Small, Steady Practices for Sabbath and Soul Care

by Steven Carrizal

“Time off will not heal you when the problem is how you spend your time.”

Read those words again.

I was on a walk listening to a podcast when those words almost literally stopped me in my tracks. Carey Nieuwhof was a guest on Andy Stanley’s podcast talking about working at your best. This statement came in the last minutes of the episode, yet for me at least, they overshadowed the rest of the content. Nieuwhof’s point was that we often see vacations and even sabbaticals as a way to escape the stress and exhaustion of work by relaxing. Yet, when we return from that time off, as Nieuwhof says, “first Monday back at 11:00 AM you get punched in the face by life, and you’re exhausted, and you want another vacation.” He goes on to say that “a vacation is not an answer for an unsustainable pace…a sustainable pace is the answer.”[1]

So how does one develop a sustainable pace in our work?

Author and spiritual director Cindy S. Lee would say that such an endeavor begins not with how we arrange our work. As seen in scripture, work and rest function as a cyclical rhythm. However, our problem is that we have prioritized work over rest. Our mindset is that rest comes after work. Therefore, with work as our priority, even if we take a day off, we are restless because our minds, spirits, and bodies are still lingering with our work instead of being present to our rest.” This leads to burnout and exhaustion, which forces us to rest. “But,” Lee says, “resting from exhaustion is not a sustainable rhythm.”  Rest is the focal point of the work/rest rhythm, and “work flows in and out of our rest.”[2] Thus, a sustainable pace begins with rest.

If I’m listening well to both Nieuwhof and Lee, my problem is not that I don’t have enough vacation time or haven’t been allowed a sabbatical. My problem is that I have mismanaged the time; I have emphasized the wrong part of the cyclical rhythm of work and rest.

Recently, instead of asking for a sabbatical, I requested six days a year, one day about every two months, to spend in prayer. I pieced together some resources and found a regular outdoor place to be away from the office and from home. I also created a strict focus on my phone so that only two people can reach me. On each of these days of silence and solitude, I spend seven hours praying, reading, reflecting, and journaling. At first, I was trying to accomplish something spiritual and mystical as I was eager for a word from the Lord. It didn’t take long, however, for me to realize that the priority was communing with God.

This every-other-month rhythm is part of my work even as it is an extension of my daily habit of silence and solitude. I sense it beginning to transform how I understand my patterns of work and rest. My allotted vacation and sick days are resources to leverage for creating a healthy rhythm of work and rest, rest and work.

Do you need to find small and steady practices for sabbath and soul care? Here are some questions to think about:

• During what part of your day do you find a sense of peace? What do you do during the unscheduled time of your day?
• What activities occupy your days off each week? What adjustments can you make to find moments of quiet and unhurriedness? What hobby might be life-giving to you?
• Are you one to work when you are sick, or do you actually take a sick day to rest?
• When you take a vacation, do you need more downtime to recover from that vacation? How might you plan your vacations so that there is more margin at the beginning and end for rest? How might you restructure the actual trip so that soul care and sabbath are part of the time away?

• What might a workday or a week of work look like that flows out of new habits of rest?
• How does a priority of rest impact the margins between calls and meetings?
• What distractions masquerade as breaks in your workday, and what healthy practices of soul care and sabbath can you try instead?

Here’s the reality: we can’t separate our soul care from our daily work. Small, steady practices for sabbath and soul care are not just about what you do in your time off. Done well, these practices will transform the way we approach and do our work.

[1]Podcast Episode: Andy Stanley | August 2021: Carey Nieuwhof on Working At Your Best, Part 1 – Andy Stanley. This conversation begins at the 22:22 mark. Transcript available at Maximizing Peak Productivity: How to Harness Your Best Work Hours — From the Vault Transcript.

[2]Lee, Cindy S. Our Unforming: De-Westernizing Spiritual Formation (Fortress Press, 2022), p. 92. This discussion is found in chapter six, “Work/Rest.”

About the Author

Steven serves as Associate Minister at Altamesa Church of Christ in Fort Worth (since 2010). He has been in full-time congregational ministry since 1991 also serving as youth minister in churches in Houston and Denton (TX). He is a graduate of Abilene Christian University with an undergraduate degree in Youth & Family Ministry and a graduate degree in Christian Ministry. Steven is a certified Grip-Birkman Coach and Catalyze Coach. He has a passion for helping young ministers who are just getting started or making a transition.

Steven is an avid reader of theology, spiritual formation, leadership, business, personal growth as well as a little history and fiction. He loves great food and great conversation. Most of all he finds great joy spending time with his family.

Steven and Debbi have been married since 1992. They have three grown children and two grandchildren.