I loved reading about your experience. Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm excited to see what God has in store for you as you continue on your Sabbath journey.
I love this. I've always felt like keeping the Sabbath was the hardest commandment. Because work feels like earning salvation, Sabbath reminds us it's not. Thanks for the great read!
So can you go into more detail with us, please? As far as how you spent your hours besides fishing, reading the psalm book and sitting with your wife while she was watching a show? Was it mostly family time or did you include prayer time, more Bible reading etc? I’m curious. Thank you.
Hi Julie. Yeah, of course. I appreciate the curiosity. To be honest, I wondered exactly this myself when I was doing it. Should I be doing extra prayer and scripture? Should I be doing something more than usual worship-wise? In the end, it kind of worked itself out. My Sabbath ran from 8:30pm Saturday to 8:30pm Sunday, so I did my usual prayer routine on Saturday evening, but prayed an additional Rosary to ask God to show me what He wanted me to learn from Sabbath. I then did my normal Bible reading plan before bed, which takes about an hour anyway once I’ve gone through my commentary books etc… for the relevant passages alongside it.
Sunday morning was church morning as normal, so that sort of took care of itself, but I did enter it in a much calmer and more receptive mindset than usual. It was also nice to leave church afterwards and not feel the need to dive into my phone, check what I’d missed etc… This is what gave rise to the recent note I posted on Substack about the hymn verse that struck me from that service. I found that I was able to reflect on things like hymns words and the sermon so much more than usual, as I wasn’t in the usual, “right, church is done, now what next?” mindset. I didn’t even realise I was normally like that until the Sabbath exposed it.
Then Sunday afternoon was fishing etc… as detailed in my article, then by the time we were back home, it was almost time to close the Sabbath, so in the last hour or so, I just mediated on a few more Psalms and prayed a thankful prayer for God’s guidance through the Sabbath and asked for discernment going forward around how He wants me to use, change or evolve this new aspect of my spiritual life.
So, I guess lots of my routine remained the same as normal, but what felt different was the intention behind everything and how present and reflective I was able to be.
I’m not even claiming I ‘did it right’ to be honest. It was my first Sabbath, so I’d be more than open to anyone who came along and suggested ways I could shift my approach to it. On the whole though, I was pleased with how it went.
Thanks for prompting me to think even more deeply about it all with your questions.
This is very helpful. Thank you. I have had Sunday afternoons that I have “put aside” and done similar but I feel the Lord might be calling me to more. And it has never (I confess!) been a 24 hour thing. I wonder if it is different for everyone who practices it. And I wonder if including NF reading of those who walk close to the Lord (getting ready to read a book on a life of prayer) can count within that time as well. Sometimes I have included that in Sunday afternoons vs scrolling and phone time. But I also confess to sometimes feeling “church was church” and moving forward into whatever needs to be done. For me this is often family, writing or ministry time but because “my job” is also ministry I sometimes wonder if a sabbath means setting apart in a different way. Thanks for your experience and article. Much appreciated.
I think it must be different for everyone to an extent. Your situation is a good example, as if your job is ministry anyway, that's going to change how it works for you versus me straight off the bat. My reflections are leading me to think that it is more to do with the intention and heart posture behind what happens during Sabbath rather than the specific times or activities involved. That intention might be what distinguishes your 'putting time aside' from an actual Sabbath. I'm thinking aloud here really, as I don't have it all figured out by any means. Things may evolve as I continue with it, but I'll just keep praying for discernment in the meantime and see where things head. Good luck with everything, mate.
I loved reading about your experience. Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm excited to see what God has in store for you as you continue on your Sabbath journey.
Thanks so much, Lauren. That’s so kind of you. I’m excited too to see how things unfold.
I love this. I've always felt like keeping the Sabbath was the hardest commandment. Because work feels like earning salvation, Sabbath reminds us it's not. Thanks for the great read!
So can you go into more detail with us, please? As far as how you spent your hours besides fishing, reading the psalm book and sitting with your wife while she was watching a show? Was it mostly family time or did you include prayer time, more Bible reading etc? I’m curious. Thank you.
Hi Julie. Yeah, of course. I appreciate the curiosity. To be honest, I wondered exactly this myself when I was doing it. Should I be doing extra prayer and scripture? Should I be doing something more than usual worship-wise? In the end, it kind of worked itself out. My Sabbath ran from 8:30pm Saturday to 8:30pm Sunday, so I did my usual prayer routine on Saturday evening, but prayed an additional Rosary to ask God to show me what He wanted me to learn from Sabbath. I then did my normal Bible reading plan before bed, which takes about an hour anyway once I’ve gone through my commentary books etc… for the relevant passages alongside it.
Sunday morning was church morning as normal, so that sort of took care of itself, but I did enter it in a much calmer and more receptive mindset than usual. It was also nice to leave church afterwards and not feel the need to dive into my phone, check what I’d missed etc… This is what gave rise to the recent note I posted on Substack about the hymn verse that struck me from that service. I found that I was able to reflect on things like hymns words and the sermon so much more than usual, as I wasn’t in the usual, “right, church is done, now what next?” mindset. I didn’t even realise I was normally like that until the Sabbath exposed it.
Then Sunday afternoon was fishing etc… as detailed in my article, then by the time we were back home, it was almost time to close the Sabbath, so in the last hour or so, I just mediated on a few more Psalms and prayed a thankful prayer for God’s guidance through the Sabbath and asked for discernment going forward around how He wants me to use, change or evolve this new aspect of my spiritual life.
So, I guess lots of my routine remained the same as normal, but what felt different was the intention behind everything and how present and reflective I was able to be.
I’m not even claiming I ‘did it right’ to be honest. It was my first Sabbath, so I’d be more than open to anyone who came along and suggested ways I could shift my approach to it. On the whole though, I was pleased with how it went.
Thanks for prompting me to think even more deeply about it all with your questions.
God bless 🫶
This is very helpful. Thank you. I have had Sunday afternoons that I have “put aside” and done similar but I feel the Lord might be calling me to more. And it has never (I confess!) been a 24 hour thing. I wonder if it is different for everyone who practices it. And I wonder if including NF reading of those who walk close to the Lord (getting ready to read a book on a life of prayer) can count within that time as well. Sometimes I have included that in Sunday afternoons vs scrolling and phone time. But I also confess to sometimes feeling “church was church” and moving forward into whatever needs to be done. For me this is often family, writing or ministry time but because “my job” is also ministry I sometimes wonder if a sabbath means setting apart in a different way. Thanks for your experience and article. Much appreciated.
I think it must be different for everyone to an extent. Your situation is a good example, as if your job is ministry anyway, that's going to change how it works for you versus me straight off the bat. My reflections are leading me to think that it is more to do with the intention and heart posture behind what happens during Sabbath rather than the specific times or activities involved. That intention might be what distinguishes your 'putting time aside' from an actual Sabbath. I'm thinking aloud here really, as I don't have it all figured out by any means. Things may evolve as I continue with it, but I'll just keep praying for discernment in the meantime and see where things head. Good luck with everything, mate.
Yup, agreed. And likewise! 👍🏼
Thank you for sharing your experience! I had the same initial concern with my phone, and surprisingly discovered the same.