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You're listening to the Women of Faith podcast from Faith Church Indy.  These recordings are teachings from our 2025 Fall Women's Conference on Rest and Sabbath.  Thanks for listening. always feel like whenever I hear a speaker, want to know, always, whenever there's anything, I always think, well, consider the source. You know, we do that. And I thought, so I just wanted to tell you just a tiny bit about me because I have met a number of new people this weekend. I don't know how many of the rest of you have, but it's been really, really thrilling. So I grew up in a Christian home. I think I always loved Jesus, but when I was 15 and in high school, young life, I say that's when I owned my own faith.  I just  had always gone to church with my family.  But that's when I can remember where I was sitting. And it was in a Young Life Club  that m I believe all that. I always have. But  I'm owning this now. So  that was when I feel like I matured into  a believer,  a mature teenage believer. you can look at it.  That's kind of a. paradox,  but you know, we think we know everything anyway when we're teenagers. eh anyway,  and I appreciate, um thank you Ruth for that prayer. I just want to add, I just want to pray, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  Amen.  So eh Bob and I were married, we had a construction company.  I was teaching school, he was a contractor and owned his own company and the Lord started saying, need to be a pastor, you need to be a preacher. So at 35 with three kids, we sold everything and went to seminary. And it was a huge, huge step of faith because for me, I gave up my dream home. You know, we were making pretty good money with our own company.  We belonged to a country club and um I loved it all.  I loved Jesus more, but I appreciated just the fun of it, you know, the neat.  So um it was a huge step in faith.  And um I'm sharing that because through the process of going to seminary, and Bob got a degree in MDiv, Master's of Divinity  in counseling also, plus  pasturing, um we've done a lot of counseling.  And he's senior pastor, so I senior pastor-wifed.  I never wanted to be a pastor's wife. That's what kept us from  going to seminary for a number of years. um because I thought I had to be perfect and I knew I wasn't. So that's another whole talk in itself. um senior pastor for 16 years in Northwest Indiana,  and I was teaching school. When I retired from teaching,  we went with a retreat ministry called Sunscape Retreats.  And it's in Colorado. We lived in Indianapolis, so that's when we started going to faith.  But we would travel and lead retreats for pastors and missionaries. um In 10 years, we've had 90 retreats.  We probably met with 450 pastors or missionary couples.  And um probably the biggest thing was complete exhaustion, fatigue, depression, loneliness. um Because pastors  and missionaries  generally don't get to have a Sabbath day. They don't get a Sabbath rest. because Sundays are the hardest days of the week for pastors. And they still remember that for our pastors and pray for them  that they can  find Sabbath rest during the week em because Sundays are hard. They're very, hard.  at those retreats, so when you see a couple of things, em I'm going to share things,  some of the things we shared at those retreats also, but I will tie that in with  everything else. So  last night, em You know, shared, look at how the water is getting clearer. This one's still a little cloudy, but it's not as bad as last night.  The ones at the table are getting  much more clear. I hope they kind of reflect how you're feeling by tonight. You know, we're getting the clarity. The junk is settling.  We've given it to God.  You know,  that type of thing.  So we're not as muddied up,  you know?  It's going to be neat tomorrow morning to see how clear that water is,  really is. ah So as we settle in and center in  on our weekend away from our real world, we all have real worlds we do have to go back to tomorrow, um let's enjoy this visual in our minds  and our hearts as we enter into our retreat built up on Sabbath resting. So far we've shared our different takes.  I'm going to move this over so that I  stand in front of the microphone a little better. um As we shared our different takes last night, those of you who weren't here last night,  we talked around the table about um what our experiences with Sabbath were when we were children.  And interestingly, uh I think everyone at our table had grown up in a different denomination.  We had different denominations, different on takes on how their family viewed Sabbath or if  they'd never heard about Sabbath as a child also. That can happen too.  So we have that going on. um You know, we've done a Bible study on Sabbaths. We, um maybe our Sabbath concepts have evolved over the years.  We all come from different families,  different churches and possibly different faiths. backgrounds. So our Sabbath definitions may be totally different. I really appreciated Jane's thing today about, you know, the Jewish  view of Sabbath and of God, the Mount Sinai, the  distant and God's law. mean, Sabbath was God's law for the Jewish people. But as Christians,  we are in a constant presence with God. He is not far away. And through faith and grace.  We appreciate Sabbath. So hopefully tonight I can pull together all the different things we've covered and make it  practical.  So we've heard all this. OK, so how do we do this? How do we make it work for our lives?  And so the first question I want to ask is, what is Sabbath? We've talked a lot about that.  