40 Days of Rest

Your gift arrives Wednesday, the moment the ashes touch your forehead and Lent begins. Beneath the ashen wrapping, you'll find the gift: forty days of rest.

Long ago, God commanded his people to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). Holy things are set apart, cared for, tended to, honored. When is the last time you set apart time for your soul to rest? When did you last care for your own peace? Could your calendar use some tending? Have you honored your need for play?

As we begin this Lenten season, let's sit with those questions. We will journey together through them as a community of disciples during the next 40 days. If you aren't sure where to start, keep reading for ideas on how to start receiving God's surprising gift of rest.

Book Recommendations from our Adult Christian Formation Team

• Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting by Marva J. Dawn

This book invites the reader to experience the wholeness and joy of observing God’s order for life—a rhythm of working six days and setting apart one day for rest, worship, festivity, and relationships.

• Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller

We need not even schedule an entire day each week. Sabbath time can be a Sabbath afternoon, a Sabbath hour, or a Sabbath walk. With wonderful stories, poems, and suggestions for practice, Muller teaches us how we can use this time of sacred rest to refresh our bodies and minds, restore our creativity, and regain our birthright of inner happiness.

• The Third Day: Living the Resurrection by Tom Berlin, Mark A. Miller

Tom Berlin uses his gifts of storytelling and understanding of the Scriptures to connect the reader to the experiences of several individuals around Jesus in his final days, focusing on new life and redemption rather than loss.

Beginner Sabbath Practices

Not sure where to start? Try these tiny first steps.

• If you usually have radio/TV on in the background, turn it off for just 20 minutes.
• Go to your phone settings. Choose one app and turn off push notifications for that app.
• Set a timer for five minutes. Sit totally still and silent until the timer goes off.
• Print out this coloring page and listen to calming music or your audio Bible while coloring it in.
• Go to bed 15 minutes earlier than usual tonight.

"A peace which the world cannot give;

joy, that no man taketh from you;

rest from doubt and fear and sorrow of heart;

and love, the beginning of heaven.

And are not these for you?

Are they not all purchased for you by Him who loved you,

and gave himself for you?"

John Wesley