Ep 37: Learning to Embrace Sabbath with Lisa Garon

[00:00:00]

Rest doesn’t have to be a four-letter word. If you feel like you’re about to break from exhaustion. Let me invite you to Simply Sabbath, a podcast for the burnt-out Christian mom, who longs to get back to the core of who she is and to reclaim the deep joy and stabilizing peace Jesus has for her in her every day– without the mom guilt that often accompanies self-care practices.

Hi, my name is Rachel Fahrenbach and I help busy moms just like you add a simple restful family Sabbath to their week. So they can experience a refueling that gives them exactly what they need to live the life that God has called them to. I’m so glad you’ve joined me today. Let’s get to it.

Rachel: I’m so excited to have my friend Lisa, on today’s episode. Lisa writes about Sabbath and practices Sabbath, and I’m so [00:01:00] excited to get, to hear her thoughts in the how Sabbath looks in her life.

She and her husband, Bob create content on the intentional Christian life, including topics like minimalism productivity and wellness. And I would love to get your take on minimalism and Sabbath, Lisa. So maybe we can work that into our conversation as well. Absolutely. I would love that. And so aside from writing blogs and article, they also create video content and they’re available for speaking opportunities. They have a teenage son and they love to explore the Pacific Northwest. And so I’m so excited to have you here. Thank you.

Lisa: Thank you so much, Rachel. I’m very excited to be here today.

Rachel: Well, before we really get into what Sabbath looks like in your family and their lives, let’s just define Sabbath. How do you define Sabbath?

Lisa: Yeah, I’m going to start kind of with a bigger idea right now. And the big idea of Sabbath is living fully in the presence of Jesus so that it spills out into the rest of my week, [00:02:00] trusting God to provide for all of my needs. And this includes all the way from my income to my rest and everything in between that. Practically speaking, if I were to be honest in my life and evaluate how I put this into practice in a definition standpoint, it’s really disconnecting from anything that I define as work. Something I have to put my effort into.

I work part-time as a virtual assistant. I also am an author and a writer and content creator. The virtual assistant work I consider as work. It’s not something that necessarily brings me a lot of joy. It’s something that I do to help bring in some income to our family versus the writing work and the content creation.

It’s typically when I have that space on a Sabbath that a lot of those ideas come to me and that’s when it overflows. So I don’t consider that work. It brings me a lot of joy and I actually view it [00:03:00] as a form of worship to God. Um, around my house, I don’t love to do laundry or fold clothes at all. I don’t, I don’t know many people to do.

There might be some that do, but not me

Rachel: I think my sister is one of them.

Lisa: Well, God bless her. The world needs people like that, but I am not that. Um, versus like, I really love spending time in the kitchen cooking, or maybe making a special dessert for my family or something like that. That brings me a lot of joy. Or even I am a pastor’s wife. And so I volunteer with my church, but that might be volunteering in an area that brings me a lot of frustration or anxiety or agitation that might be more work versus something that might bring me a lot of joy. And so even coming down to my volunteering, I want to make sure that everything I’m doing, especially on a Sabbath is bringing a lot of joy because out of that joy, then I can worship God.

Rachel: Out of that joy You can [00:04:00] worship God, I like that. I like that definition. And I like how you defined each of the different areas. I, I think is important to note, like sometimes we think of work as like, um, is easy when you have a nine to five and you can say, this is work. There’s a start, there’s an end to the week that work week. But when you have a job, that’s a little bit more atypical, like. VA work or being an author. Um, and then I think you said your husband, the pastor, like even the fact that like his job is on the weekend, you know, um, that it can be kind of hard to navigate. What is work. What is not work. Because there’s no clear defined box to put it in.

And so I like how that you approached each one of those and said, this is something that brings me joy. This is something that’s an outflowing. This is something that is like worship to me. Um, I think that’s a really great mindset to have when you approach that. I really liked that. How did. Um, I’m curious, how did you come to practice, like start [00:05:00] practicing Sabbath?