And is Sabbath a one size fits all  practice? The story of creation, which we also covered,  introduces God's need for rest. And we talked about, did God really need to rest, or was he doing that to model us,  a model for us  that we need to rest, we need that rhythm and pattern. Genesis 2, 2 to 3 says, and by the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all of his work, which he had done. then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it  because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. So rest is the critical component of Sabbath. We've shared that over and over again this weekend, just in the last 24 hours. The Hebrew word Shabbat relates to the Hebrew word Shabbat, which can mean to rest  or to cease.  So. The Hebrew word is to cease and to rest for Shabbat. We know that Jewish people prepare for Sabbath by sleeping.  They don't just wake up Saturday morning to  celebrate. Their Sabbath begins at sundown Friday night  and um they sleep through the night. They don't just wake up and you know,  they have  rested. They actually think Sabbath starting Friday night. And when I studied this,  A few years ago, thought, you know, really, I need to approach Saturday night like that. You know, when I'm going to bed Saturday night, this is the beginning of Sunday, you know?  And  it's kind of a neat uh way to approach it. They step into Sabbath for the purpose of health, reflection, and joy. But first, they rest through the night. And it's actually even the activity of rest, which is kind of a neat perspective. Jewish people follow the command by celebrating Sabbath from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday evening. And as Christians, we traditionally celebrate Sabbath on Sunday as the Lord's Day. That's the Christian tradition. So how many of you have had jobs where you've had to work on Sundays? Yeah, there are a number. I mean, think of nurses, doctors, policemen, firemen, all sorts of things. Because we've learned about the rhythm,  work six days and rest on the seventh,  when you have to work on a Sunday, you just have a slightly different schedule of Sabbath. that's  OK. God understands.  Bruce, I think you were sharing. Do you mind if I share about the camp you said you worked at? um People had to work on Sundays because campers arrived on Saturdays.  But everyone had a six-day work schedule, and then their seventh day was their Sabbath rest day. So uh that's kind of special to know too. uh Mark Buchanan, who is a well-known pastor writer. lives in  Victoria, British Columbia. Beautiful place to visit or live, I think. uh Defines Sabbath as an invitation at one and the same time. to empty yourself  and fill yourself. So you empty yourself of all the stuff, all the stress,  those lists we made yesterday for our devotional, we empty ourselves of that for that day, and then we fill ourself with God. So it's kind of a neat idea. Writer and speaker, Priscilla Shire,  shares that Sabbath resting  in Jesus is when grace flows.  Mercy fixes what's been stressed by life,  and the spirit refuels us.  Sabbath rest is the space where priorities and relationships that have been pushed out of alignment  and are in need of repair get patched up and recalibrated. She goes on to say that rest is not an excuse for the lazy, but a wise investment for the diligent. It's for those who are committed to being  active followers and servants of Jesus Christ instead of slaves to the tyranny of urgent busyness and activity.  By prioritizing rest,  we are modeling rest not only for ourselves,  but we're modeling it for our family, for those we love.  I just think it's critical that we  share this with other people because  We all need this.  And by  practicing Sabbath, we might just rediscover the joy  that we thought had been lost.  Ultimately, we need Psalm 46.10, be still and know that I am God, to define Sabbath. Be still and know that I am God. Tonight, Sabbath will be defined as a time and a space to receive God's gifts through rest in Him. And I use it as both a noun and a verb.  I say, I Sabbath,  or it is the Sabbath. So why do we Sabbath? First of all, the fourth commandment in Exodus 28, which Hannah  covered also today,  remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. God gave us the 10 commandments to give us a standard for living righteously.  Because of Jesus' we no longer live under the law. But we do desire to follow God's best  for our lives.  From our definition, we Sabbath to know God.  Being still and knowing God  helps us remove ourselves from the center of our worlds.  We answer the question, who is who?  I can be still and know that God is God, or I can stay busy and keep wondering if I am God.  mean, think about how many times we  seem to be the center of our worlds instead of God. So Sabbath gives us a time to answer that who is whom question. Am I God  or is God God?  When we led our Sunscape retreats, we had two main sayings. And the first saying goes along with our who is whom question. And that saying is there is a savior  and you're not him. There is a savior and you are not him. Jesus is our savior. How many times do we fall in the trap of thinking or acting like we are our own savior instead of resting in our real savior Jesus? So it's a good saying, there is a savior and you're not him. You might write that down and say it to yourself a few times every day. That will help also. We are busy, busy ladies and packed into each 24 hour period is an unsustainable number of tasks we've placed upon ourselves. as well as demands others deem urgent uh enough to place upon us too.  There are a number of generations and seasons in this room, which is,  I love it. It's just  so neat,  so neat to have all these different seasons and generations. uh I'm blessed to be in the oldest season of the life in this room.  