There’s a family video we’ve been watching on repeat lately. It’s a video of my now six-year old, Noah, when he was three, pretend-playing with a stool that’s turned over sideways. My boys are sitting in the stool like you’d sit in a car, and in the video, I’m saying, “Show me how you go fast!”
At my prompt, Noah looks at me, and in a singsong voice says, “It only goes slow, sorry.” He says sorry like he’s a game show host giving bad news to a contestant, and I am the unlucky participant. He repeats: “It only goes sloooow.”
Our family has made it a goal to be more intentional this year about the practice of Sabbath—a 24-hour time period of restful worship by which we cultivate a restful spirit in all of our life, defined by John Mark Comer in his How to Un-Hurry Workbook. When I think about how we approach Sabbath, I think about my son saying, It only goes slow, sorry.
Sabbath invites us to slow. Slow our mental hamster wheel. Slow our busy hands. Slow our scroll (or stop it altogether, like a weekly digital detox).
Sabbath shakes us out of the notion that we can keep the world spinning—all plates held static in the air—as long as we keep moving and keep working, as long as we keep up the momentum of the hustle.
On Sabbath, we are not sorry that we only go slow.
Sabbath invites us to savor. Savor what we already have. Savor a slow meal, a mindful walk, quality time with family, the slow drip of coffee. Savor the way the morning light floods the front room and glides over the piano, illuminating the gallery wall of art and photographs and memories.
Sabbath points to Jesus, and Jesus gives us rest, along with the reminder that we have spiritual riches far beyond what our human hands are able to muster (see 1 Timothy 6:17-19). Sabbath invites us to sit, like Mary at the Lord’s feet (Luke 10:38-42).
If you’re feeling the pressure of the last six weeks of the year, perhaps consider incorporating into your weekly rhythm this practice of worshipping, savoring, and slowing.
It’s a gift that you don’t have to wait for Christmas to unwrap.
This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in this series "Savor".