“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
As some of you know, I took a self-prescribed sabbatical last month. Several of you have asked why I decided to take a sabbatical, what I did on sabbatical, and whether a sabbatical makes sense even if you don’t work full-time or only do volunteer work.
Today I will share the answers to these questions because I believe firmly that whether you work full-time, part-time, or are fully retired, a sabbatical (even a short one) can lead you to enjoy the Lord more fully, provide much-needed rest and restoration for your soul, and offer clarity on where and how to enjoy and glorify God in this season of your life. In short, sabbaticals are not merely about escaping work but far more about engaging deeply with God.
Signs I Needed a Sabbatical
I had already been considering a break after finishing my Doctor of Ministry degree. Then a dear friend texted me that she and her husband would be spending a month in the mountains; he was taking the whole month off, and she would work only part-time.
While I was happy for them, I felt something unexpected: jealousy. How can he just take a month off from work? How can they leave their home, church, and responsibilities behind for that long? My reaction surprised me—and exposed something deeper. I didn’t just want a break. I needed one. Desperately.
(And yes, I did ultimately celebrate their decision, and I even thanked God for the gentle nudge, even though it came by way of seeing my own sinful heart.)
For me, the jealousy over my friends’ blessed retreat was a sign that my emotions might be off-kilter. I recognized that I had been through an intense season that included multiple speaking engagements and writing commitments, numerous “commitments” as mother to adult children and grandmother to five grandchildren three and under, and several life-altering losses. I had kept moving, working, and serving through it all. I needed to slow down, be still, and listen carefully for the voice of my Savior.
To decide if you might need a sabbatical, take an inventory of your life in the past five years. What significant commitments have you kept? What has taken your time, your effort, your energy? Are there griefs to process? Is it a time of transition? Does your body or soul feel depleted? You may need a sabbatical.
Common Hesitations — and Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Them
My biggest hesitation may be yours too—I didn’t think my work was significant enough to warrant a sabbatical. Because I don’t bring in much income through my work, I’ve often told myself it isn’t “real.” You too may suffer from this false belief if you spend much of your time volunteering, working in ministry, acting as a caregiver, or taking care of grandchildren.
Second to this hesitation, but also common, is the sense that I didn’t deserve a sabbatical. After all, my husband has worked for almost forty years as a physician, often logging 100-hour work weeks, and he hasn’t taken a sabbatical. (He has taken vacations in which he is completely off-duty. Even when I am “on vacation,” I am often doing ministry work like posting or writing prayers or responding to emails or texts about work.) In fact, my husband wholeheartedly encouraged me to take a sabbatical, saying, “How many years have you been doing ministry without a break? It’s about time you had one.” (Typically kind and generous of him.)
You may look around you at co-workers or ministry leaders, thinking that they’ve never had a sabbatical, and conclude that you shouldn’t take one either. What if your taking a sabbatical might encourage these ministry leaders of the importance of doing so?
Here’s what I hope you will understand: whether you work full-time, part-time, or “only” as a volunteer in the community, at church, or in your family, your work matters to God. How you spend your days matters to God. Stepping away from that work for a season can help you to see his delight in your work more clearly, and hear his invitation to rest more loudly.
Furthermore, if you are newly retired or on the verge of retirement, a sabbatical will help you listen intentionally to God about work he would have you do for his kingdom. For more on that, check out this excellent article by Judy Allen.
What finally convinced me I needed a sabbatical was realizing how full the previous season had been — full of good gifts, full of hard work, full of painful losses. With so much work to do, I had not paused to process all of it with God, to both celebrate and lament. I had not allowed myself enough space to truly rest in the Lord.
To convince yourself of your need for a sabbatical, revisit the inventory of your days. Ask yourself — how much rest is built into my days? Not just sleep, but rest? If the answer is “not much,” or if you have been working hard without pause to celebrate and lament, you too may need a sabbatical.
What I Did on Sabbatical
I tended to my body and soul with physical rest. I slept, I napped, I exercised, I played (at) golf with my husband. I went on vacation with our entire family, which includes five children 3 and a 1/2 and under (so not restful but fun!), and I didn’t open my computer for work once.