I'm blessed to be  empty nest and retired. It's wonderful. of you, raise your hand if you're empty nest or retired.  Happy hands back there.  So  I  have much more time  during this season um to choose Sabbath rest. I look back over my life and I cannot believe  that I made it through the busy life.  I deeply, deeply regret not resting more. And I don't know how many of you that are my age range. feel the same way as I do, but I am so thrilled for all of you younger than  us,  people here, um that you have a time to regroup earlier than we did, than I did. I just wish that.  We had three kids, three different schools,  three plus, more activities, sports,  dance class, and  cheerleading, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Bob was a senior pastor, so I was a senior pastor wife of a church the size of faith and I was also teaching first grade in public school. There were days our alarm would go off at 5 a.m. And we would say, I'll meet you in bed tonight, okay. was just, and you know, especially for pastors, there are those evening meetings, know. Bob always, always, always was home for dinner with the kids. um And then he would schedule meetings  later. They were later meetings for him because he knew he needed to be home  and to tuck the kids in.  And I am so,  so, so thankful for that. eh But  I had been blessed to work in our home as mom to our kids for 17 years.  But when I returned to teaching, we never had a day off together. And again, for pastors, Sundays are not days of rest. em we had  to have separate Sabbaths, which is okay too, but em we missed that.  In Mark 631, Jesus says to his disciples,  come away by yourselves to a desolate place  and rest for a while.  Desolate to me sounds kind of negative.  So it doesn't have to be a desolate place,  whatever you picture for desolate, but. It means  come away,  come away by yourself  and rest awhile.  I love theologian Dallas Willard's statement, if you don't come apart for awhile,  you will come apart after awhile.  That's so true.  It's just amazing.  Burnout happens and it's real.  God designed work to be a healthy part of our lives, not to drive us into the ground. Work can be physical or emotional or intellectual.  Many times we are exhausted from decision fatigue alone. Work, either in our home or outside of our home, is how we live out our God-given talents  and gifts. em When sin entered the world in Genesis, it distorted how we live out our work. When we feel that our safety, our security, or our significance  comes from our work,  it depends upon us.  We won't know when to stop working.  Sin broke that divine work rest rhythm. Again, the rhythm word is gonna keep coming up that Hannah suggested this morning.  That God had established work,  had established as a gift to us.  God has wired us to work. and we work best when we choose to submit to God's plan, which involves rest. So we rest from our work,  and then we work from our rest.  Again, it's that rhythm. We rest from our work, and then we work from our Sabbath rest.  Archibald Hart, who is a Christian psychologist, wrote about the damage,  that stress, and too much adrenaline. which is God created, adrenaline is a chemical God created in our bodies for fight or flight.  But  too much adrenaline causes uh damage to our physical bodies.  Stress undermines our immune systems,  creates poor eating habits,  heart problems, it's been directly linked to cancer.  Besides obvious stressors, there's imagined stress, which is worry. And there's hidden stress, and that's the stress we just seem to adapt  to instead of eliminate. And even good things cause stress.  Our first grandson, Davis, was just married in August.  And um I reminded our daughter, Kelly, to give herself at least three weeks after the wedding, because we did three weddings, and they were all joyous events.  And I felt like I'd been run over by a truck for three weeks afterwards. So I just said, give yourself three weeks after a wedding. just to recover from the stressful joy that happens.  God never meant  for us to live  in adrenaline addiction. Remember, he created adrenaline as a fight or flight chemical in our bodies. He did not create it to live on, just like living on coffee or living  on whatever we  drink to keep us going.  So self-care is practicing. the gift, God's gift of Sabbath rest. Which brings me to our second sonscape saying, which is self-care is not selfish.  It is for the sake of others,  especially those we love. When we are healthy, as we enjoy God's gift to us of Sabbath, we do become healthier. And I'm not talking physically,  but mentally and emotionally, we all know that. When we are exhausted, we're probably not. fun to be with, you know?  We need to be rested.  And  as we enjoy God's gift, we become healthier  for those  we love.  I'm gonna come back to Matthew 11, 28 to 30, which Hannah also had for us. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,  and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And I also love Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in the message, are you tired,  worn out,  burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you will recover your life.  I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." So you've heard that paraphrase twice today, doesn't it sound wonderful?  It really does. um You know, as we seek to settle in, just like this  dirt and clutter and mud is starting to settle in and as we seek to clarify our lives. I look forward to seeing how clear this water is going to be tomorrow. So how  do we Sabbath?  Sometimes we fall into the Pharisaical legalism of defining Sabbath  as behaviors and practices.  