Lisa: Yeah, so I grew up in church and the deepest relationship I had with Sabbath was reciting it as the fourth commandment, uh, as the fourth commandment, when I was a kid and I knew that we took the day off. I knew my dad didn’t work. And, uh, Sometimes we get together with family. And that was as far as my understanding of it went. Probably like many Christians who have grown up in the church. So then when you get to be a teenager and you want to start making your own money, you have to start working in jobs that want you to work Sundays, like retail and restaurants and all of that. They don’t like hearing that you don’t want to work Sundays because of church or religious reasons, or even because my family doesn’t want me to work on Sunday.

So it’s not really a, an acceptable reason. No, I just thought that like one day I would get to have Sundays off, but that day wasn’t now. So I needed to do what I had to make money. And I used, um, you know, It had to do what I had to do to make [00:06:00] that happen. I used to work in the restaurant business. That was my industry of choice, my drug of choice, I guess you could say.

So I was there Sundays, like as mentioned basically a requirement. And so even I could take off in the morning, but I still had to work in the evening time.

Rachel: So, you could go to church service, but you couldn’t take the rest of the day off. Right?

Lisa: Exactly. Uh, so then I was working in restaurants, worked my way up to be a manager and decided that it was time for me to step away from that to support my husband at home, by working. So we owned a gym for many years and so I was gonna help him with the gym with being a trainer, administratively, et cetera. And then also in raising our son. So, um, it was during that season that I really came to appreciate the value and understand more of Sabbath. What Sabbath really was. We had started attending a very, um, Bible based teaching church that gave us the [00:07:00] right discipleship that we needed both in Sunday morning services and in the relationships that we were building, to understand the authenticity of what Sabbath was, what it was the heart of it was. So it was during those, those three years away from being in the grind of the restaurant industry, that I started to really understand what it was and what it was supposed to be. It was the day to refocus and recenter our attention on to God.

So then I ended up returning back to the restaurant industry, same restaurant, actually to continue being a restaurant manager because our finances needed me to return to that for a season. Uh, and I quickly came to realize within two short years that this was just not the place for me anymore. I did not love working all the nights. I did not love working all the holidays and I definitely did not like working all the Sundays. And so I just made the decision that together, my husband and I together made the decision [00:08:00] that it was time for me to leave that. And I did get that typical 40 hour workweek, nine to five job in an office that wasn’t too far from our home.

So I was able to experience what life was like working normal hours. I’m getting paid vacations up or paid holidays off rather. And, um, you know, Memorial day, labor day, but also not working Saturdays and Sundays.

Rachel: How long ago was that?

Lisa: Uh, let’s see. That was maybe about four years ago at this point that I had left the restaurant industry, uh, to go work in that, um, in the office. And then it took a lot of work over the next year to retrain myself of not being on 24 7. So when you work in a restaurant, especially at the manager level, you’re always on you’re receiving text messages. You might be getting phone calls, uh, at 10 o’clock at night, you might be checking [00:09:00] emails or getting emails.

Um, so you’re, you’re really always on. Every day of the week, all the time.

Rachel: Your time’s not your own.

Lisa: It isn’t it isn’t. And so, um, I had to retrain myself to, uh, have a few things. First of all, I had to retrain myself to not be checking my email all the time. Anybody else guilty of that? I know that’s the only one.

Uh, and then, um, I had to retrain myself to not work more than 40 hours a week. Because I have become so accustomed to the life of restaurant manager of working 50 plus hours a week, I had to retrain myself and say, I don’t need to do that again. It comes back to that trusting God piece. Do I trust God enough with our income and with our finances?

Um, and then also again, to not be checking or working on Sundays, to make sure that I was really honoring that day. And fortunately, the people I worked for, it was two brothers and they were great. They, um, they didn’t work on [00:10:00] Sundays or if they did, they didn’t require other people. To do that. They maybe went in, but they didn’t require us to.

So over the last, uh, I would say three to four years God has just continued to teach me and to affirm the practice of Sabbath in his word. So everything that I learned in my head where everything that I thought I was supposed to do, He’s just continued to show up in his word to affirm how the practice of Sabbath is supposed to look. And that it’s far more of a heart issue than just a calendaring issue.

Rachel: Yeah. Say that again.

Lisa: It’s far more, Sabbath is far more of a heart issue than a calendaring issue.

