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.

The Unseen

 As husbands go, mine is great at cleaning. He will clean anything that he can see.

Sometimes I start to clean a room, and he’ll say:

“I already cleaned it, so why are you cleaning again?”

To which I ask,

“Did you clean under the rugs, cushions, and bed?”

And he replies that it isn’t necessary because no one looks there.

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What We Can’t See

As science teacher, I taught kids to see the unseen. For example:

• Look through microscopes at a drop of pond water

• Study light wavelengths: Infrared, Ultra Violet, X-rays

• Learn about the eyesight of bees and other animals

I showed them there is so much more than what human eyes can detect.

One of my favorite lessons was about air pressure—an invisible force we can’t see but deeply feel. I loved demonstrating it with the egg-in-the-bottle trick: a boiled egg mysteriously pops into a bottle with no visible force. We explored how planes fly by shaping their wings just right to harness the Bernoulli effect.

Even this iPad I’m typing on functions because of what we cannot see. It will transmit this message to your device through the invisible.

Humans visually perceive but a pinpoint on the map of the universe.

The universe is so much bigger than what our 20/20s can detect.

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The Link Between Science and Faith

In my opinion, the unseen is the link between science and religion.

Those who study science are among the closest to understanding God—not because of certainty, but because they’ve trained their minds to look beyond their vision.

Many great scientists—Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Pascal, Einstein, Faraday, Mendel, Planck, Heisenberg, and Boyle—were believers. They understood the limits of what their eyes could show them and reached toward something deeper.

The unseen isn’t limited to atoms, bacteria, and pressure systems.

The Bible speaks of the unseen:

• Thoughts and motivations

• Love and hate

• Mercy and forgiveness

If we live only by what we can see, we’re living blindfolded. It’s time to untie the bandana and look for what’s really there.

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Rediscovering the Unseen

We say we believe, but rarely do we pause long enough to encounter our unseen God.

We live as if this is all there is. That “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” mindset causes us to forget the real power moving beneath the surface of everything.

We wake up, hustle from task to task, fall into bed exhausted…

and then we do it all over again—without ever connecting to what truly matters.

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So How Do We Break the Cycle?

Be still.

Create margin.

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What Is Margin?

Think of a book.

Margin is the space around the page that lets your eyes rest.

Without it, reading would be overwhelming and exhausting. Though it seems like wasted space, it’s what gives the story its rhythm.

Margin is an overlooked necessity.

And it’s just as essential in life as it is on the page.

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Living With Margin

We need time in our day to do absolutely nothing.

Not a Disney World vacation.

Not an appointment.

Not a checklist.

Margin is an agenda without an agenda.

It’s time set aside to notice the unseen—

the breeze, the heartbeat, the whisper of God.

It doesn’t require your eyes.

It can happen while walking, running, sitting… even with your eyes closed.

(Maybe that’s why we traditionally close our eyes to pray—

to shut out the visible world and lean into the invisible.)

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What Can You Do With Margin?

• Sit quietly with your thoughts

• Laugh and talk with a friend

• Listen for what your Creator might be saying

• Ask Him questions

• Do nothing—and be okay with it

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Why Margin Matters

Margin is ignored far too often, yet it’s so important to our sanity.

It slows us down.

It softens the noise.

It reveals the hidden world of faith, hope, and love.

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Your Invitation

Maybe it’s time to schedule that unscheduled time slot.

Not because you need another task—but because your soul needs space.

Let margin reveal the unseen.

The Chemistry Teacher Next Door

 Life is so unpredictable. In a time when I lost what I thought was the love of my life, I found so many friends and they pointed me to my true love.

It was my first teaching gig. I was hired by a small school district in a town 30 minutes drive from mine. I was married, had a kindergarten daughter and was pregnant. The guy who hired me didn’t notice the baby bump. I quickly found that I loved my students and teaching. But not only that, I found a friend next door to my biology classroom. Deryl was a quiet, kind, non-judgmental soul. He introduced me to his wife, Linda who was not so quiet but every bit as kind, and they took me under their wing after my daughter was born and my husband left me. I particularly remember two of their acts of kindness.

When my six year old daughter was sick and I had run out of sick days to stay home with her, Deryl offered to let her stay on the couch in his office connected to our classrooms. He was so thoughtful and would stick his head in and check on her periodically during the day. About a year later, he and Linda invited me to dinner as they so often did but this time they had someone for me to meet. He is now the love of my life and we have been married for 37 years.

Through the grapevine I heard that Deryl had pancreatic cancer and passed last Saturday. I lost track of Deryl and Linda except through that grapevine but I will always remember how their kindness changed my life.

A Friend in Need...

My friend entered the world over 60 years ago today.  But I didn’t meet her until around 1982.  We lived in our college married student housing.  She was in a duplex across the street from my apartment.  Our lives back then were tough.  We were both living through the challenges of being young married parents who were struggling to make ends meet and go to school.  MaryJane sat next to me in genetics and was open to friendship.  We struck it off immediately with her quirky sense of humor and my love of laughing and genetics. 

MaryJane saw me through some of the rockiest times of my life.  She saw my graduation, the birth of my second child and the break down of my marriage.  God sent her to me exactly when I needed her most.  Then, just as quickly, we graduated and went our separate ways.  We have kept track of each other over the years but it is not the same.  

Throughout my life I have had many timely friendships that in turn slip away for various reasons and I mourn them. However, I remember how God sent me MaryJane in his perfect timing and God is good. 

Proverbs 17:17 NIV

[17] A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Happy Birthday MaryJane!