Judi Braddy - Everyday Sabbath: The Art of Real-Life Rest

I love this new and timely book by Judi Braddy; it speaks to me personally. In our attempts to do everything perfectly, we often neglect Sabbath at our own peril. Im convinced more and more that we must cultivate the concept of Sabbath in order to be more effective followers and lovers of Christ. Im grateful to Judi for writing this book; I think its her best yet!

Nancie Carmichael
Author, Surviving One Bad Year

Most serious Christians face the Sabbath-keeping principle at some point and either embrace it or ignore it. Like Judi Braddy, for a long time I struggled with doing no work and resting for one day each week. About twenty years ago I finally embraced Jesus words that tell us the Sabbath was made for us. That means we need it.

Cecil Murphy
Author, Making Sense When Life Doesnt

Judis book is altogether funny, wise, warm, and earthy. It chides gently, instructs humbly, and invites robustly. Its like a sage and trusted friend who loves you too much not to meddle a little and who actually knows whats best.

Mark Buchanan
Author, The Rest of God

Copyright 2013
by Judi Braddy and Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City

2013 eISBN 978-0-8341-3031-9

Printed in the
United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher. If you have received this publication from any source other than an online bookstore, youve received a pirated copy. Please contact us at the Nazarene Publishing House and notify us of the situation.

Cover Design: Zeal Design
Inside Design: Sharon Page

All Scripture quotations not otherwise designated are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV 2011). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Permission to quote from the following additional copyrighted versions of the Bible is acknowledged with appreciation:

The Message (TM). Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB), copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Braddy, Judi, 1948

Everyday sabbath : the art of real-life rest / Judi Braddy.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8341-2881-1 (pbk.)

1. RestReligious aspectsChristianity 2. Sabbath. I. Title.

BV4597.55.B73 2013

263'.1dc23

2013007610

CONTENTS

For the privilege of writing this book I owe a debt of gratitude to

My husband, Jim, who showed uncommon patience in the longer-than-usual process.

My understanding editors, who continued to believe in my creative gift and productive ability even during the times when I wondered about it myselfextending my deadlines more times than I deserve.

My GodFather, Son, and Holy Spiritwhose compassions never fail, whose grace and mercies are new every morning, and in whom we find rest, both now and forever.

Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

Psalm 116:7

Plodding my way around our local community park a few months ago, I was glad I had grabbed my sunglasses. Besides blocking the glare, they hid the tears of frustration that trailed down my cheeks. Help us, Lord, I prayed silently, We cant keep doing this. Its just too much!

What had me so overwhelmed? I can tell you in one word: life.

Life, of course, is made up of many things. The one that had pushed me over the precipice and out the door and into the park that day was yet another somewhat heated discussionokay, a big blowoutbetween my minister-husband, Jim, and me regarding the overlap of upcoming events and how we would ever manage to merge them all. (Yes, Virginia, even ministers have the occasional meltdown.)

You see, for too many years event-juggling has been our primary pastimeministry, marriage, friends, family, extra-curricular activities, the inevitable unexpected. How do we fit it all in and still find time to sleep? Simple. Sometimes we dontsleep, that is.

Sadly, we are not the exception. Judging from almost every current conversation, spoken or overheard, life in most modern societies has everyone on a hamster wheel. What made matters worse for us was the fact that we had just recently taken two entire months off. Now here we were, barely six months later, overbooked and overwhelmed once againwhich had me wondering, Why didnt those recent restful benefits linger a little longer?

As I neared the parks baseball diamond, truth hit a home run. I was officially, incurably wearya weariness that no concentrated amount of time off was going to remedy. And I knew Jim was too. Its just that he, like most men, is not going to dissolve into a tide pool of tears over one-too-many overlapping events. Instead, he gets defensive and sullen, then eventually ends up having five-way heart bypass surgery, which is exactly what happened only a few years ago. Though the doctor attributed this mostly to his unfortunate family health history, I suspected that the stress of his high-profile position as a district denominational executive hadnt helped any. Obviously, I wasnt the only one in whom things had been building up.

It was then that we both agreed it might be time to seriously consider a full-fledged sabbatical. For those not familiar with the term, Mr. Webster defines it as a leave, often with pay granted (as to a college professor), usually every seventh year for rest, travel, or research.

Every seventh year? Lets seeweve now been married and in ministry for forty-five years. I would say we were an ounce overdue.

Even so, it took us another five years to fit it in. Why? Jim had to strategically plan it so we would be gone only two months rather than the three originally offered, choosing November and December, since that was his least demanding season. Notice any Type-A tendencies here?

But, heytwo months are better than none. And so at the end of October we boarded a jumbo jet with the well-scheduled scheme of spending the first week reconnecting with our Midwestern roots. This included a short side trip to our college alma mater, where Jim was serendipitously scheduled to receive an Alumni of the Year award. The following four weeks would be spent in Europewhere no one could easily track usthen back home in early December to snuggle in for a cozy family Christmas.

Sounds like a good plan, right? It was, and for the most part, all we had anticipatedexciting, adventurous, stimulating, romantic, and, yes, even semi-relaxing.

Then it was over.

That was the part we hadnt anticipatednor that as early as mid-January Jim would already be re-immersed in the problem-solving mode of his position while I flew around in the final frenzy of planning a major annual womens retreat. To make things more irritating, people kept asking, So do you feel rested?

It hadnt taken even a month to realize that if we had to wait forty-plus years for another sabbatical, we would be dead!

What am I sayingdont bother to take time off?

No, time off is essential. If nothing else, it allows us to step away and see things from a new perspectiveto rest, reflect, and regroup, to reevaluate accomplishments and reestablish goals. Its just that if we dont make time when we get back to implement the new perspective, nothing really changes.