Sabbath may be the spiritual discipline that is all the rage these days. There are a great number of books out there that deal with Sabbath and how many books talk about fasting ?

Maybe this draw to Sabbath is more of a backlash to the breakneck speed of our culture. We are on "work" mode seemingly all the time. We have an new "productivity" app coming out every day and there are more organizers than you can dream of. We are all busy and we all have stress for working too much or too hard.

So yes, I can see where the interest in Sabbath comes from. We need a break and we need rest!

So why would I submit that we should not do Sabbath? Because doing Sabbath is just another thing to do! When we approach Sabbath as something that we do then are we are already missing the point?

Rather than "doing" Sabbath might I suggest that we observe Sabbath. Observe not in the "hey look at this isn't this neat!" nor in the "I see that today is Sabbath." But observe the counter-intuitive nature of Sabbath.

Most of the time when I hear people talk about taking Sabbath, it generally is rooted in a conversation of how can we be more productive with our time so that we will have enough time to get everything done so that we will "have time" to take Sabbath. This approach actually misses the heart of the matter. For you see Sabbath is that which asks us, what do we need to let go of rather than demanding that we be more efficient with time.

Instead of asking, "how do you make time for Sabbath" we might be better off asking, "How can I learn to let go of things in my life?" Or perhaps, "How can I let go of the anxiety I feel when I don't get it all done?"

When we let go of things, rather than just be more efficient, when we are less anxious about out lives and work, then (ironically) Sabbath happens.There is nothing more that you do or nothing that you must be better at in order to observe Sabbath.

Sabbath is not something that one does, it is something that happens - we are called to observe. Generally we are unable to observe it because we are too busy trying to do it.