Sabbath Week 5 Practice: Cultivating Life

Recently, phrases such as “farm to table” and “know your farmer” have become popular, and perhaps it’s because it taps into something deeply embedded into the human ethos. See, in the beginning we were made to cultivate. We were placed into a garden, amongst creatures and other humans and given the task of multiplying life to everything around us. It was the original “sabbath work” that we were to settle into.

But for many of us, work is much less glamorous. It’s our means of survival and dependence. Some of us are blessed with work that creates a lot of joy, but many of us work and toil in jobs that aren’t connected to our giftings, interests, or passions. Such is life under the curse of Genesis 3. 

However, Sabbath offers us an opportunity. Sabbath is a day where we stop our work of survival in order to enter the work we were originally made for. On Sabbath, God invites us to do the work of enjoyment by cultivating life in the webs of people, creatures and places we inhabit. So we invite you to consider an act of cultivation as part of your Sabbath. 

This could take many forms, but we hope you consider something that you can do on the Sabbath as a reminder that because of Jesus, you are liberated from the curse and don’t have to only work for survival, but can regain your original human call to cultivate the sphere you live. Your act of cultivation should look beyond yourself to the people, creatures and places around you. It should be less about what gives you life, and more about extending goodness and blessing to them. Below are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Make a favourite meal or drink for your family/friends/roommates

  • Give someone in your life a break (let them have a nap, a walk, time to read, alone time)

  • Participate in something that’s meaningful for someone in your relationship circle 

  • Create or cultivate something beautiful (art, gardening, writing, cooking, baking, trail maintenance, fly tying)

Questions to Ponder:

Reflect:

  1. What does your digital rule for Sabbath look like? How have you begun to practice it? 

  2. If you’ve turned off technology on your Sabbath, or greatly reduced it, how has it affected your day?

  3. If you haven’t begun a digital rule for Sabbath, what’s holding you back? How can you work through these barriers?

Anticipate:

  1. What’s something you enjoy doing that involves cultivating or creating? How could that be weaved into your Sabbath day if it’s not already?

  2. When you think about multiplying life in another person on your Sabbath, who immediately comes to mind? How could you bring goodness and life to that person during your Sabbath?

  3. How do the Sabbath practice of ceasing and the practice of cultivating work together?