What should a person do on their sabbath?

Today is Monday, my day off, and man, do I love Mondays. Shauna and I share the morning — Starbucks, a card game, heart-to-heart talks, just relaxing with each other. Then comes the afternoon. And I’m usually at a bit of a loss as to what to do with myself.

I believe Sabbath is for restoration, for letting your soul catch up with your body. It’s precious. Which is why I never want to waste it. A well-spent Sabbath helps turn the page on the busyness of the past week and gives us a fresh page for the week to come. So again, what should I do with it? Last week, God spoke a few words into my mind when I asked him that question. His response was, “Do what delights you.”

I was taken aback. Maybe it wasn’t God. It sounded kinda sketchy… at first. I pondered what the answer might be… what actually delights me?

– Not sin, not self-indulgence. Maybe this was God, after all.
– Writing. Writing delights me. And being engrossed in a creative, compelling movie or story.
– Adventuring my way through a video game.
– Discovering something powerful in scripture.
– Spending time with Shauna delights me.

What delighted me most, though? That was the next question. As I mulled this over, I realized that given where my soul was at that very moment, there was probably just one thing that would truly delight me: Spending time sucking up scripture. So I did. And I laughed, as I realized that God’s instruction, “Do what delights you” wasn’t as open-ended or dangerous as it had first sounded. God knew where it would lead me.

To him. To a nap, a bit later. Some writing. And joy. Because nothing quite restores us like pure delight.