KEPT BY THE SABBATH
 
Few concepts have added as much to my life as learning to keep the Sabbath, which I discovered during my first year as a pastor. I don’t think saying it saved my life is an overstatement. It has been true spiritually, as I would have burned out long ago. Perhaps it has been true in other ways because I have had a healthy and productive life. I have always been driven, trying to excel at everything I do, and I want to do it all. I have a wide range of interests. I am both creative and committed, which can be a toxic combination. I am deeply grateful to the Lord of the Sabbath, who led me into this revelation you are about to read. I don’t think I would have found it otherwise, in part, because I hadn’t come across any books about this concept back then, nor had I met any pastor who practiced it. Sure, some pastors took days off as needed, and others practiced it in a legalistic way, but I never met anyone who delighted in taking a Sabbath each week. It would be a long time before I met anyone who observed a Sabbath in a wholesome and balanced way.
 
I have sincerely tried to keep a Sabbath consistently since 1985, but there is a sense in which I haven’t kept the Sabbath; it has kept me. I have tapped into the curative powers of taking a regular rest and want to inspire you to do the same.
 
Learning to rest and reflect has been the primary way Jesus, my Pastor, continually restores my soul, keeping my creative well flowing, and has given me the strength to accomplish as much as I have. I have learned that is not something you learn to do once, but something you need to keep returning to again and again, trusting Jesus to lead you into it. I trust this study will challenge you to labor to enter rest so that you can do much more to advance the kingdom of God.