We need to remember the intent of Sabbath to rest in and connect with God.  So I'm just going to give you some  thoughts here.  First of all, em figuring out who God made you to be, what is your God-given personality? um It's going to help guide you on how you Sabbath best. um As Sunscape leaders, we had to be certified in Myers-Briggs. I mean, there are all sorts of different personality things. But Sunscape retreats used Myers-Briggs because it was the most heavily researched. m so questions such as, are you extroverted or introverted? An extrovert is going to have a totally different um energy level.  mean,  extroverts are  energized by people. Introverts are  energized by being by themselves.  So first of all, figure that out. That will affect how you Sabbath best. uh Are you a detail person or a big picture person?  Pardon me.  Or are you a big person? It doesn't matter. A detailed person and a big picture person are going to have two different  things, ways that feed them, feed their soul, feed their personality. Do you make decisions by logic, or do you make decisions by how they affect other people? Once again, that it will affect how you Sabbath. Are you a free spirit? or an ordered person? That's a big one for Sabbath. Do you just like  free spirit things? You don't know what's going to be happening, but you're going to go with it?  Or do you kind of like a schedule? I like schedules, and  oh, and Bob is a free spirit. So  that's interesting in itself. ah However you answer these questions will help you define who God made you to be. And I would really challenge you if you've never really thought through those who'd God make me to be?  It's okay to be who I am.  It was one of the most interesting things at Sunscape was the logger, a missionary or a pastor,  a missionary is on the field or a pastor is pastoring. the more they lose who they are  because  they are um needing to meet, feeling that they need to meet the expectations of everyone in their church,  everyone on their mission field, everyone of their supporters, and they forget who they are. um so one of the things we did is, and that's why Sunscape was really uh purposeful in the Myers-Briggs, and just saying, let's come back to who God created you to be, and it's okay to be who you are. and you're gonna flourish  if you live as who God created you to be. So  it's really important to figure out who you are.  Interestingly, Myers-Briggs  has 16 different personalities,  personality types that come out,  and each one connects with God differently. So again, a Sabbath for you might be different than your sister's Sabbath, than your brother's Sabbath. Depends. how God wired you and what feeds your soul.  So give yourself permission to be you in the midst of it all.  And then also define your season in life.  Some seasons allow for more me time. Some seasons mean you need to schedule more mini Sabbaths.  In fact, for me, I have a mini Sabbath every day and it's never at the same time. oh Even though I like a schedule, that mini Sabbath, it just varies for me. um Give yourself grace,  but don't excuse yourself from entering into a Sabbath plan. Even during the crazy busy seasons, what could be more important, again, than modeling Sabbath for your friends and for your family? My growing up years were marked by, um I loved Sabbath. We had Sabbath rest, we had family fun. um So even to this day,  many, many, years later,  I still crave unscheduled Sunday afternoons and evenings.  just, and Bob and I in the last five years  have said no to a lot of things on Sundays because we just, we need that life-giving,  unscheduled time to regroup, to be healthy again by the next day. um Author Anne Lamott just had this quote,  almost everything will work again if you unplug it  a few minutes.   Including you.  Bob and I laugh about that because  anything technical, um if I touch it, it does not function. And he says, well, unplug it,  turn it off, reboot it. And sure enough,  most of the time it works fine.  So let's just say we need to reboot ourselves.  It works wonders.  So now I know in the notes you have uh some  numbered things. So the first thing I'm going to give you is four elements of Sabbath. these are just, uh there are no rules. fact,  are just suggestions. So the first one is release control.  Don't make such tight plans  that God can't interrupt them.  You are looking to the Holy Spirit to direct your thoughts and your plans.  Enter into the mindset of floating in water or free falling. uh We were talking at dinner about zip lining, just  letting go. don't have any, once you hook up to the, where's Tina?  She was talking about her zip lining experience was a Honduras.  Yeah.  And you know. Once you're hooked into that harness and they let go of you, you have no control other than I guess you say you could  break yourself  a little bit. Yeah. We talked about it because I thought I really want to zip line. If the weather had been better, I might have tried it today, but  I stayed inside. um So I'm going to go back to the floating in water. How many of you love to float in your tub to just spend?  I love to refresh.  How many of you?  There you go, Vanessa. That's your place then.  Enter into that feeling or how many of you just,  if you can just picture floating with God, you know, close your eyes, just picture that.  Or free falling.  I don't know.  Have any of you ever parachuted or  done free falling?  It looks cool when you see someone else doing it. You know, you see the videos of them floating. m But the whole point is release control.  You know, let God,  let the Holy Spirit. Interrupt your plans.  