rb31deepselfworth2“Another example of how our need for certainty sabotages our intuition is when we ignore our guts warning to slow down, gather more information, or reality check our expectations.”

~Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

Flame flickers over the wicks of candles lined up on the mantle as the sun lowers her head, bending down to get one last look through the high window, slanting her arm to create wall silhouettes in the living room. Her light shifts signal the beginning of Sabbath. A sign I’ve waited for all week.

Steam escapes through the lid on the crock pot in the kitchen, gently wooing us all away from busyness to gather around the table. As we take our sacred spots, heads bow in unison and our mouths give thanks for rest. And then we dig in to feasting and decide what movie to watch after washing the dishes.

Sabbath-keeping turned into a weekly routine for me ten months ago, after I initiated the Sabbath Society. Now 147 people are experiencing it with me.

They’re not all hanging out on my back porch under blankets reading a stack of books while listening to bird chatter on Sundays, but we connect every week. A simple email is the voice of encouragement toward a discipline that is changing all of us, one week at a time. Because some disciplines are easier to accomplish with success in the empathetic embrace of community.

Honestly, the outcome I’m hearing is blowing my mind a bit. But God is in the business of doing that, isn’t he?

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Looking back, I realize why I thought I could skip over Sabbath, or observe a period of rest when it suited my schedule. My need for certainty sabotages Sabbath.

It’s a common struggle we all seem to experience: The fear that if we let go of what seems needful for rest, our lives might fall apart the next week. All the while, our soul is longing to be satiated with the one who created us and knows us best, but we ignore the feeling in our gut for the sake of productivity and misguided self-worth.

The minute we try to calculate the outcome of taking a break from work in order to rest and spend time with our Creator, the beauty of Sabbath is tainted. Because the point of Sabbath is to cease interfering in the world and acknowledge that it is God’s world.

When we let go of the clenched fist of accomplishment, perspective finds her rightful place and all those things we thought shaped our identity become meaningless.

Taking Sabbath might be one of the most vulnerable things I do this week.  It’s the day chalked in TRUST with big bold letters on the board holding my to-do list.

Sabbath can be a mindful, calculated decision, a planned Sunday menu, or a simple potluck, a sweet surrender of manipulating how the meal will taste. Just take preconceived ideas out of the recipe.

I’m tired of leftovers, aren’t you?

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“If we want to live a Wholehearted life, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play, and about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth.” ~Brene Brown

 

rb31daysdeepbutton2Join us in the comments and for further discussion at Redemptions Beauty Book Club on The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown as we talk this week about Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol & Productivity as Self-Worth  and  Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle. This is day 21 of 31 Days of Letting Go in the Deep End. Find out more here and join us for daily posts delivered to your inbox by adding your email address to Subscribe in the sidebar. It only takes a few seconds and it’s painless, I promise.