Courageous Simplicity by (In)courageSample

DAY 3

We were driving down the road on a Sunday afternoon when my friend began to talk about keeping the Sabbath. I distinctly remember listening closely and then replying, “That’s great for you, and I’m glad you’re choosing Sabbath, but I just don’t have time for that.”

Conviction came quickly and I felt the Spirit stirring inside: When did checking boxes and crossing things off a list become so important that obeying God took a back seat? 

Swept up in the current, answering every “How are you?” with “I’m good, just busy!”, I was far from rested and couldn’t see an end to the raging rapids I’d jumped into. 

The following week, I decided to truly “try” Sabbath one time, to set aside an entire day for worship and rest. It took more work than I imagined and more time to prepare than I predicted, but I was determined to give it a shot. 

It’s been seven years since that afternoon drive, and choosing Sabbath has changed everything. Everything. And it has drawn me into a life of simplicity I never could have imagined. It realigns my heart with God’s and reprioritizes what is most important. 

When I intentionally slow down and remember my smallness in light of God’s greatness, I’m suddenly aware that I’ve been holding my breath, and somehow now I can breathe again. 

The addition of Sabbath is the subtraction of hurry, of rushing and performing and achieving. It’s a weekly declaration to my own heart that God is more important than my to-do list. It’s the recognition that when I feel I don’t have time for Sabbath, I actually need it all the more. 

It’s a choosing and a finding, a trusting that if He breathes stars into being and walks on the water, He can surely help me handle my daily demands and concerns. I just have one requirement—to keep my eyes focused on Him. 

Sabbath is an invitation to slow down and rest in God’s presence, a promise made that always leads to a promise kept: He is enough. 

—KAITLYN BOUCHILLON 

No one else can determine what resting looks like for you. As long as God is your main focus, however you spend time resting in Him will give you strength to handle the next day (and the next and the next); for rest is ultimately not found in the absence of doing but in communing with your Creator. It’s in those ordinary, simple moments that you will begin to find the sacredness of simplicity.