Abiding/Resting in God/Sabbath

Gregg’s Reflection

For years I felt guilty when I thought about the fourth commandment, which calls us to “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.” Sure, I had the day off, and most often we went to church in the morning. But the grass needed mowing and my week needed planning, so I would ignore the command to rest on the Sabbath. I never really thought about it too much. Weekends were a busy time.

For most of my work career, I invested my identity in my role in our family business. The deeper I got into my career, the more invested I was in the company, and the more my identity was tied to my job. I think many men, and perhaps women as well, find themselves in this spot. I say find themselves, because for me it was not really a conscious choice. From deep within, a need to prove myself emerged. I think my perfectionist father was instrumental in this need.

In my life, the pressures of running the business became all-consuming. I found myself thinking about business challenges and opportunities all through my waking hours. After all, it had a job to do – to prove my worth, to give me the illusion of substance that I did not even believe about myself. 

Since no amount of success really changed the way I felt about myself, it became an endless cycle. Work harder, achieve some success, realize that if I slowed down, success would slip away, so work even harder. So, even on the Sabbath, I was giving myself to my business, thinking about the next week, planning, solving problems, reviewing financials. The need to prove myself became exhausting. All this time and attention I gave to the business acted to limit my spiritual growth.

For three years after we sold the business, I studied with Robert Fritz. He helped me see that my intense focus on my work arose from this deep need to prove myself. I thought I was trying to prove myself to my long-dead father, but realized through that I was subconsciously trying to prove myself to God. “Is that how your religion works?” Fritz asked. No wonder I had never come to a feeling of peace about my self-worth.

Over time, this realization helped me move to a much healthier place, one that places my trust in God, and my identity in Jesus. I have learned in much deeper ways what Sabbath rest is all about. 

So, let’s examine this idea of Sabbath rest. In John 15:1-5, Jesus tells us: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit...Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

There is a lot to this passage. If we do not bear fruit, we are cut away from the vine. Yet even if we do produce fruit, God will prune away at us, that we might bear more fruit. This pruning is a painful process. But note who is doing the pruning: It is the vinedresser, God. So, even the work of pruning away that which is not bearing fruit is God’s work. Then, He goes on to invite us to abide in him, and in so doing we will bear much fruit.

So, to abide in Jesus, to dwell in Him, to make our home in Him, we linger, ponder deeply, reside permanently in this place, cultivating our relationship, finding stillness and resting in the stillness.

Jesus promises us that if we are abiding and dwelling in Him, then He will also abide in us. As long as I had my identity invested in my career, God allowed me to continue in my never-ending striving.

For me, Sabbath rest goes much deeper than avoiding work on Sunday. It requires that I center myself on Christ, that I rest in His work in me, and not my own. Then I can abide in Him and experience the joy that Jesus offers at the end of this passage in John.

Pursuing discipleship led me to 3DM Movements. As I waded into the 3DM Lifeshapes, I came to a totally different understanding. Instead of resting from work, we are working from rest, resting our identity in Christ.

From that starting point, we work into our own unique calling, the intersection of our Gifts and Passion. When we work from Rest, we find flow, and are energized, not exhausted. So, living in this way, we do not need to rest from work. We swing back and forth from work to rest in a holistic, healthy spiritual pattern.

Journaling Prompt: Do you find yourself near burnout? What would it look like for you to truly rest? Not to rest from work, but to rest your identity in Christ and know you are the beloved?

Scripture

To you, O Lord, I lift my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.

Psalm 25:1-2, 4-5, 9

I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 34:1, 8

Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; walk in it and find rest for your souls.

Jeremiah 6:16

Come to me all you that are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

Matthew 11:28-30

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 

John 6:56-58

Jesus continually calls us to deepen our belief with steadfast study of his Word. When we abide in scripture, its language forms our life. 

RENOVARE Bible notes on John 8:31

I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me as I abide in you. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 

John 15:1-5

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

There remains, then, a sabbath-rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their work, just as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:9-10

Whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked. 1 John 2:6. We let the ancient truths abide in us and thus abide in the Son and the Father. The Holy Spirit has been given to guide us into all truth.

RENOVARE Bible notes on 1John 2

All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit he has given us.

1 John 3:24

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.

1 John 4:16

Ancient Writings

God needs nothing more from us than a quiet heart. Then he accomplishes in the soul such secrets and divine deeds that no creature can serve them or even add to them. The divine nature is repose and God seeks to draw all creatures back to him again to their origin which is repose.

Meister Eckhart, Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics p. 137

Greatly ought we to rejoice that God dwells in our soul; and more greatly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwells in God. Our soul is created to be God's dwelling place, and the dwelling of our soul is God. 

Julian of Norwich

This is the reason why we do not feel complete ease in our hearts and souls: we look here for satisfaction in things which are so trivial, where there is no rest to be found, and do not know our God, who is almighty, all wise, all good; he is rest itself. God wishes to be known, and is pleased that we should rest in him; for all that is below does nothing to satisfy us; and this is why, until all that is made seems as nothing, no soul can be at rest.

Julian of Norwich, Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, McGuinn, p. 242

Modern Writing

The presence of God is infinite, everywhere, always, and forever. You cannot not be in the presence of God. The only change is always on our side—God is present, but we’re not present to Presence. We’ll make any excuse to be somewhere other than right here.

We are either reprocessing the past or worrying about the future. If we watch our mind, it doesn’t think many original thoughts. We just keep thinking in the same problematic ways that our minds love to operate. We can say that all spiritual teaching is teaching us how to be present to the moment. When we’re present, we will experience the Presence.

Richard Rohr, “First Sunday of Advent: To Be Awake Is to Be Now– Here,” homily, November 30, 2014

We live in a world where most relationships are transactional. Most people cannot rest (abide) in one another in relationship. Rest in love, friendship, joy, pain, suffering together.

Richard Rohr, Living School Faculty Call. 

In many countries where I have taught, people watched my eyes, my smile (or lack of it), my gestures, my neediness, my peace (or lack of it), and that became the primary message that affected them or disaffected them-much more than my theologizing and my sermons. If my expressions and energy were off, my teaching was largely a waste of time.

Richard Rohr, Eager to Love, P. 199-200. Staying grounded is so important

The central practice in Franciscan mysticism, therefore, is that we must remain in love (John 15:9). Only when we are eager to love can we see love and goodness in the world around us. We must ourselves remain in peace, and then we will find peace over there. Remain in beauty, and we will honor beauty everywhere. 

Richard Rohr CAC Morning Devotion, 9/27/19

Having tasted Divinity, how do I abide there? How can I find the path?  We study the mystics.

James Finley, Living School Faculty Call.