I practiced sitting in a chair for five minutes doing nothing but trying to be quiet enough to hear the voice of God, not audibly, but deep in my soul. (Try it — it’s harder than you might think!). I worked on slowing down, especially in my car, where I discovered that I am apparently incapable of making a ten minute drive to the Farmers Market without throwing up my hands in exasperation at least once at a slow or sloppy driver!
I journaled, naming the joys and sorrows of recent years, pausing to lament the losses and to remember the ways God had been so near to me in brokenness. I read books that would teach me more about the rest I needed (See my monthly email newsletter for some of my favorites.) I spent rich time in Scripture, drinking in Philippians a verse or two at a time. I prayed intentionally, asking the Lord to guide and direct me to the work he would have me do when I returned from sabbatical.
A Few of My Takeaways
1. Being busy (and/or productive) does not increase our value in the Lord’s eyes.
If you recorded and replayed a tape of the dinner conversations my highly-type-A husband and my highly-type-A self have, a theme would emerge — being productive matters. As I began to think about this word and pay attention to our conversations and even our prayers, I noticed that we tend to bow down to the god of productivity and efficiency.
Even before I decided to take a sabbatical, I knew this was an area of my life that needed attention. I sensed that danger threatened, the danger of believing that all of these things I produced and how efficiently I worked made me more valuable to God. It was no surprise and a deep kindness to me to hear (as I sat silently in my chair for five minutes) the Lord extend the invitation, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). The Spirit offered me multiple opportunities to meditate on this verse, as it kept turning up in my reading, in my devotionals, in conversations.
2. My ministry matters to God; he can grow his kingdom without me.
I’ve already noted that taking a sabbatical was a way of acknowledging to myself that my work and ministry does matter to God. The flip side of this equation also compelled me to take a break. I have known too many ministry people who began believing their own press, who began feeling it was all up to them, who could not or would not take a break because they feared the kingdom would come tumbling down without them.
We all need to know both sides of this equation, whether in work or in ministry. He has not left us as orphans (See John 14:18), nor has he chosen us to die for our people’s sins, nor has he crowned us king of the cosmos. When we believe the kingdom may come tumbling down without us, it’s a sign that the kingdom we’re building may be about us more than God.
3. Crowding out grief with busyness is like trying to run with plantar fasciitis.
If you’ve ever had plantar fasciitis, you know its stabbing pain that comes when you take a step after sleeping or sitting. Once you’ve started moving, you can actually walk, even run with it, as the pain is numbed. But it’s not a good idea, because vigorous walking or running further inflame the tissue. In the same way, when we try to push through grief by staying busy, the constant motion can numb our pain. But when we do so, we risk damaging our tender hearts.
The Lord kindly took me to a poem about grief in Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Invitation to Retreat. Barton’s poem encouraged me to “unpack the backpack of grief” I had been toting around. As I laid out each loss one by one, I began to see how God had been near to the brokenhearted (my loved ones and me) and how he had comforted us in each sorrow (see Psalm 34:18).
4. Knowing a lot about God cannot and should not be divorced from knowing his heart for us.
As a lifelong learner, I love discovering truths about God, but I sensed I needed a sabbatical to rekindle my intimacy with God, to linger in his presence, intentionally focusing on his heart for me and for his people.
The Soul of Desire, by Christian psychiatrist Curt Thompson, reminded me that our deepest desires—to be seen, soothed, safe, and secure—are only fully met by God. Thompson asserts that God calls us into intimacy with him while also equipping us to be creators of beauty in his kingdom. He invites us to experience more of God in confessional community, and to “inquire” of that community, asking others the same four questions God asks us: 1. Where are you? 2. What do you want me to do for you? 3. Can you drink the cup? And 4. Do you love me? As I listened to God asking me these four questions and journaled the responses, my heart burned with a deep awareness of his love for me and his calling in my life.
Do You Need a Sabbatical?
If you take a sabbatical, my hunch is your takeaways will be different than mine. I leave you with a simple question: How might God show his delight in you if you take a day, a week, a month to listen? How might your love for him and desire to feed his sheep grow in a season of sabbatical?
Hi! I’m Elizabeth, and I love learning about older adulthood! I’m a writer, speaker, and coach who helps people navigate the issues of aging, caregiving, legacy, grief, and end-of-life. I wrote Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions about Living & Dying in Hope of Heaven and several devotionals. Every month, I send out an email with free and paid resources for aging graciously. If you’d like to get this email on the first of the month, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/b__teX.
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