the rest of God ...

Continuing the theme of working out of rest ...

I got my hands on a copy of Mark Buchanan's book, The Rest of God, a while ago. It got it in a complimentary book bag at a conference that I was speaking at and, as I often do when I get home with free stuff, I gave it away to friends.

The problem is that I can't remember who I gave it to, but I wish that I had, because I've just read an excerpt online and really think it will help move the study on working out of our rest along ...

"Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God—actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God—the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness."

And ...

"One of the largest obstacles to true Sabbath-keeping is leisure. It is what cultural historian Witold Rybczynski calls “waiting for the weekend,” where we see work as only an extended interlude between our real lives. Leisure is what Sabbath becomes when we no longer know how to sanctify time. Leisure is Sabbath bereft of the sacred.

"It is a vacation—literally, a vacating, an evacuation. As Rybncynski sees it, leisure has become despotic in our age, enslaving us and exhausting us, demanding from us more than it gives. We all know how unsatisfying mere leisure can be. We’ve all know what it’s like to return to the classroom or the workplace after a time spent in revelry or retreat, in hijinks or hibernation: typically, we go back weary and depressed, like jailbirds caught. The time away from work wasn’t time sanctified so much as time stolen, time when we escaped for a short-lived escapade.

"The difference between this and Sabbath couldn’t be sharper. Sanctifying some time adds richness to all time, just as an hour with the one you love brings light and levity to the hours that follow. To spend time with the object of your desire is to emerge, not sullen and peevish, but elated and refreshed. You come away filled, not depleted."

Read the excerpt HERE
Check out Mark's website HERE
Order the book HERE