And the second one, which we hear over and over again, is rest. So the first element is release control. The second one is rest. And again, OK, what is rest to you? What restores you?  Rest doesn't mean just laying down or sleeping, although that could be  it.  Walking could be rest for you. Listening to music,  reading, gardening.  So interesting, I was talking to my sister  just as last week, we talking about this talk,  and she said, I remember one time when Grandma,  we were at Grandma's house,  and um I was outside, and she said,  I leaned down,  and I picked a weed that I knew was a weed, and Grandma was at the window when she went.  No gardening on Sunday. You know, well,  for Grandma it was work. She was a farmer's wife.  Working in the fields was work. For my sister, she loves gardening. Her degree is in  agronomy and horticulture. You know, it's like, that's her passion.  So again, what is restful for you?  Cooking, painting.  We talked about that last night at the table. You know, what restores you? What's restorative to you? You've already floated some ideas. ah Think about what rest is for you. Release control, rest. And the third one includes silence and solitude. And I'm going to define silence is the absence of noise. Solitude is listening to God and for God in the midst of the silence. So silence is the absence of noise, but solitude is listening to and for God in the midst of the silence. Great. Okay, I took this out. had it all ready. Here it is.  This is in your folder, but I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes. I'm just gonna read this just for a minute.  And it's a prayer poem, Let Your God Love You.  Be silent,  be still, alone,  empty before God,  say nothing,  ask nothing,  be silent and be still. Let your God look upon you. That is all. God knows.  God understands.  God loves you with an enormous love and only wants to look upon you  with that love. Quiet.  Still.  Be. Let your God love you. Amen.  That's in your,  it's on the back side there of that next page. um Just the entering into the silence and solitude ah is so restorative  to you. Psalm 62, one,  for God alone,  my soul waits in silence.  For God alone, my soul waits in silence. And in Psalm 37, seven, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Those two scriptures just describe that silence and solitude beautifully. So that's release control, rest,  includes silence and solitude.  And the fourth element is don't forget to play.  I loved  Ruth's sharing of the importance of humor. um God is the author of humor, too.  And uh it's just such a critical part of a Sabbath day is that playful element. Play is anything that serves no concrete purpose other than enjoyment. Play serves no concrete purpose other than enjoyment. Now it could have a purpose, but it doesn't have to. And I would love if any of you can just yell out, if you think of, what would be play for you? Because I'm going to tell you, there are times in my life I've thought, I don't know how to be fun. Has that happened to any of you? You're just kind of like,  what are some fun things that  you like to do in the room? know. Anyone just shout it out.  Karaoke. Karaoke.  Awesome. oh Play drums. Drums. OK, cool.  Biking. Biking. Yeah. I love to bike. Riding roller coasters.  Riding roller coasters.  So can you spin that? No, I was going to say, I'm picturing you every Sunday afternoon going to a roller coaster.  Yeah, stop thinking about  what would be fun.  know, it's just a play is an important part of the joy of life. And it does not have to have a concrete purpose.  It's OK.  Mark Buchanan has some suggestions for you. And these are not, there are no rules.  No, not, they're only guidelines,  just some suggestions. So  the first one is to cease work. And just like,  was it  with  rest,  what is work for you? Again, you have to ask what is work for you? uh Michelle Rescorla told and gave me permission to share this. She said when she was in college ah and they'd been talking about Sabbath. possibly in intervarsity, I'm not sure what it was, but she said she made the decision to have all of her homework done by Saturday night. She was not going to study on Sundays. I thought, oh, I should have done that too. It's just, you know, I was waiting until Sunday night and I was like, oh, you know, get it all done. But so that involves thinking about, you know, what is work to you and cease work. I love working in, see I use the word work. I yell gardening. in our flower beds. That has not worked to me on Sundays. That just brings great pleasure. But someone else could look at it and say, no working, know, that type of thing. define what work is for you and then stop it. Just stop it. What was the video? was that? Bob Newhart had a video on. was, have any of you seen that video? He gets a counseling ready, he says, well, just stop it.  That was it. So that was his only counseling advice. So uh back to my talk. uh Define what is work for you, and then cease work. Number two, bear no load. um We discussed Matthew 11, 28. We read that when it talks about um come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. What does heavy laden mean? Heavy laden could be physical, it could be emotional. It could be  social or spiritual.  It's those things that you put on that list that are just  burdening you or putting your head in a vice or your heart in a vice. em Bear no load.  So how do we do that? And  Christ is devotional, first devotional,  you know, writing it down,  figuring out what is it? Okay, list everything. that's driving me crazy or stressing me out, write it down and then you read that list to God,  you give it to God.  