FreerangeFriday: Rest is Holy

Each day of the week, take time to do the 5 or the 15-minute practice. Plan a time to do the Going Deeper practice sometime during the week.

• 5-minute Practice: Sit down somewhere peaceful and comfortable or pick a quiet spot to lay down and just rest for 5 whole minutes. Set your timer to help you with this practice. What do you notice? Picture Jesus putting a blanket of peace and love around your shoulders. Each day this week, practice 5 minutes of resting.
• 15-minute Practice: Plan ahead and consider what helps you rest and relax and connect with yourself and Jesus. Read a book that isn’t for work or school, go outside and take a 15-minute walk, get out the crayons and color for fun (only if this brings joy). Or just sit down in your Sabbath Spot and be with Jesus. Notice if you get anxious or nervous because you aren’t accomplishing anything. Give these feelings to Jesus to keep for you, or write them down and put them in your Sabbath Box for Jesus to hold.
  • Create a Sabbath Box: Select a big enough container to hold items like your cell phone, laptop, or game controller. This box is designated to create space to store away items that might distract you as you choose to disconnect from the world and connect with God. You can purchase a box, decorate an old box, or use a basket with a lid.
• Going Deeper: Set up a Sabbath/Rest Day. We all need community to help us practice real rest because we forget to do it on our own and if we live with other people, it helps them to be on board too. If you are going to set up a sabbath rest time or an afternoon or a 24-hour sabbath day practice, you need to talk about this with a friend, family, housemates, small group, etc., so you can have the space to practice rest either on your own, or better yet, as a group. When could you have an evening or an afternoon that is all about rest? Put it on the calendar and actually open the gift of rest together.