Sabbath: Savouring life
Finding moments in our day to slow down and allow ourselves to savour life.
The pace of life seems to get faster and faster. Alongside that life gets busier and busier. Many of us are finding ourselves doing more and more in less and less time. The combination of all this is that the speed at which we live life becomes unhealthily fast. We can reach the point where we genuinely forget how to savour life.
When everything in life becomes a task, it gets harder and harder to slow down and enjoy the moment we’re in because our mind has already jumped to what we have to do next. We have so much crammed into our lives that it’s almost impossible to savour life as it’s happening. We struggle to enjoy playing with our kids because we’re focussed on the next pile of washing. We forget how to slowly savour a fabulous meal because we see it as a mere task to tick off on route to the next activity we have to get to.
Of course, some of this busyness of life is beyond our control, and there’s no benefit in beating ourselves up about things we cannot change! But I know though that, if I’m honest, there are at least some things I can change that would help me slow down and savour life each day before it passes me by.
Take eating. Eating a meal was never meant to become a mere task. Food and mealtimes are a gift! Good, healthy, nourishing food is something to be savoured and enjoyed, ideally in the company of others. Meals can be a rich opportunity to feed our bodies and refresh our souls. A meal is an opportunity for a mini-sabbath within our day.
That’s just one example. There are countless other ways in which we could find moments in our day to slow down and allow ourselves to savour life. It could be ignoring the to-do list for a while and fully entering into playing with the kids. Or maybe taking a different route to work that is more scenic and enjoying the beauty of our world. We could stop for a few moments to actually take in that beautiful sunset rather than giving it no more than a fleeting glance. The list goes on.
Regardless of what works for us as a means of slowing down and savouring life, the essence of sabbath is ultimately a reminder to make sure we don’t let the activities and work of our lives dictate the terms in which we experience life. We mustn’t let work define us completely. That is why God teaches us to remember the sabbath.
What could you do differently to help you slow down and savour life more deeply today?
Originally published at www.samradford.com.
