Countercultural ‘Sabbath’ Offers Antidote to Life’s Unhealthful Haste

Wayne Muller’s “Sabbath” should contain a warning label: This book will change your life.

It can happen two ways.

One, you can take Muller’s advice and observe the Sabbath, which he defines as a time of rest that people of all faiths should observe. You can experience the joy of “time off the wheel, time when we take our hand from the plow and let God and the earth care for things, while we drink, if only for a few moments, from the fountain of rest and delight.”

Or you can read the book and remain hypnotized by what the author calls the “trance of overwork, [where] we do not have time to savor this life, nor to care deeply and gently for ourselves, our loved ones, or our world; rather, with increasingly dizzying haste, we use them all up, and throw them away.”

The problem with the trance route is that occasionally you’ll remember Muller’s antidote for the harried life, the Sabbath, and add the weight of guilt and regret to your already weary bones.

An ordained minister, therapist and author of “How, Then, Shall We Live?” Muller uses the word “Sabbath” in its broadest sense. The Sabbath is a day of rest commanded by God in the Hebrew Scriptures. For Muller, it can be a day, an afternoon, or a few extra moments in bed. Or it can be simply taking off your shoes and feeling the earth between your toes, lighting a candle and taking a few deep breaths, or having an intimate moment with your lover. (Lovemaking plays a major role in Muller’s view of the Sabbath, in case you need extra motivation to try his theory of renewal.)

The Sabbath is an external and internal readjustment to align us more closely with godly desires, Muller says, and a way we can find happiness and joy.

“Sabbath” takes an interreligious approach to the day of rest, which for Jews begins at sundown Friday, but for Christians, Sunday morning.

Muller, a Christian, deftly borrows from Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu and Native American traditions--all of which have versions of the Sabbath--in addition to heavy doses of Judaism and Christianity.

The result is a soothing, poetic mix of Muller’s gentle writing, ancient and contemporary anecdotes, simple prayers and sacred scriptures. He’s organized the book in short chapters that end with an easy-to-do Sabbath practice--everything from silently blessing strangers in the park to walking for 30 minutes in silence.

Muller’s life hasn’t always been the model of balance. He recalls early in the book a time when he almost worked himself to death. He ended up with streptococcal pneumonia, which that killed Muppets creator Jim Henson.

“The greatest lesson I have learned is about surrender,” he writes. “There are larger forces, strong and wise, at work here. I am willing to be stopped. I owe my life to the simple act of rest.”

Sabbath, Muller notes, is a time of rest that mirrors the day God rested after creating the universe.

“And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done” (Genesis 2:3).

Jesus points out in the Gospel of Mark: “You are not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath is made for you.”

Muller says people forget that the Sabbath is “not a lifestyle suggestion, but a commandment (‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’), as important as not stealing, not murdering or not lying.”

Still, the day of rest has fallen out of favor, except with observant Jews and a few Christian denominations. This hasn’t always been the case. Just a few decades ago, entire towns were shut down on Sunday in observance of the Sabbath. Today, most Christians virtually ignore the day, except to attend church.

Others are simply too preoccupied with everyday life to give the day much thought. The phrase “I’m so busy” has become our national mantra.

“We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy,” Muller writes. “To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset . . . to whiz through our obligations without time for a single, mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.”

If enough people experienced true rest in their lives, the Sabbath would change the world, Muller says.

“The Sabbath, a day of delight, a day to be at peace with all we have, is a radical, dangerous prescription,” he writes. “Because happy people will grind the wheels of progress to a terrible halt; a bloodless revolution, without a single shot being fired.”

The author stretches Christian theology in one chapter when he uses Jesus’ death as an example of dormancy, without which “the resurrection of new life would be impossible. . . . Because everything, even the anointed of God, must rest, even in death.” Christ wasn’t dormant, he was dead. To hint otherwise means the resurrection didn’t happen.

But these are passing criticisms. The book--which has become a favorite among stressed-out pastors--reads like a cool drink of water for someone dying of thirst from the relentless pace of American life.

“Sabbath” is countercultural, a subversive strike against the values that strangle happiness from our lives. But there is hope. As Muller writes: “Sabbath time can be a revolutionary challenge to the violence of overwork, mindless accumulation, and the endless multiplication of desires, responsibilities, and accomplishments.”

After reading Muller’s book, you’ll be forced to decide whether you want to join the revolution. Either way, it will be a life-altering decision. You’ve been warned.