For the next several weeks, we’ll discuss developing a leadership lifestyle conducive to wise and loving leadership. In our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality course, Kathy and I must take time to do devotionals twice a day, incorporating times of silence during each pause. We’ve taken the course before, but for some reason, the silence has become a central feature this time. Additionally, Kathy and I decided to regularize our Sabbath habits in preparation for leading the course. It has also been a pleasant and transformative experience.
Many years ago, I preached a sermon on the Ten Commandments. When we got to quotes,
“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy,” I observed that this was the only commandment among the Ten Commandments that almost anyone could violate at will, and no one would think less of them for doing so. If this observation was accurate thirty years ago, it is even more accurate today. Unfortunately, the advent of the Internet and working from home has made it even easier for people to ignore sustained periods of rest and recreation. (Notice I said rest and re-creation, not recreation.)
For most of my professional career, I worked in occupations that demanded long hours. When I practiced law, it was customary for everyone to work on Saturday and high performers to work on Sunday as well. That meant we did some work seven days a week, fifty or so weeks a year. The only difference between me and the highest performers in the firms was that I was a Christian and did not work on Sunday unless a client demanded it.
When I became a pastor, I continued this “work ethic,” completely unaware that what I termed a work ethic was actually workaholism. Our marriage, our children, our social relationships, and even my physical health, especially toward the end, paid a price. As I mentioned last week, it was only late in my professional career that I seriously acknowledged the need to slow down. As everyone will see as this blog unfolds, I believe the spiritual necessity for a Sabbath applies not only to Christians and Jews but to everyone else. We are all mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual beings. Therefore, we all need time for rest and recharging.
A Rhythm for Life
Many people take time to rest. Many individuals practice mindfulness, which helps them center themselves during certain periods of the day. In Christian circles, we typically refer to this as “quiet time.” Quiet time is a period, usually in the morning, dedicated to prayer, Bible study, and perhaps some meditation. For many years, this quiet time lasted between fifteen and twenty minutes and primarily involved Bible study. In later years, I began to include a more significant prayer component, praying for needs beyond our immediate family. It was only after the turn of the century that I started practicing a form of silent prayer. Unfortunately, like many others, I struggled to maintain this discipline.
In Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Leader, Peter Scazzero suggests an alternative to the inadequacies of quiet time.[1] He suggests that Christians, including evangelical Christians, rediscover Sabbath-keeping and some ancient practices of the Roman, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox churches, particularly the Daily Office. Before discussing both, it’s essential to make a point: The purpose of rediscovering the Sabbath-keeping and the ancient Daily Offices is not to create a new legalism but to help Christians and Christian leaders develop a healthy rhythm of life.
In keeping with the purpose of these blogs, I would say that discussing Sabbath keeping and the daily office for secular people involves encouraging everyone to reach into the Christian and other traditions to find ways for them to create a balanced rhythm of life conducive to their health and wholeness, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
What is a Sabbath?
I’m afraid to admit it, but during my entire Christian life until recently, I took at most one day off. During that day off, I had to mow the lawn during the spring and summer until the grass went dormant. I had to do certain chores around the house. I had to do things like balance a checkbook. Ultimately, my “Sabbath” was simply a day when I did work for which I wasn’t paid. It wasn’t until I read The Emotionally Healthy Leader that I realized I had not been keeping a Sabbath at all!
Being a pastor, I usually took off Fridays and part of Saturday afternoons before I had to begin working on the sermon for the final time. A good bit of the time, my Thursday, the time I usually prepared sermons, was interrupted by meetings. Therefore, it was not unusual for me to write sermons on Friday. For a good bit of the time, I would go into the office to do this. Once the children ran out of the house, at least I would stay home. But I wasn’t enjoying a Sabbath.
Scazzero defines a “biblical Sabbath” as a 24-hour block of time during which we stop work, enjoy rest, practice, delight, and contemplate God.[2] Notice that a biblical Sabbath is not merely a time when we don’t go to the office. It’s not just a time when we refrain from our daily responsibilities. It’s a time to focus on God and enjoy His presence.
Genesis tells us that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested (Genesis 2:2). Many scholars, including Scazzero, note that the Sabbath is the unique contribution of the Jewish people to the world’s civilizations. They were the first to observe a day of rest, devoted not to transient pursuits but to ultimate truths. Our world needs to reclaim this practice because we are wholly dedicated to material and fleeting things, rarely taking time to ponder eternal matters. Christians, Jews, and every other type of human being can benefit from setting aside time to reflect beyond the present and the immediate demands of our lives.
