God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God

Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly,

says author Alan Deutschmann in his book Change or Die, it is impossible for us to experience lasting change unless we are in some kind of relationship.

Sabbath keeping is not merely good advice for you to lead a nicely-balanced life. It is a practice that is knit into the created order.5

On my pilgrimage in Ireland, I was impressed to learn that if a monk was fasting and then received an unexpected visitor, he was to break his fast so he could enjoy food with his guest.

We may also find that a practice once helpful in the past no longer seems fruitful. We might consider dropping the practice or trying something more challenging.

Jesus chose life on the Sabbath: he healed people; he fed them; he supported rescuing animals that fell into wells on the Sabbath. Mark Buchanan, in his book The Rest of God, says that the golden rule for the Sabbath is to cease from what is necessary and to embrace what gives life: Sabbath … is a reprieve from doing what you ought to do, even thou

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”9

Creating a rule in response to the movement of the Spirit may also involve simplifying certain practices so that our relationship with Jesus is served.

what is most important is having a relationship with him, as opposed to getting through a spiritual task. It was hard for me at first to realize that quiet time in conversation with God was more fruitful than hurriedly attempting to get through a certain amount of Scripture…. God has taught me that it is all about the relationship, not about what I