Interestingly,  speaking that list out loud, there's something very healing and therapeutic about that. When you hear your own voice  speak  your pain, it already starts you on the road to healing. And when you're speaking it to God and then you say, God, Really,  most of it you have no control over anyway. God, it's yours. It's yours.  And when it creeps back in, you say, stop.  No, I gave that to you, God. I'm not going to keep carrying this.  This is yours, God. I can't do anything about it.  That is the heavy ladenness of life. And we all have it. We just have different things on that heavy laden list. So  bear no load  is another guideline. Third one, this is interesting, Mark Buchanan suggests em feasting, making  your Sabbath day a feast day. That could mean different things to different people. em One of the wonderful things about my Sabbath days growing up was that when we got home from church, our house miraculously smelled like pot roast.  And we discussed that at our table.  I think almost all of us at our table Remember coming home to pot roast. It's just interesting. So of course I thought, well, when I grow up, I'm going to have pot roast Sundays too. Well, so you start out doing it. then, especially when Bob was pastoring, maybe we wouldn't get home from church till 1 or 1.30. And then we'd have our pot roast. And then 3.30, 4 o'clock, we're still cleaning up. It was not a restful day for me. was a moment where I just thought, what is wrong with this picture? This is not.  So we don't have pot roast anymore.  We go through the drive up at Chipotle.  We pick up  our Chipotle and we take it home  and we feast on our Chipotle. So I have to decide what works for you. And I would love ideas.  Can anyone share, like,  do you all have a wonderful Sunday  meal  plan?  Anyone?  Sandwiches.  Do you consider the sandwich a feast?  Oh, there's your feast. OK.  I like that.  And do they make their own sundaes?  So see, that's the celebratory. To me, a feast is just celebratory eating. Yeah,  I like that. So sandwiches. and then make your own sundaes. So you can have everything there.  You can use paper bowls.  Okay.  Alice, your hiding bring is not here. But she tells us, I've her self being a stubborn hind. So she won't care about that. And that bringing Alice to Sunday evenings were always crazy dinner.  Wish that at the same time, they were all walking to the kingdom and just pick something.  Whatever you want, whatever you want tonight. But that was kind of made kind of those funds and the families oh yeah and nobody's responsible people coming up with the deal that everyone was happy with too that's another whole issue in itself so yeah  I like that other ideas or suggestions  Well, one of the things Mark began and suggested was maybe eat more lightly during the week so that whatever you eat on Sunday feels more celebratory or feasty, is that a word? I don't know. But so that it's eagerly anticipated. And I'm thinking even what you were showing about patties that they probably just kind of eagerly anticipated. I get to pick whatever I want, you know, that type of thing. So, and then that leads into the fourth. uh The  fourth suggestion was to celebrate.  celebrate.  And celebrate just means having a light-hearted attitude of rejoicing. Now how many of you think, when was the last time I was lighthearted?  Does anyone have problems with that? Sometimes.  There were times that I thought,  I forgot how to have a light heart. How do you have a light heart? I mean, that's, you know,  that's the result of being too busy  and not resting enough. Have you ever thought,  I used to be fun.  What did I used to do when I was fun?  You know?  So again, you have to discern what is fun for you,  and it's kind of the same thing as what is play for you, you know. um but celebrate. Make that part of your Sabbath. ah And seek refreshment.  To me is another term that could fit in any of these, but  what refreshes your soul?  What would refresh you? And then his sixth suggestion  is  to take a rest.  It's to ease our burdens.  So some of these are repetitive of other things, but they're from different authors, and so I wanted to share those too.  As I'm giving you all of these lists,  when Ruth started out tonight, she said,  ask the Lord to tell you  just one thing.  Maybe you just want to pick one of these things to focus on. Don't feel like you have to go home and do it all right away. Just pick one thing, maybe, that uh you and the Lord are going to work on.  Then I'm going to give you some  practical ideas.  And again,  maybe pick one. They're just ideas. um but you might want to incorporate them. And the first idea is called spiritual subtraction or holy subtraction, H-O-L-Y, spiritual subtraction. And what this involves is making three categories of your activities, good, better, and best. I'm guessing Probably 95 to 98 % of your activities are all good. Some of them rise to best, better, and some rise to best. Now the point of this is to lighten your load and to diminish your busyness to choose to set some boundaries, to prioritize, and  to say at this time in my life, I'm only going to invest my time and my energy on the best. I can't do everything. I can't. I try to, and then I'm exhausted and I'm crabby,  and  I don't Sabbath because I'm still busy doing things and commitments.  It's really healthy to just kind of stop and just say, okay,  what are  all? I mean, try to just ask the Lord to reveal to you everything that you do. and categorize it. And then say, OK, at this time in my life, I'm doing the best.  I'm not going to do the better and the good for now. This is just for a season. Things change, and you can maybe do something else later. But uh streamline your lives a little bit, and just get rid of some of the stuff that is eating up your  energy and your joy just because it's too much to do. You're only one person.  