Practicing Sabbath in an Age of Busyness

Scriptures: Mark 2:27-28, 1 Kings 20:40, Exodus 20:8-11

Practicing Sabbath in an Age of Busyness

Busyness has become our new normal. 

Being busy makes us feel important, but fighting hard to keep margin in our schedules is often portrayed as laziness. Without even trying, the flow of our lives naturally moves towards busyness. But it requires intentionality to swing the pendulum back towards margin – it’s like trying to push a large boulder uphill. 

By most accounts, our generation is the most overcommitted in history. Work, side hustles, kids’ activities, hobbies, multiple small groups at Church, serving in our local communities – when you add it all up, you end up with a calendar overflowing with commitments as we chase after meaning and purpose. 

1 Kings 20:40 NRSV says, “While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” Commenting on this passage, Pastor and Author Kevin DeYoung wrote, “I realize 1 Kings 20 is not trying to tackle the problem of busyness, but the line in verse 40 strikes me as a perfect description for our age. We are here and there and everywhere. We are distracted. We are preoccupied. We can’t focus on the task in front of us. We don’t follow through. We don’t keep our commitments. We are so busy with a million pursuits that we don’t even notice the most important things slipping away.” 

If we are going to make real progress towards restoring healthy rhythms to our lives, we need to consider the why and the what behind our current busyness. Why have we become so comfortable with our busyness? When asked how we are doing, why do we often respond, “Busy, but good?” And what are the contributing factors going on below the surface of our lives that drive us deeper down the rabbit hole of busyness? 

In this reading plan, we will consider three lies deeply woven into the fabric of today’s culture – lies that directly attack our identity in Christ and significantly contribute to our current state of busyness. Additionally, we will also explore how God might want to use practicing the Sabbath to help us resist our default tendency toward busyness. 

Friend, as you go, begin to observe the impact of busyness on your life as a follower of Jesus. For today, don’t try to fix what you see or diagnose what is happening. Just allow the Holy Spirit to help you become aware of the impact of busyness on your mind, body, and spirit.

Scriptures: Proverbs 2:6, Proverbs 18:15, Psalms 119:66

Shutting Off the Fire Hose of 24/7 Information

Over the next three days, we will attempt to expose three lies that play a notable role in shaping today’s current culture of busyness. Each lie is like a clump of weeds growing on the surface of our minds. Weeds that, if not identified early and often, have the potential to take up residency in our hearts. Here is the first: 

Lie #1: Our value as a person is directly proportional to the knowledge and expertise we have obtained throughout our lives.

Whether through the formal education we have received, the hobbies and interests we have pursued, or the always-on stream of news we have consumed, the enemy of our souls is hard at work weaving this lie into the fabric of the knowledge we take in. 

If this lie is allowed to grow in our hearts, knowledge becomes something we must take in at a debilitating rate to prove our worth to ourselves and the world around us. The more knowledge we consume, the more we feed the lie, allowing it to drive us deeper down the rabbit hole of busyness. 

In an effort to replace the lies of the enemy with the truth, the Holy Spirit is actively reforming how we think about the knowledge we take in. The truth is that knowledge is a gift given to us from the One who calls us His Beloved. Like any gift we receive from the Lord, our role is to steward what we have been given with humility and grace. 

The Sabbath offers us a weekly rhythm to lay down our pursuit of knowledge at the feet of Jesus. Here, the Spirit reminds us that it is “the Lord who gives wisdom; from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6 NRSV). In practice, keeping the Sabbath offers you and me a chance to shut off the fire hose of 24/7 information coming at us. In this place, we can rest in the truth that any knowledge or expertise we have been graced with is a gift from above. 

Today, take a few minutes to consider how Jesus might be inviting you into a weekly rhythm of Sabbath, allowing you to pause the flow of information in your life so that you can rest more deeply in Him.

Scriptures: Hebrews 4:9-11, Colossians 3:23, Ephesians 5:1-2

Examining Our Thinking on Productivity and Efficiency

Yesterday, we considered the first of three lies that the enemy of souls is hard at work weaving into the fabric of our culture of busyness: Our value as a person is directly proportional to the knowledge and expertise we have obtained throughout our lives.

