How Do You Keep the Sabbath?

Here’s a snippet of a conversation that will be repeated over and over for me today. I’ll say to someone I haven’t seen in a few days, “Hey, how’s life?” And they’ll respond with, “Life is great. We are crazy busy though. It’s always something. Just running here and there. Crazy busy. But it’s good.”I’ll hear that or some variation of that dozens of times a day.And sometimes I feel prompted to push back and say, “Do you practice the rhythm of the Sabbath?” I’m often surprised how many Christians think the Sabbath doesn’t apply to them or secretly believe that Jesus actually did away with the Sabbath or, at the very least, diminished its importance. But just look at this passage.Mark 3:1-6. Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.Notice in Mark 3 (this is true of all the Gospel accounts) the discussion is not about WHETHER to keep the Sabbath day but about HOW to keep it.Their argument was over what was lawful to do on the Sabbath, and we see Jesus demonstrating over and over that it’s lawful to do good on the Sabbath. In other words, Jesus is restoring the Sabbath to its original intention of connecting us to the love, grace, wonder, and mercy of our Heavenly Father.I feel as if God has been teaching me a lot about this rhythm of the Sabbath and its importance to my life, my family, and my ministry.