permission to say no.

Yeah, like hey kids, sorry, we're not doing that because this this impedes on the thing that's more important.

Yeah.

Like when God and the presence of God in your life becomes the most important thing, everything else can be said no.

You can say no to everything else.

But if we're being honest, what does that say about what we really value when we won't slow down?

Do we really value the Lord first and foremost, or do we value the the games and do we value the work and do we value the income?

Do we, you know, all those things?

Yeah, and none of those things are even inherently bad either.

Exactly.

It's it's not things that we're we're strictly called to avoid.

Obviously, there's sin that we're called to avoid, but things like things like even even this, can e even ministry and even things like um caring for your kids, uh all fantastic things that should be done, but also when it becomes a priority over the Lord, that's where when that balance battle that's when that balance gets out of whack.

And and like you said, I mean they couldn't do anything, like it would have been breaking Shabbat to even start a fire.

Yeah, like yeah, they they weren't allowed to do there's a certain amount of steps they're all to take every day.

Yeah.

And I I do agree with you that I think I think there was there, I think there was a beauty to having it be a part of like the legal system to where it's like, yeah, we're gonna do this for sure.

Like, and I think we can maybe take the spirit of that into our lives and say, let like, okay, I'm going to prioritize time with the Lord and time focused on him and what he's blessed me with, and resting in that um and and make that a higher priority than some of the things that we do.

The reality is we we we whether it's rest and and and sabbaths idea of it, or even if it's working for God, we don't like to prioritize that either.

The reality is we we just want to we want to be busy for the things we want to be busy for a lot.

And um they're again not bad things, you know, but um it could be not always bad things, sometimes it's bad things, but the reality is we have to prioritize God in our schedule.

Just because we can't see him with our with our eyes doesn't mean that he's not there and not asking us to spend time with him.

But I do I do think it's interesting how many of us don't want to slow down with the Lord and spend time listening to him and focusing on him because we're afraid of what what might come out of it.

Yes.

Um that that is a real or what may not come to us.

Yeah, like when we sit and listen and we don't hear, like that's even more frustrating sometimes.

Yeah.

How how convicted of my sin am I gonna feel when I really slow down?

Like, how much is God banging on my door saying, stop?

Like, I don't want this.

But we don't take the time to listen.

Yeah, and so we can we can so easily mask the the reality that we have to face this sin or face these issues in our lives, even face issues in our relationships, in our marriages, in our relationship with our kids, in our in our friendships, and the people in our cut with our coworkers.

You know, what what is what are we trying to distract ourselves out of dealing with that God wants us to deal with?

What are we trying to distract ourselves out of repenting from that is necessary for us to repent from in order to find true freedom in Christ and to be able to do what he does call us to do when it's time for action again?

Man, like that that that's the scary part of this, not just reorganizing your schedule, but also like, man, okay, what what's he actually calling me to do right now?

And I've I've literally talked to people that said, like, I can't do that because I don't want to be alone with my thoughts.

I don't want to do that.

I don't want to be alone with with it with what God might be asking me to do.

It's too scary, so I'd rather just be busy.

I read I read a book um a few years ago.

I'm gonna butcher this study, but there was a study that was done.

Um basically they took people and put them in an isolated room with nothing for like an hour.

And you know, I don't remember what the statistics were, but it was like some huge statistic, like maybe it was close to 100%, where people were like, if you had the option of before you go into the room, if you had the option of like shocking yourself, would you intentionally shock yourself?

And they're like, Of course not, right?

Like, why would I do that?

Why would I send electricity through my body?

Whatever.

And then they go into this isolated room where they can talk to nobody and they're alone with their thoughts for just like 15 minutes.

The percentage of people that said, I would rather electrocute myself than sit in my own thoughts went through the roof.

Like, I think it was like it was somewhere around like 40 or 50 percent of the people are like, Yeah, I'd rather electrocute myself than sit here in the silence in my own thoughts.

That's scary.

Yeah, yeah.

We're we're we're extremely um stimulated all the time.

And and we like that.

We we like we like to be entertained a lot, we like to to have something to do, which is good, you know.

We're like God designed us to be in work and to be in relationship, but like the the rest is also a work, like it's also something that's intentional for us to recharge, to make sure that we're healthy, to, to, to, to set our priorities on on Christ and to to to recover from the good work he's had us doing already.

So I don't know that this has been really good, guys.

Any any other thoughts at all on Sabbath?

I mean, the one thing that keeps popping into my head, and maybe I just missed a moment and I just gotta say it now.

For anybody that's like wondering, can this work?

Um I just think of uh Chick-fil-A, right?

Like Chick-fil-A, which we're gonna exactly sponsor us Chick-fil-A.

Yeah, exactly.

We'll eat a nugget every single episode.

We'll all have Chick-fil-A cups next to us, maybe some waffle fries in the middle.

My pleasure.

Uh yeah, exactly.

Um, I just think about that.

Like the model of that company was hey, we're gonna work hard for six days and we're gonna produce on the seventh.

We're gonna give our employees a day off intentionally.

Yeah, and everybody thought it was business suicide, right?

Like you can't make it in in the market the way it is by taking an entire day and shutting down.

Well, guess what?

For how many years running up until this year, Jersey Mics finally passed them.

Jersey Mics, if you want to sponsor us, you can as well.

Um, but Jersey Mics finally passed them after like what like 10 years or something like that.

Chick-fil-A was the number one most liked, you know, fast food chain restaurant.

Yeah.

And they still they're super successful six days a week when everyone else is doing that seven.

Yeah.

I mean, they have the least amount of employee burnout.

They have, I think, some of the best tasting food.

It's always clean, you know, they're always super polite.

Everyone always wonders how do you how do you get someone working at a fast food uh restaurant to be polite?

Yeah, they're often not, you know, not all of them.

I'm they're the most people are great, but it's it it's hard work, yeah, you know, and but like man, they're like they really do show up like they care about you, which is kind of crazy because I'm just here for chicken.

But um this is a biblical principle that they are enacting in their business, and it works.

Yeah, who would have thunk that the biblical principle is proven it better, yeah.

So maybe we can look to them and say if it works for a company like that, what can God do in my own personal life if I took if I took rest like that?

Yeah, yeah.

And it may seem like a sacrifice, and it is, but um even just kind of going back to the Chick-fil-A example too.

Um there are there have been studies and numbers put out to how much more money they would make being open on Sundays, but they've they've been willing to not do it.

And so if they can make a millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars of sacrifice every year just to have that, we can make a sacrifice to, you know.

But this this is made for us.

This is made for us to to be in tune with the Lord, to have a break, and to invest in the things that really, really matter.

Um, and man, the way that sets the rest of your week up is so good.

So if I think if if you can do a day, you should.

Yeah, I think if you can make that happen, if you can rearrange your week or you can rearrange your priorities and stuff and um really just make that happen, I think you absolutely should.

Um, but even if it's in the hour, you know, there's a guy that works here.

I'm not gonna route out who it is, but um, for 15 minutes after his lunch, every single day he goes into one of our classrooms and just takes a little prayer slash snooze time, you know.

And he was like, I've my afternoons are always the best because I I have that time every single day after my lunch to just do that.

That that's Sabbath, too.

You know, like because he's resting his body and he's connecting with the Lord and it's great.

So even if it's 15 minutes here and there, if or if it's a whole day, like this is something that we are called to do.

It is a holy thing that God has enacted for us.

So, guys, thank you so much for for talking with me about this today.

Um, guys, thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time on the Crossroads Podcast.