Resources for Rest

I never ached for summer the way I do since moving from California to the Pacific Northwest. The cloudy and cold winters leave my body, mind, and perhaps even my soul longing for the warmth of sunny summer days. As winter closes and temperatures rise, my energy quickly builds and my calendar fills. With summer comes endless opportunities for play: beach days, camping trips, weddings, BBQs, vacations, backyard dinners, live music—the list goes on. And we need this type of play summer offers us.

But just because the weather is begging us to play doesn’t mean the rest of our life can just pause and bask in the glow of summer. Our jobs continue to move forward and continue to demand our focus and attention. Our kids are out of school, which requires new schedules and perhaps a newly disrupted at-home work life. Even our vacations can end up draining us, leaving us in need of just a few more days at home to recoup before we head back into the office. Even still, summer is the season where I continue to face the painful reality that despite my best efforts, I can’t do it all.

Maybe this is how you feel, too. While you eagerly anticipate all the activities summer brings, you also know that burning the candle at both ends leaves you fried. As humans, we tend to forget that we have very real limitations—physiological, mental, and spiritual limitations. Even Jesus, though both fully God and fully man, had human limits. As a man, Jesus had to sleep, eat, and step away from those he came to love and serve to be alone and pray. We cannot do it all, and we weren’t created to. That’s why in Genesis 1 we see God design for us a designated time that is set apart to rest—the Sabbath. But the implementation of the Sabbath was intended to mean so much more than just a day. In the words of Norman Wirzba, the Sabbath is meant to shape us into a people who live a life-long “rhythm of rest and delight.”

Are you longing for a life marked by rhythms that incorporate more rest and delight? Do you know that you tend to over-commit and drain yourself in an attempt to do it all? Are you curious to know how this ancient, biblical concept of Sabbath can be applied to your modern, everyday life? We want to help.

We have gathered a list of resources that inform how we can engage in rest and play. Our hope is that these resources can serve to help you shape not just a summer practice, but a year-long rhythm of rest and play that will enhance and sustain your life and leadership.

Books

• Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest: From Sabbath to Sabbatical and Back Again by Ruth Haley Barton
• Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight by Norman Wirzba
• Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now by Walter Brueggemann
• An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life by Jeff Haanen, Chapter 2: “Sabbath”

Articles, Devotions, and Prayers

• “Rest, Play, and the Costs of Believing ‘I Can Do It All’”  Article by Michaela O’Donnell
• “The Discipline of Sleep” Devotion by Uli Chi
• “Work, Rest, and Play” Article by Uli Chi
• “Are You Keeping Busy?” Article by Matthew Dickerson
• “The God of Play” Devotion by Mark Roberts
• “Wisdom and Sabbath Rest” Article by Tim Keller, Redeemer City to City
• “Reset: Embracing the Sabbath Part 1 and Part 2” Articles by Kristi Rathbun, Denver Institute for Faith and Work
• “A Prayer to Embrace Sabbath Rest” A  Free Downloadable Prayer from the De Pree Center

Videos, Songs, and Podcasts

• “Sabbath Rest: A Communal & Radical Vision of Flourishing” Video by Michaela O’Donnell
• “Slow Me Down” from Worship for Workers by The Porter’s Gate
•  “Get the Rest You Need” from the Making It Work Podcast
• “Sabbath Rest with Tara Owens” from The Faith and Work Podcast