Rachel: Amen. That’s like that that’s gold right there. It really is. So once you realized that it was more of a heart issue, did you have to make any adjustments for that?

Lisa: I there’s two distinct ways I operate that uh, I’ll kind of dive into a little bit with that. I [00:11:00] am very much a, um, like I want to have full buy-in to what I’m doing or practicing. So I want to make sure that I understand something fully. Um, as I take the next step, I usually don’t, I usually don’t need to have the whole picture, but I need to have some clear direction about where I’m going.

So I, um, I would just continue to study or research. It was a whole time of discipleship in my life. Actually, it wasn’t only related to Sabbath. It was related to a lot of different areas in my life, um, and different heart issues that were going on inside of me. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety for the majority of my adult life, actually for all of my adult life.

As a teenager, I, I started struggling with that and, um, You know, I read the book, respectable sins was one book that I read that, um, really was a very challenging book for me because it dug into the roots that are very deep inside of [00:12:00] us, that we don’t really acknowledge as sins. Um, and at the root of that are things like pride and an ungodliness factor that we think we have to do it all we have to know at all. And so, um, it was, it was an overarching discipleship piece that God was journey that God was taking me through. Um, and so. I had to put myself in a position to be open to receiving that.

The other thing though, that combats with this, is I am like totally a doer. Right. So I mentioned that I have to know, but I’m also doer. So then what I end up doing is right. Like I’m, I’m all in. Okay, I’m going to do this, do this, do this without just slowing my pace down to really think fully through something. Okay. Like, so how does this really lay out and really planning thoroughly with it?

I tend to lean more into what I think is the leading of the holy spirit. And sometimes it’s really the leading of my selfish spirit to just want to do what I want to do. So the, [00:13:00] the tug and pull of both of these, of my wanting to just do, do, do. So it’s like, okay, so I’m going to practice Sabbath now, what do I do with that? Like, and that doesn’t, that doesn’t mean just like I’m going to serve at the first service of church, and then I’m going to attend the second service and I’m going to stay afterwards and do the XYZ thing at your church afterwards. That’s not necessarily Sabbath for some people that might be. But for a lot of people, that’s not necessarily what Sabbath is or, or needs to be. It’s not about what you’re doing. Again, it goes back to the heart issue.

Rachel: So what does your Sabbath practice look like?

Lisa: Yeah, so, um, you know, it really starts with proper planning because I have a tendency to take more on my plate. I have to really be conscious of, so I practice my Sabbath on Sundays and we’ll talk about that piece in just a moment.

But for me, that, what that looks like is then on Saturdays, I make sure that if I have any, any [00:14:00] work as I defined it earlier. So if any, if I have any virtual assistant work, if I have any laundry or chores around the house that need to be done, if I have any of the volunteering work I do for the church that I don’t want to be thinking about on Sunday or consumed with, I make sure it’s done the day before. I’ve even found that if I just try to push it off till Monday, it’s still hanging out in my head and it doesn’t allow me to be fully present in Sabbath. So I try to make sure all that stuff is done between Friday and Saturday. Because what that does is by making sure that those things are done, is it frees up my mind to be able to be fully present in Sabbath? Which I have found is huge. If I think to myself, well, I’ll get that done on Monday. Then it’s hanging out in my head all day on Sunday and I’m not fully able to release it and to be involved in whatever is going on that day and be present in that Sabbath. [00:15:00] So, um, over this last year, we’ve adapted our home to a different kind of Sabbath rhythm.

And if I were to be completely honest, uh, we’re still adapting a little bit. Uh, so across country move, uh, 32 hours away from where we originally were from, we just moved from Illinois to Oregon over 15 months ago. And, um, you know, it takes time to adapt. It takes time to adjust to your rhythms and all of that it’s career changes for all of us.

So, um, my husband, I think you mentioned this earlier he’s now a pastor and–

Rachel: How did, how did you go from the gym to being a pastor? I wrote that down. I’m like, I’m coming back. We are circling back to this.

Lisa: Yeah. So, um, so we were, we were very involved in our church that in Illinois and it was a great church, really discipled us in our marriage.