For Christians and Jews, the Sabbath holds a deeper purpose. By taking a day off, we acknowledge that we are not ultimately in control of our lives, our successes and failures, our prosperity or lack thereof, or any other aspect of our existence. Whatever control we have achieved through our work, great or small, remains limited compared to the vast forces of chaos that can and do periodically disrupt our lives. Much of the frenetic busyness of our society could be alleviated if we would just stop once a week and meditate.
Four simple principles underline a good sabbath:
- Stop working and rest
- Delight in things like Sabbath meals, enjoying nature, worshiping God, etc.
- Meditate on ultimate things. [3]
There are many ways that Christians can organize their Sabbath, but these are the main components of a good Sabbath habit. Notice that, if possible, there needs to be an additional day off when we conduct business for which we are not paid.
A Daily Rhythm of Life
Some years ago, while still employed as an evangelical pastor, I had the opportunity to spend a week at a monastery near Atlanta, Georgia. It was one of several opportunities I took to retreat in monasteries and retreat houses. For evangelicals, this may seem like an odd thing to do. However, one cannot live in a monastery with the rhythm of the daily offices, most of which involve reading scripture and liturgy based upon scripture, without recognizing that modern society, and even modern evangelical Christian Society, often mischaracterizes the monastic life.
The purpose of the monastic life was to create an order or rhythm of life through which members of the order could order their lives around the ultimate. They still worked, most of them with their hands, raising crops, cooking food, cleaning, and taking care of the common life of the monastery. Only a very few were involved in leadership. Even fewer were involved in scholarships. The purpose was to order their lives as an example to the world of how it might be organized peacefully and conducive to human flourishing.
The Daily Offices consist of a structured sequence of prayers, readings of the Psalms, Bible readings, canticles, and the Lord’s Prayer. The entire Psalter is read over time. For priests and monastics, seven daily offices have developed: Matins, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. St. Benedict’s Rule (ca. 540) establishes a common pattern: Nocturns and Lauds (midnight), Prime (6:00 AM), Terce (9:00 AM), Sext (noon), Nones (3:00 PM), Vespers (sunset), and Compline (before bed). [4] In the Anglican tradition, morning and evening prayer have persisted as part of the Book of Common Prayer across all Anglican groups.
In his books, Peter Scazzero suggests that lay people attempt to create two or three times of prayer and silence consistent with the ancient daily office. The most common of these would be morning, noon, and evening. In the courses he developed, there are two periods of time involving a short Bible reading, a meditation, a time of prayer, and silence.[5]
Conclusion
Over the next three weeks or so, I will have additional opportunities to describe what a rule of life, or “order of life for human flourishing,” might look like. Modern life, especially modern American life, is relentlessly busy, acquisitive, and hedonistic. Taking time to step away from the pressure to conform to our culture’s demands allows one to rest, gain perspective, and flourish mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. For Christians, this is important, and the Christian tradition provides many examples that help deepen and nurture our growth. Other religious traditions offer their own examples and support. Even in the secular world, we can find examples and guidance in the pursuit of a more balanced and healthy life. Each of us must begin the journey in whatever way we feel called. As a Christian, I do not desire to do more than encourage people to step out in the search for a more emotionally healthy spirituality and lifestyle.
Copyright 2025, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved
[1] As mentioned previously, these blogs are based on Peter Scazzero, The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), hereinafter EHL. See also Emotionally Healthy Discipleship: Moving from Shallow Christianity to Deep Transformation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021). Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,Updated Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017). The Emotionally Healthy website is https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/. The materials needed to guide individuals through emotionally healthy discipleship training are available on the website and most Christian and secular online book retailers. The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Relationship Courses are offered as the “Emotionally Healthy Disciples Course,” which includes books, study guides, teaching videos, devotional guides, and teaching aids.
[2] EHL, 144.
[3] EHS, 134-160.
[4] The Episcopal Parish of st. John the Evangelist, “Praying the Daily Office,” https://www.stjohns-hingham.org/praying-the-daily-office(downloaded, April 12, 2025). There are many other introductions to be found online and in books.
[5] These are found in the two devotionals accompanying Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and Emotionally Healthy Relationships.