Today, we will examine a second lie: 

Lie #2: Our value as a person is directly proportional to how productive and efficient we are with the work we have been given to do.

Again and again, the Bible speaks to the importance of being a good steward of the work God has given us to do during our time here on earth. As an example, Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters.” 

However, when the lies of the enemy are allowed to shape our thinking on productivity and efficiency, we stop working from a posture that is secure in our identity in Christ and start working for the praise of others. Work done to earn the praise of others will always leave us unsatisfied, opening the door to a lifestyle where busyness becomes the norm. 

At the intersection of productivity and practicing the Sabbath, author and founder of Unhurried Living, Alan Fadling, wrote, “We are a culture that measures value in terms of production or consumption. If the Sabbath is a day set aside each week to cease both of these activities, it’s easy to see why our contemporary culture views it as a waste of a day… The gift of the Sabbath day – a day measured not by productivity but by relationship and worship – helps us remember and trust that life is given, not earned. But we live in a culture that expects us to earn everything we have.” 

Regrettably, there are so many today whose approach to work is like a boat without an anchor that has come untethered from the dock and is now being tossed about by the wind and the waves of productivity and efficiency. 

Keeping the Sabbath is the primary spiritual discipline that anchors our weeks, months, and, therefore, our lives to God’s gift of rest. The weekly rhythm of practicing the Sabbath is God’s gift to a generation trapped on the merry-go-round of busyness. Every week that we say yes to the Sabbath, God is at work cultivating in us a healthy rhythm of rest and work. 

As you go about your day, ask the Holy Spirit to show you any lies that have shaped how you approach the work God has given you to steward. Have you fallen into the subtle trap of working for the praise of others? Day by day, what would it look like for you to work from a posture that is secure in your identity in Christ? And are you willing to lay down your work at the feet of Jesus and enter the Sabbath rest that He is inviting you into?

Scriptures: Psalms 119:18, Matthew 11:28-30, Exodus 33:14

Pruning Overgrown Activity Branches

Over the last few days, we have been on a journey together to uncover the why and the what behind our current state of busyness. So far, we have considered two lies that the enemy of our souls is hard at work trying to convince us are true. 

• Our value as a person is directly proportional to the knowledge and expertise we have obtained throughout our lives. 
• Our value as a person is directly proportional to how productive and efficient we are with the work we have been given to do. 

Today, we will consider one final lie: 

Lie #3: Our value as a person is directly proportional to the activities we say yes to for ourselves and our families.

Community is often born out of a common interest. Whether it is the activities our kids are involved in or the hobbies that we pursue, both can be catalysts for God to turn strangers into friends. Coming together as a community around a common interest often provides an ideal environment for God to teach us valuable life lessons about teamwork, celebrating others, and the value of doing the hard thing. 

Author Jean Fleming provides an excellent illustration of how the activities we say yes to can quickly multiply, leading to a life of busyness. She describes her life as a tree, with the trunk representing her relationship with Christ. The trunk gives life to the limbs, representing the core priorities God has given her – family, work, ministry, and personal growth. Finally, the branches represent the ever-expanding list of activities. “Even without special care, activity branches multiply. Soon, the profusion of branches becomes more prominent than the trunk and limbs. When this happens, I feel trapped, frustrated, and empty. Why? Because my life is shaped and drained by activities that have lost their pertinence to Christ.” 

So, how do we know if the branches of our life that represent the many activities we have said yes to have given birth to a life of busyness that is distracting us from what really matters? 

Keeping the Sabbath provides us with a regular rhythm for stepping back from our daily lives to see which activity branches need to be pruned. God’s gift of Sabbath rest has a way of slowing down our hurried pace of life so that our eyes might be open to seeing what we often can’t see amongst the busyness of life (Psalms 119:18). If we are willing to step into the Sabbath rest that God promises His people, He will be faithful to show us if we have crossed the line from enjoying activities that foster community to a life of busyness where we feel trapped and empty.