I just finished reading an excellent book on the Sabbath by Dan B. Allender. one of the founders and former President of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle Washington. The book intrigued me because I’ve been celebrating the Sabbath for the past four years. My family has had its ups and downs in terms of Sabbath observance, but overall we’ve found it to be a day of delight, rest, and enjoyment that we look forward to throughout the week.

Allender’s book was a pleasure to read. I felt challenged to take my Sabbath-keeping to a whole new level: the entrance into pleasure. Allender suggests that man’s observance of the Sabbath is rooted in the 7th day of Creation when God rested and took pleasure in His creation. God enjoys pleasure and set apart (i.e. sanctified) one day a week for us to enter into that place of joy:

“The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week.” (5)

Allender avoids the “shall nots” and emphasizes the “shalls,” the opportunities (invitations?) from God to partake in the richness of His friendship, our personal relationships, and the beauty of Creation. If you have a curiosity about the Sabbath and find yourself wondering where to begin, I’d HIGHLY recommend this book.

For the benefit of my friends and family who won’t take the time to buy the book and read it themselves, I put a few memorable quotes below to feed your curiosity:

Sabbath rest is entered when we refuse to be bound by complexity or drowned by despair (4).

The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight.  The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives.  Without question or thought, it the best day of the week.  It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness.  Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week (5).

The Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is meant to be an encounter with God’s delight (12).

What would I do for a twenty-four-hour period of time if the only criteria was to pursue my deepest joy? (15).

We often fail to create a day of delight because to do so compels us to stand against the division, destitution, and despair that often holds us captive the other six days of the week…We are driven, exhausted, and depleted.  We were created for the refreshing and replenishing gift of the Sabbath.  And we don’t do so to our peril (18).

Many of us are afraid of delight. It seems to stand in such contrast to our harried multitasking. It is easier to drop exhausted before the television, laptop in hand, checking emails as we watch a pundit rattle on about the day’s news, than to live in accord with a pace that is measured by delight (25).

The festival involves four key components: sensual glory, rhythmic repetition. communal feasting, just playfulness (31).

The only parameter that is to guide our Sabbath is delight.  Will this be merely a break or a joy? Will this lead my heart to wonder or routine?  Will I be more grateful or just happy that I got something done? (47).

We are not to work on the Sabbath because it takes us out of the play of joy.  It is as bizarre as making love to your spouse, but getting out of bed during the process to cut your lawn or wash dishes. Such an offense would do far more than spoil the mood; it would be a direct assault on the integrity of joy, announcing that a mundane chore is more pleasurable than sexual joy with your spouse (61).

The Sabbath asks, how would you live if there were no wars, enmity, battle lines, or need to defend, explain, interpret, or influence another to see anything differently?  The Sabbath glories in the goodness, the amazing, solicitous, hearth-thrilling glory of each person to whom we are privileged to speak on that day (110).

The Sabbath is the day we set aside to look at one another from the vantage point of eternity and then to operate in time, in an actual hour or minute, as if it were true (111).

Worry is anti-Sabbath. Sabbath requires the release of worry and invites us to trust.  Both regret and worry assume there is no God, or at least not one who loves and pours himself out for his children.  Both worry and regret are satanic (136).

The Sabbath is like every other gift – it requires practice and discipline to grow in delight (165).

The Sabbath…is not merely a day to stop working, it is a day to renounce all activity that impoverished, enslaves, or demeans others.  It is a day set aside not to take or to procure but to nourish (186).