Beauty invites us into itself, and in the strangest way, we benefit and somehow learn more about who we are in the engagement. It is in this precise way that beauty calls us to be attentive, to look both inward and outward and beyond the pressing urgency of our calendars, our appointments, our plans, our worries, our failures and our own brokenness.

My soul is weary from worry and haggard from heartache. It is weighed down with impossible decisions and discouraged from setbacks. Yes, my body needs nourishment and sleep and I know, basically, how to do that. But where and when and how does soul-restoration happen? 

Sabbath is both a day and an attitude. While numerous practices can help us receive God’s blessing of rest, it’s vital that we also embrace a Sabbath mindset.

Rest and sabbath in a culture of exhaustion may be the only antidote to our soul fatigue. Slowing down our pace of life is becoming more and more difficult.

The command to keep the Sabbath in the Old Testament becomes an invitation to enter into God’s rest in the New Testament. Worship and the Eucharist strengthen us to go out from our Sabbath-keeping to tend and care for the personal dominion God gives each of us.

For us, in the time and place where we live, we need to be reminded of the redemptive meaning of Sabbath and the temptation to be unrelenting taskmasters, both to ourselves and to others.

Setting aside time to rest in God is a challenge, especially in a world that idolizes doing and accomplishing. To begin, consider one or more of these books to use as tools to help you learn to enjoy the blessings of true rest.