EXPANDING UNIVERSE: How to Keep a Sabbath Even When You Can't

A Sabbath is good for body, mind, and soul, yet it is becoming almost impossible with long commutes, 7-11 convenience stores, and the sneaky gifts of flex time and telecommuting. What to do? Consider these alternative modes of keeping Sabbath.
    • Develop your own spiritual habits. “Soft” Sabbath does not mean lack of discipline; it means the opposite. The culture is not going to help you! Therefore, you must help yourself.
    • Take off the equivalent of two days a week by considering each “day” equal to three units (morning, afternoon, and evening). These units can be accumulated throughout the week. Three units are for chores, and three are for leisure.
    • Tell everyone in your systems, early and often, that this habit is how you live. Create intimate partnerships openly, publicly, and proudly. Declare “Tonight is my night with my partner. Tomorrow I take the kids hiking.” Show how much it matters to you. Create enthusiasm.
    • Read books, see movies, and go to plays. Talk about them with joy. Model being a person who needs the input of culture instead of only the output of work. Challenge the “outcomes-only” philosophy with vigor and joy.
    • Understand that you are swimming upstream. Understand that the true keeping of Sabbath is an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Expect punishments and suspicion. Expect and anticipate the guilt trip of “(s)he’s not working as hard as I am.”
    • As in the great Chinese art of t’ai chi, act without forcing outcomes. That is how we stay calm enough to truly work and truly rest — both, not either. We create a new “regular” and ritualize the spiritual habits to maintain them and ourselves.

---

Rev. Donna Schaper is the author of Sabbath Keeping (Cowley, 1999).