And you know you're not, you aren't the savior. Jesus is your savior, right? So that's the first one, spiritual subtraction. The second one is meditate on Psalm 23, 1 to 3A. Now this is my suggestion tonight, but you can pick any scripture that ministers to your heart. Author Nicole Jonathan, well I'm gonna read it first and then I'll tell you about it. Psalm 23, one to three A. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul. Author Nicole Johnson suggests meditating on these verses and picturing God  as a loving,  caring  friend em who leads you on long walks  beside still waters.  And she says it will calm your soul. She shares that um with her practice of doing this,  through getting  still,  she's able to know calm. It says, calm is the promised land on the other side of still.  Calm can only be entered into by being still. And don't we all seek to be calm?  Seek to live in calm,  to be centered in calm,  even when maybe life around you is a little crazy,  but you can still be calm in the middle of it. I want to sidestep just a little bit to the role of a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.  I'm sure many of you have studied this, know a shepherd's job was to watch over, protect,  guide, and train his sheep. So as the Lord is our shepherd leading us  on quiet paths by still water. em Jesus knew,  not Jesus, it was in the Psalms, but um a shepherd um knows his sheep. He knows his,  their characteristics. He knew that sheep were easily frightened.  In fact, when we were leading retreats, we had a  pastor who had grown up on a sheep farm  and he shared very  guiltily. said,  my brother and I used to love to scare the sheep.  He said, one time we stood behind the barn, and we knew the sheep were coming, and we jumped out to scare the sheep, and one of them fell over dead right in front of him. And he said, we stopped doing that. We never did it again. But they are so easily frightened. And to know that the Lord is our shepherd and will protect us, that's just one of the neat things to think about. Also, Shepherds know that sheep will not drink from rushing water, from moving water. uh They need quiet, calm water to sustain their lives.  They will not drink from rushing water.  So here we have  the shepherd leads us, God leads us besides still waters.  He restores my soul,  sustains our lives. uh So when our shepherd leads us beside still waters, it not only calms our souls,  but it saves our lives  because we need that water.  So that was number two,  meditating on Psalm. Number three is uh enjoy being creative. How many of you have seen the movie Chariots of Fire? It's out years ago. Chariots of oh, a couple. So it's the story of Eric Little, who was the Scottish missionary. But he also could run, and he ran in the Olympics. And it's a marvelous true story of him choosing not to run on Sunday. And so he was going to not be able to get his medal or. even take a chance, even though he'd been training the whole time, his race was changed to the Sabbath.  But anyway, his sister, um who  could not understand why he ran, and she said to him, em why do you have to run?  And he said, God made me fast,  and when I run,  I feel God's pleasure. God gave us our creative gifts. Our creativity comes from God.  And um when we're doing  whatever it is that God has gifted us to do creatively,  we feel His pleasure. We truly do.  Now, the interesting thing is  there are seasons in life  when um I forgot how to be creative.  Fatigue steals, absolutely wipes out creativity. If you're tired,  just,  there's no creativity there. So again, physical care so that we have ah enough strength to ah maybe tap into our creativity. eh But  the biggest thing is we all say, I used to be creative.  If you're having troubles thinking of something creative, do look back on when you were a child. What did you like to do that was creatish? You know, what were um your things,  your creative gifts? uh Those are probably your natural creative talents and gifts and maybe reinvigorate them.  And I would love suggestions. Like, do any of you have creative things that you do now to just give us ideas to think of? No one's creative in here.  I like taking pictures. You love taking pictures. I thought them kids were cute and now it's like I find no ways to but they're still cute  I had little kids that were cute oh Yes, oh yeah, now just it's our crime so you what how could I use yeah, that's neat yeah other ideas yes  You paint that's neat watercolor or oil or?  acrylic awesome Did you paint when you were a little girl?  I?  I'm quite glad you're here, but I just started thinking about last summer, so I didn't see it. That's cool. I crochet. You crochet? Oh, that's awesome. That's neat. Yes. I paint, but I also paint the kindness rock. Oh, yes, and spread it around. And so she paints kindness rocks, which is very cool. I'm a lot of the, you know, I've got the Bible, and some of that, you know, so you'll carry it. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, I mean, to me, the cool thing is, you know, God is going to have the perfect person, the person He wants to read that, to find that rock and pick it up. That's neat. That's neat. Other ideas? I'm sorry, what? Singing. It's neat. Yes. I mean, I could have... Oh, you make quilts, oh, that's neat.  So when you're doing all these things, don't you just feel,  I don't know, God's pleasure. I'd love, you know, other ways to say that, but to me, the words, feeling God's pleasure,  I feel His pleasure. um You're just, you're using that creative gifting that He gave you.  