Sabbath is something I have struggled with for years now.  Exodus 20: 8-11 (MSG) says to “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.”

I read this and then feel guilty if I do a load of laundry on Sunday.  I tried the straight-up-no-work Sabbath…and I almost lost it.  I can’t stand dirty dishes or unmade beds or laundry not in the clothes hamper.  I’m pretty sure God didn’t give us Sabbath restrictions to make me crazy.

So I went in the opposite direction and simply ignored Sabbath.  We went to church, but then I continued about the day as if it was any other day.  I cleaned and did some planning for school and got a lot done, but I didn’t like the feeling that it was like any other day of the week.  I found that I was tired on Mondays, instead of ready for a new week to start.

Check out what Jesus himself says concerning the Sabbath in Mark 2:27 (MSG): “The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath. He’s in charge!”

Pretty sure he’s saying that Sabbath is not supposed to give me something else to agonize about.

Jesus is telling us that Sabbath doesn’t follow a certain set of guidelines for us to follow.  God doesn’t need for me to rest on the couch all day in order to receive glory.  Just like he rested from 6 days of hard work, God intends for me to work hard during the week, then on Sunday take a break from that.  Do things that I enjoy.  Spend time with my family.

I enjoy cooking for them, and God is happy when I have time on Sundays to cook a nice lunch and we can sit around and enjoy it together.  He doesn’t want me to ask forgiveness when I wash the dishes after we eat.  I really believe that he just wants me and my family to take a break and enjoy the day that he has set aside for that.

Currently, our favorite thing to do on Sundays is sit in our garage.  If you have seen my garage, you’ll know how ridiculous it is that we choose to sit in there.  It is full of tools, sports equipment, cleaning supplies, and chicken feed.  It is so full of Jason’s various collections that we can’t even park in it, but on Sundays we carve out a little circle and pull out our folding chairs and sit.  We’ll turn on whatever game is on and the kids will run in and out (tripping over all the stuff) playing, and we watch the chickens.  Sometimes someone else will come sit for awhile.

Today it rained, and it was so peaceful out there…in the garage..;)