It discipled us as believers. So my husband and I both grew up in the church, um, in different churches, but very [00:16:00] similar churches. And when we got to our teenage years, we both reacted differently. He, uh, took a bit more of a, uh, I’m gonna do it all myself and kind of headstrong and. While we’re both a little headstrong if I’m honest, but, um, but he, he kinda took one route and, um, had some things he had to work through.

And then for myself, I struggled with depression and anxiety. I did want to be in ministry, but, um, the path I ended up taking, it ended up leading me just to fall into a job that I fell into, which was serving and waitressing and then led into restaurant management and we met, um, I was 21 and he was 25.

We got married seven weeks after we met. I, I do not recommend this at all to anybody. So anybody that is listening, please do not get married to somebody seven [00:17:00] weeks after you meet. Fortunately, that’s worked out for my husband and I, but it took a lot of work. So about 10 years.

Rachel: I was going to say, I would, I could see that it, I mean, marriage takes work anyway, but only knowing somebody for some weeks.

Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. So it took about 10 years of being in a terrible marriage. And we have shared our story before. So I have no problem saying that. Before we met the right, just the God brought the right people at the right time to speak into our lives. And it was at this church. It was some pastors there and some friends, many of whom we are very close with still to this day.

And, uh, God used them to bring our lives out of the muck and the mire and the misery that is talked about in Psalm 40 verses one through three. And he set our feet upon the rock. And he has literally given us a new song to sing. So, I mean, it is all God’s glory. Um, so then up until, uh, 2019, he was an owner of a gym [00:18:00] in Illinois.

And for a couple of years before then he knew that the time was coming for him to release that. And he didn’t know what he was walking into. When we were at the church that we came from, we went through a training to be able to walk with other people who were hurting. It was like a mentorship class. And so the first, from the first step that he took into that class, he just knew this is what he wanted to do.

And so he ended up, we went through that course and then. Uh, the next year he started his masters in pastoral counseling. Um, and then he finished his degree, like with a pandemic going on. So there, and, uh, uh, Sherwood community friends church is the church that we’re at now. And that is the church that extended an opportunity for him and for us to come out here and, uh, answer the call, so to speak.

And so that is how, that’s the very shortened version of how God has woven our story to get us [00:19:00] to where we are.

Rachel: That’s so beautiful. And I, uh, I get like chill thinking about it. Cause it, it kinda goes back to what you were talking about with being a doer or feeling like you can do it all on your own.

And you can like, who would have thought that that’s the journey that God was going to take you guys on. Right. But throughout it all, he has kind of kept reminding you to, to just let him like, just be, just be you guys and let me kind of direct thing and the way that, which he wove your story, brought you along these moments where, you know, like you’re talking about the restaurant and then the nine to five and your side of the story of like coming to understand what it means to take that rest and fully embrace that day off and allowing that “I’m striving” to kind of go by the way side. But even then where, how he did it for [00:20:00] your husband. Like you think you’re going to do these things and you’re going to own a gym and you’re gonna, but in your striving, you’re not fully living the life I have for you. And it sounds like he stepped into your marriage and woke up both of you to a life that was abundant and a life that was full.

And yet it has less than it, less striving, less doing it yourselves, less of running towards the goals that you have in mind and instead being allowing him to direct. And I just think that’s such a beautiful picture of what Sabbath is… this letting God be the provider and trusting in his character, not in what you can or cannot do.

And so I just see how, like, your story is so woven so beautifully and thank you for sharing it with us because that

Lisa: oh, absolutely.

Rachel: Was so cool. Like I was like, I’m so glad you shared it.

Lisa: You know, [00:21:00] Our story is us, right? Like that, that is all of it. And in revelation it says that the battle is won by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.

It’s a, both and. Jesus died for us and he saved us, but it’s also up to us to tell our story so that other people can come along for the ride too. If we’re just staying in the bubble of Jesus saved me and I’m going to stay right over here. Well, that’s good for you, but what about everybody else? And so we’re meant to bring others into that community with us. And that’s done by sharing our really messy and authentic stories.

Rachel: Yeah. I often tell people about it when we’re talking about Sabbath. I talked about, I talk about the garden kingdom is what I direct it back to them. Like we were originally designed to be co rulers with God. Like he created this whole world and he sat us in it and said, Hey, let’s go have some fun, you know?

