Our family made a big decision this past week. A rather major shift in our weekly family rhythm.
It began some time ago, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
His wife, Erika Kirk, was interviewed by Megyn Kelly, and she brought with her Charlie’s new book, “Stop, In the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life.” She read a passage from the book that struck me and has stayed with me. It said:
“Let the dishes wait. Pull the shades, dim the lights, and give your body permission to do what it was created to do: to rest. Let your bed become an altar of trust as your head touches the pillow, and whisper to God, “I release it all to you.”
You don’t need to check one more email; you don’t need to prove anything; you don’t need to carry the weight of the world. It already has a Savior. And it’s not you. Sleep is not a distraction from your purpose; it is part of your purpose. It is a sacred rhythm that restores your mind, heals your body, and quiets your soul. The Sabbath is your weekly reminder that you are not a machine. You are a beloved child. And children sleep well when they know their father is near. So go ahead. Embrace the gift. Make your Sabbath a day not just of rest, but of sleep—deep, joyful, and replenishing sleep. You’re allowed. More than that, you’re invited. Rest isn’t weakness; it’s worship. And tomorrow will be better because you trusted God enough to rest today.”
Erika continued with discussing taking a Sabbath rest. I was caught off guard.
Never had I heard anyone speak about keeping the Sabbath day as a day of rest. I had heard Martin Luther’s explanation of the third commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” And thought that was the end of that.
To me, this meant the commandment didn’t apply to us in terms of a Sabbath rest, but rather it was a command to attend church. That was what I thought the commandment’s focus was. No one had ever told me otherwise, and, in fact, most pastors I knew didn’t even believe it was a command to attend church but rather that attending church was a good practice. What I’ve heard is that you ought to go to church, but you don’t have to go, and that that was the meaning of the third commandment.
You should want to go because you should understand your need for the sacraments and the forgiveness of sins. I thought the idea of taking the Sabbath off work was archaic and a practice relegated solely to the Old Testament. Basically, it was just a legalistic, law-oriented instruction that we were blessedly free from now that Christ came to earth. It was a negative thing, in other words – a commandment about following orders—and thank God we were no longer bound by it… since after all, it was just a binding, constricting restraint.
Fast forward, and Charlie’s words kept repeating themselves in my ear, especially at night when I was trying to go to sleep. My mind has a habit of racing with all sorts of cares and concerns as soon as my head hits the pillow. And I found myself so comforted by picturing physically handing my worries over to the Lord and allowing my bed to be a sacred place to rest in Him, rather than the place where I’m finally able to really think through problems and wrestle with all my anxieties!
I wondered about Charlie writing a whole book devoted to the idea of taking a Sabbath rest every single Sunday… Why would he be recommending such a law-oriented thing? Bizarre. And yet what he had said already made such sense, jived perfectly with Scripture, and brought me so much comfort and refreshment…. I decided to see how he fleshed out his arguments, so I ordered his book.
It arrived, and I started it. As I read, I found myself increasingly wrestling with the idea of taking a Sabbath rest. But my wrestling came to an abrupt halt as our family life entered a tumultuous season of buying and selling houses, moving across the country with 12 animals and 5 kids, fixing up a house in an area I’d never set foot in before, and trying to start a whole new routine.
Part of my old routine was quickly brought back, however, out of necessity.
That old routine was waking up at 4 a.m. every weekday to read the Bible with a friend (via an app), then exercising before the family wakes up. My friend and I read a chapter of the New Testament and a chapter of the Old Testament every day. It starts the day off right every day. We happened to be in Exodus, and when we got to chapter 20, I read,
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”[1]
Most of the other commandments are very short, such as “You shall not murder.” “You shall not commit adultery.” “You shall not steal.” But this commandment, along with the first, is quite a bit longer.
God took the time to explain those two commandments in much more detail.
He felt it was important enough to spell out for us what he meant by keeping the Sabbath day holy.
This caused me to pause.
I realized several things all at once. The first was that the commandment said nothing about attending church. Not in this passage anyway. God was specific, and he repeatedly lays out that there is to be a day of rest. He wants us to intentionally rest in Him one day each week.
I also realized that none of the other commandments are put aside by us the way this commandment is. We still believe in the other commandments and in the need for us to honor them: you should not steal, and you must repent if you do. We still believe you must not murder, even in your heart, and that if you do, you need to repent and turn from your ways. We all agree that adultery is wrong and evil. Yet every single weekend, we willingly and wantonly ignore this aspect of the Sabbath day. We do not set it aside as a day to worship and rest in the Lord. It is not a special or unique day outside of the 1.5 hour church service.
That’s why so many people are in and out of the church service as fast as possible. That’s why it’s a big deal if you have to travel more than 10 minutes to go to church. Is it really something we can afford to do on a weekend when our “to-do” list is a mile long? Can we afford to just let such a chunk of our day be sucked down the drain?
But when that day is set aside for nothing else but fellowship with our family inside our home and our Christian family outside our home—when the day is devoted to resting and rejuvenating in a purpose-filled, Christ-oriented way…well then suddenly all that changes. Suddenly church isn’t an inconvenience or a break in the day. Suddenly the length of the service doesn’t matter so much, and the people who gather in God’s congregation are people you actually have time to sit and chat with after the service.
You realize that forcing yourself to stop has benefits for you.
You see, this commandment is there as a gift to you. It’s offering you a time that you desperately need.
It’s a gift from your creator to you that allows you to reset both your internal clock and your eternal soul.
It’s such an opportunity every week to look forward to a time when you get to trust God with all your problems, all your needs, all your ‘to do’s and just STOP.
Our family did that for the first time this past weekend. We took a holy day of rest. And it was like nothing we have ever done before. It was a day of joy, family time, church fellowship, and relaxation. We were more at ease at church and took time to be with the people afterward. We took naps and read books.
To put it mildly: it was amazing.
And somehow everything we needed to get done still got done. Somehow my life didn’t fall apart, even though I was convinced for years it would if I did something like this. Somehow, we got all the cooking done for the week on Saturday (even though we make everything from scratch for seven people). Somehow, we began the week on a good foot. Somehow, we were all refreshed, happy, and ready for the week. Almost as if God made us to need this from the very beginning. Almost as if He knew what he was doing. Almost as if He took care of all our needs just as He promises to.
Now I want to share with you the gift of the Sabbath rest. Our God isn’t a God of checking off law-oriented boxes. We’re not looking at this as what you have to do to get your get-out-of-jail-free card. He isn’t standing there saying, “Well, TECHNICALLY you didn’t take SATURDAY off, so it doesn’t COUNT.” Or “You washed the dishes you needed, so now you’re SINNING!”
It is the spirit of this commandment that is fulfilled when we acknowledge our need for a day of rest and worship and then take it. Not to fulfill what God has already fulfilled, nor to point a finger legalistically at others, but rather to practice what our spirit needs us to practice: confidence in Christ. Resting in God. In other words, obeying this command means accepting that we need what God has ordained and that we benefit from doing what he commands. Again: We benefit. It is for our own good.
I encourage you to consider this and take a Sabbath rest.
And to focus on doing so in a communal way with Christians in your life, including your own family.
You can rest. You’re not in control anyway. Everything doesn’t rely on you. The world does not rest on your shoulders.
As Charlie Kirk wrote about taking a Sabbath rest: “It is not a burden; it is a blessing. A gift. A weekly glimpse of the kingdom to come.”
[1] Exodus 20:8-11
