God whispered the words in the title above for the first time on a camping trip when our boys were young. I was sitting on the shore of a small protected lake in Wisconsin keeping my eyes on our son. My husband and I had let Jeff, maybe 8 years old at the time, take our canoe out by himself.

He was perhaps 50 yards from shore, sitting, smiling, enjoying, probably listening to the birds, and feeling the slight rock of the canoe in the warm summer breezes. It was the perfect picture of peacefulness, for Jeff and for me.

Enjoying, peacefulness, awareness, listening ~ all words I would use to describe sabbath-living. I imagine for Jeff that was a time of sabbath, even though in his short 8 years he had probably never heard the word. There was nothing else he was supposed to be doing. There was nothing else I was supposed to be doing.

Now that same phrase, there is nothing else you’re supposed to be doing, often surfaces when we’re on vacation.

Just last month I sat on the wide front porch of our VRBO, cuddled in a soft blanket, and my vacation phrase came back. The creek was running loud because of the thunder storms the night before. The deep green of the Cottonwoods and the lighter green of the Aspen were quiet that morning, the breezes non-existent. The sky was slowly morphing from overcast to patches of blue. I sipped my coffee and breathed deeply of God’s gift of sabbath. There was nothing else I was supposed to be doing.

A simple sentence ushers in contentment, peace, and profound truth.

Another sentence I haven’t forgotten brings a smile and ministry. Together these two sentences have brought definition to what I have come to call sabbath-living.

You don’t look Jewish. It was spoken to me a few years back and in remembering, now like then, it makes me smile. I was in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport and had struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler. I learned that she was a Bible study leader in a well-known Bible study ministry. I told her I was on my way to facilitate a Sabbath-Living retreat. Her surprised response, you don’t look Jewish, tumbled out of her mouth. For her the word sabbath was a cultural word connected with the Jewish faith.

I laughed and responded, I wasn’t Jewish, I was Christian.

For me, the phrase Sabbath-Living is a way to describe a life-style of connecting with God, and enjoying His presence. It defines my (almost) daily times with God, my quiet time and what I hear referred to as extended time with God.

Nancy enjoying her time with God during a Sabbath-Living Retreat.

And I’ve come to call the retreats I lead Sabbath-Living. They are a time of developing and deepening your friendship with God, of listening for his love, resting in his presence, and of experiencing sabbath-living.

In enjoying these times of sabbath, I also know, there is nothing else I’m supposed to be doing!

“Be still and know that I am God,
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:10