How You’re Practicing the Pause

Reader responses on rest, delight, and what Sabbath actually looks like in real lives.

Last week, we asked you a question we keep asking ourselves: Do you practice the Sabbath? If so, how, and why?

It’s a question that lands strangely in this cultural moment. So much of what shapes our days runs on the opposite assumption — that there’s always more to do, more to optimize, more to keep up with. Stopping can feel like falling behind. Resting can feel like a kind of irresponsibility we can’t afford.

But Sabbath has never really been about productivity, or even rest as a recharge for more work. As John Mark Comer put it in a our conversation on the Good Faith podcast, Sabbath is an invitation to delight in God — and, just as importantly, to sit in the strange and beautiful truth that he delights in us. Not because of anything we’ve produced. Just because we’re his.

So we asked. And you answered.

Some of you have been practicing Sabbath for decades. Some of you are just beginning. Some keep it Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, some Saturday to Sunday, some a slow Sunday afternoon. Some of you light candles and bake bread. Some of you take long walks. Some of you have a whole liturgy; some of you just put your phone in a drawer and call it good.

Here’s a glimpse into how you’re practicing the pause.

“For Sabbath practices: a long walk as a family on a lakeside trail near our home. Ensures we are actually focusing on rest, and not on home projects or email.”

“Replying as someone who actively practices Sabbath — because of John Mark Comer and both the Practicing the Way book and course! His emphasis on subtraction rather than addition was truly transformational. As a young mom and small business owner, it’s tempting to work constantly, knowing that business growth is possible! When home, we practice Sabbath from 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Sunday and have found it to be the most restful, refreshing practice. We fill our Sabbath with reading, playing outside, worshipping in community, and spending a meal with family or friends. We encourage EVERYONE we know to practice Sabbath, as it has been truly transformational!”

“One Sabbath practice my wife and I have been practicing, now that we have some older kids to help watch the younger ones, is going for a long walk on Sunday afternoons. Usually we’ll walk along the Rappahannock River or one of the other local canal path trails. We turn notifications off on our phones (the kids can still reach us in an emergency), and just walk and talk. We’ve been doing this more since the weather isn’t too hot or cold. Highly recommended! If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we try to grab some coffee or a bite to eat instead.”

“I adore practicing silent meditation during Sabbath — pausing, to be completely still, basking intentionally aware in the presence of God. It completely rewires my brain, because I have to let the endless thoughts interrupt and then let them flow out, recentering on God’s immediate and always-present spirit. At first these thoughts felt like impossible distractions, but now I view them as opportunities to keep saying ‘hello’ and ‘welcome’ back to God. It is almost sweet — I get lost in a thought, let it flow out, and then breathe in and out thinking ‘YHWH’ as I do, reintroducing myself to this holy moment of pause with God. I encourage everyone I know to participate now. You can start small — just 5 minutes — and with practice, even an hour flies by!”

“I am a cradle Catholic and an old lady of 76. I am a fan of Good Faith and Holy Post. A few years ago I began thinking seriously about the Sabbath. When I was a kid, Sunday was certainly not a favorite day. It was boring. I had to wear church clothes with silly hats and listen to just one more grown-up go on and on about humans — that meant me — and sin. Boring. Who wants to sit at home and be bored? The best thing about the stupid Sabbath was Grandmother’s wonderful chicken and magic potatoes. Luckily, as time wore on, I thought and learned more about the importance of resting on Sunday and dedicating that day to God and his rest. Now, my husband and I enjoy Steak Sunday. Still dressed in church garb, we prepare our steak together. We divide the tasks and enjoy this ritual meal each week. It is one of the ways we thank God and enjoy a slow, lovely Sunday.”

“A Sabbath practice I like to hold is to keep that day clear on my calendar — only social engagements that involve family or fellowship.”

“A few years ago we talked in our family about ideas to slow down a bit on Sundays in order to consider more fully the spirit of God’s Sabbath instruction. We are a family of multiple generations. Each of our families attends their respective churches in the morning, and then we get together early afternoon — one family orders and picks up the pizza, and another makes a salad (no fuss, muss, or bother). Then we eat together and enjoy lunch on ALL paper products! We then relax, play games, read, or take naps. This has turned out to be our favorite day of the week — enjoying being together without having to do a lot of work or stress. We also take a break from our phones without being legalistic about it — the emphasis is on what we do that is fun and relaxing, without being legalistic about ‘rules.’ We all love it (and I, for one, often leave my phone home!).”

“One Sabbath practice I have been working on is to take a walk without listening to anything — no music, podcasts, audiobooks — and working up to leaving my watch behind and not tracking my steps either!”

If these reflections have you wanting to go deeper, here are three books we keep returning to on the practice of Sabbath:

• The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel — A lyrical, slim meditation from one of the great twentieth-century Jewish theologians. Heschel reframes Sabbath not as a day but as “a palace in time” — a sanctuary built of hours rather than stones.
• Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggemann — A short, sharp word from one of our most generative Old Testament voices. Brueggemann argues that Sabbath is a quiet, defiant no to a culture of restless production — and a yes to the God who is not anxious about getting things done.
• Garden City / Sabbath Meditations by John Mark Comer & Practicing The Way — A pastoral, gentle on-ramp into the how of it. Less a theology lecture than a friend walking you through what stopping might actually look like in your week.

There’s no perfect way to keep Sabbath. There’s only the choosing—the small, weekly act of putting down the day’s work and remembering, however briefly, that we were loved before we were useful, and that the world somehow keeps turning when we don’t.