Celebrating Sabbath: Blessings of Retirement

Childhood Memories of Sabbath

Being devoted followers of Christ, my parents always made Sunday our day of rest. So while other families were sitting down to eat fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, or roast and potatoes, my mom served us hamburgers on wax paper instead of plates so she didn’t have to cook much or wash dishes. Then, after that, we all had to take naps. Nobody ever said she wasn’t a smart woman! That was my parent’s idea of biblical Sabbath rest.

A New Perspective on Sabbath

While reading the book Feasting Upon God’s Word by Kristi McLelland, I learned that practicing Sabbath was a big deal from the very beginning of time. Her book gave me a new perspective on the concept of Sabbath. I always thought it was just a day to rest, but it is so much more. Sabbath is something we need. She emphasized that we don’t have to worry about doing Sabbath “correctly” but rather use it as a time to celebrate what God has done and what He promised He will do for us.

Sabbath in a Busy Culture

We live in a demanding culture. It doesn’t make allowances for a once-a-week Sabbath when we have families and are working full-time. Unless you choose to paddle against the current of our culture, there is no designated weekly day to stop and reflect on the healing God has done in our hearts and minds.

Some folks do manage to practice Sabbath weekly while raising kids and working full-time. I hear that it is a beautiful thing, but for most of us, that ship has sailed. There is no time to remember how God carried us through hurt and heartache. No time to think about His wonderful promises. No spare minute to relax and enjoy the company of friends and family. There is only work.

The Gift of Retirement

Then, 30 or 40 years later, we retire.

After retirement, it can be Sabbath every day—if we choose it. But again, we must make that choice. We finally have the time to stop and reflect. Time to see how God carried us through the most difficult times of life. Time to see the dangers He steered us around and to remember His wonderful promises.

We can spend time with the ones we love, celebrate the gifts of family and friends, and offer a healing hand to the hurting. But all of this still requires a choice.

Learning the Rhythm of Rest

There is a rhythm to retirement that must be learned. That sense of urgency to tackle the next assignment still lingers in the back of our minds. It can take months—or even years—for it to loosen its grip.

Meanwhile, we sort through the issues of our day looking for what needs to be done. And if there is nothing urgent, we invent busy work by creating new projects. Eventually those projects turn into things we actually enjoy—things we had forgotten in the hurried life we once lived. This is when we truly choose to Sabbath.

Choosing to Remember and Celebrate

We now can celebrate Sabbath daily. It is time. We must choose to take time to remember all God has carried us through. To count the many blessings He has given us. To recall the times He healed our soul, our mind, or our body.

We must choose a regular rhythm of visiting with friends and family, nurturing those relationships we put on hold during the busy years. It is time to read the books we never had time to read. To listen for the soft prompting of the Holy Spirit. To raise a garden and eat the beautiful fruit it yields—or to go to the farmers market and choose the produce we never had time to enjoy, nourishing both body and soul.

Your Long-Overdue Sabbath

Yes, it is a pity that our careers don’t allow us to have weekly Sabbath without a huge uphill battle. But if you are blessed to retire, this is your long-overdue Sabbath. Use it the way God told His ancient people to use it.

Put this on your to-do list:

• Remember His goodness

• Count your blessings

• Develop relationships

• Listen to His voice

• Celebrate with those you love

• Care for the hurting, just as Jesus did on the Sabbath

If you have made it to this retirement stage of life, you have walked through heartache and loss. So above all, don’t forget to think on the wonderful future He promised us—when we will all be together, with no pain or death looming over us.

Dare to Imagine Heaven

We talk about heaven so little, you’d think it was a taboo topic. And when it does come up, it’s often reduced to vague, cloudy clichés that feel more like a bad greeting card than the hope of eternity. But what if we dared to imagine it—really imagine it—the way Scripture hints and our hearts long for?

While writing this blog, I witnessed a near miss—a speeding small car almost collided with a big semi that had pulled out into the middle of traffic. Nothing makes me think about my existence after death more than DFW traffic!

Heaven is a topic we seldom talk about. And if we do, it is usually in very vague terms. That’s probably because it’s the one thing no one on earth has ever truly experienced. We don’t have experts. We do have a handful of people who died, felt God’s presence (or absence), and were then brought back to life. But even they didn’t see the full heavenly experience.

As a child, my dad and grandfather would endlessly discuss how and when they believed Jesus would return. Way too early in life, I was exposed to words like premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. To this day, I couldn’t tell you much about any of those terms because my mind tuned it all out. In fact, for many years I read passages in Isaiah and Revelation much like I would read Narnia, thinking, “It’s a nice idea—but get real.”

Then I read a book that changed my whole perspective about our heavenly future. It was called All Things New: Heaven, Earth and the Restoration of the Things You Love by John Eldredge. I loved that it didn’t try to give me a timeline. Instead, it focused on the glory we will experience someday. It gave me a hope I had long ago buried and left my imagination to fill in the beautiful details. Now, I see our final destination as something to anticipate and savor—it is the prize Paul talked about in Philippians.