So that's one of the neat things. OK, one of the last things is create your own breath prayer. And this is something that.  It's in your book also, but I'm gonna just read through this. And so the blue box  up there, it just says, breath prayer is for the purpose  of settling one's body, mind, or soul  so as to be increasingly conscious  of God's presence in our everyday experience. uh This is something that you can  create and it can just... oh be part of your life throughout the week. I  think Sabbath is an  especially good time to um renew that.  Maybe you establish a breath prayer, then em a couple months later,  think, think I'm going to change it. Maybe a Sabbath day is a good day to think through that.  I'm just going to skim through this, and then we'll get to creating your own.  And it starts out just breathing is a rhythmic activity that we often take for granted. We breathe continually, we breathe all night while asleep, without breath we could not live. The oxygen we take in surrounds us and just as we cannot live on one single breath of air,  our souls cannot live on just one moment with God. To pray and to live with Christ is also a rhythmic activity  that takes us through the days and nights.  To pray continually is to make prayer a regular part of our daily existence.  And breath prayer is an ancient Christian prayer practice dating back to  at least the sixth century.  Historically, it is associated with the Eastern Church,  particularly Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Known as the Jesus Prayer, early practitioners would repeat to the rhythm of their breath the phrase, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. and in time that prayer was shortened to Lord Jesus Christ have mercy  or simply Jesus  mercy. Breath prayer is a good example of praying without ceasing as St. Paul admonished us to do  and has the potential to become as natural as breathing. It is intended to be a very short prayer of praise or petition,  just six to eight syllables.  The words of a prayer can be easily adjusted to your heart's desire. So how to develop it? See, first you begin with silence and you sit before God and consider the state of your soul at the moment. And that might be something  every Sabbath to  just, you know, are you tired, agitated, restless, anxious, content, pensive, doubting, rejoicing? Consider your deepest desires and take that desire or praise or thanksgiving  and pair it with the reality that God is present to you in that moment. And number two, pick your favorite name for God. Some examples are Almighty Father, Abba, Father, Lamb of God, Lord Jesus, King Jesus, my Redeemer, Holy Spirit, Almighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. Look through the Psalms or other places in scripture and notice how people speak of God. Which word or phrase resonates with you?  Add your need. Praise or Thanksgiving and sum up what it is you want to say to God  or ask of God in two or four two to four words  This could sound like grant me peace  Heal my body. Thank you for life or give me clarity You may want to take the words from one of your favorite scriptures  and then you create your breath prayer You put these two thoughts together into a short one sentence prayer  you breathe in the first phrase  which is the word or invocation of God's name.  And you breathe out the second phrase, which is the request or need or praise.  So some examples are great healer, restore my body, peacemaker, bring me your peace,  lamb of God, you are holy, wonderful teacher,  show me your ways.  This last one is Bob's breath prayer right now.  Holy spirit. calm and quiet my soul.  Mine right now I take from um Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, Lord Jesus,  I trust you. um That one is especially good for me right now.  I always say I was raised, my parents raised me to be a worrier. Did any  of you grow up in worrying homes?  Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of a natural go-to for me. And so when I start feeling anxious about something,  I just, Lord Jesus,  I trust you. Because if I trust God, what do I need to worry about? I don't have control over it anyway. ah That breath prayer um can be that praying without ceasing throughout the day. But especially on Sabbath, it's a good day to check in with God, know, figure out what your needs are right then and  create a new one if you want.  It's just it's been a wonderful um thing for us  and for many people at our retreats.  That's a good. Sabbath practice.  So that's number four.  The fifth one is very brief, it's uh consider using a Christian spiritual app  as a guide to entering into a long time with God.  I haven't used this for a while, but for a while I used  the app Pause  from John Eldridge.  Well, that's just another thing.  So OK, I've given you a lot of stuff.  Pick one.  Just pick one to start out with to maybe uh reboot. uh Many of us already are practicing Sabbath, but to me, um just even preparing for this, I'm sure every single person on  our retreat committee felt the same way. As we're preparing for this,  we're also  renewing our em Sabbath rest concept, practice, clarifying things, so that's been kind of neat. oh In conclusion, I just want to share a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, and it affirms our desire  to clarify our lives  through Sabbath. So if you'd all bow your  heads and close your eyes.  Oh God of peace,  who has taught us that in returning and rest,  we shall be saved,  in quietness and trust  shall be our strength. by the power of your Holy Spirit.  Quiet our hearts we pray that we may be still and know that you  are God,  true Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.