Then sin fractured all of that, but it was meant to continue. And so what you just talked about. [00:22:00] Jesus saved me. And I’m just going to sit in this bubble. Like when you do that, you deprive yourself of the joy of being a part of kingdom work. And, you know, work is sharing that and saying, look at how God has redeemed me. He can do the same for you. And that’s part of that kingdom work that we are, but that like, co-writing that cultivating that, all that stuff that God had for us at the beginning, we get to be a part of it now. And when we don’t step into it, we, we miss that. We really do.

Lisa: Yeah. Well, and stepping into it as a, as a continuation of the process of discipleship that Jesus walks us through. We kind of forget that, that it’s not just, we’ve arrived. It’s about, like you said, continuing in the kingdom work, joining God in the kingdom work, moving forward. And, um, and it’s just a continuation of that discipleship.

Rachel: Hmm.

Lisa: It’s stepping outside of our comfort zones, because if we’re still, if we’re still in our comfort zone, it’s something still makes us a little scared to step out in faith and [00:23:00] well, then we’re not quite there yet. Are we?

Rachel: Exactly, exactly.

Lisa: Would you like me to, I can finish talking about what my Sabbath looks like.

Rachel: Oh yeah! I got to totally like I was so engrossed in your story. I totally forgot about this. Please tell us what your Sabbath look like.

Lisa: That’s okay. So, as I mentioned in my, my husband is a pastor and so he is working on Sunday. So he actually takes the Sabbath on Fridays. Uh, for me personally, it works out better because I’m a virtual assistant to take my Sabbath fully on a Sunday. So for me personally, I wake up and I have my quiet time as normal, which then leads into a time of reflecting on the previous week and planning out for the next week. I have found, I love the Enneagram. I’m an Enneagram 4 and something that I have come to discover as I innately I hate routine, but I have discovered I need routine.

That routine is something that helps me to thrive really well. And so by taking that time to sit and to plan out my week and to [00:24:00] reflect on my previous week, um, that’s something that does help me to continue moving forward in the progress of where I believe that God is leading me to go.

So then I will get myself ready. And typically my husband is already at church and possibly my son. So I actually will walk to church. We don’t live too far

Rachel: That’s fun.

Lisa: So, yeah. So I take that extra moment of just movement. Being, breathing, fresh air and walk to church, uh, have our time of worship. And then once we get home in the afternoon, uh, I might spend some time reading or writing.

Perhaps we’ll play together as a family, maybe a game of chess or UNO, but spend some quality family time in there. One of the most important things is that for dinner, unless I feel inspired to make something fun or elaborate, I try to keep it simple with as few dishes as possible because I hate doing dishes.

And if I’m honest, any dishes that are there just might wait until the morning. So.

Rachel: That’s [00:25:00] awesome. I love that. It’s simple, but it’s, uh, it allows you, it, it gives you a structure, um, to enter into for time of rest like you guess. I think I want people to realize that Sabbath is not about doing nothing.

That we enter into rest. We’re actually a part of something. And that’s having that little bit of structure. It doesn’t have to be very elaborate. It can be very simple, like you just said, but it allows us to know what the expected for the day. And we can just fully rest in that we have no need to make any decisions.

We don’t have any need to like, um, make a lot of plans or anything we can just kind of enjoy the day as it is.

Lisa: Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel: So I want to talk about two more things before we close up our time. I’m curious, how has practicing Sabbath changed your life?

Lisa: The biggest way that Sabbath has impacted my life is that I now recognize [00:26:00] when I’m centered and when I’m not centered in my week, this was probably the biggest change that I’ve noticed again, going from working in the restaurant business and being a manager and getting calls or texts any time, day or night I was always on. And it, it re it really taught me some bad habits. But by slowing down and taking a day a week to acknowledge how good God is, how thoroughly he provides for us, how much he cares for us and to seek his direction in my life has continued to bring clarity in my choices as I move forward. I can tell weeks where I have shortened my Sabbath, or there’s been times I’ve skipped over Sabbath. I’ll be really honest. It happens. And I can tell those weeks that I am just not centered.

Rachel: Yeah, it’s very interesting. I’ve done it as I do these interviews. That seems to be a common thread that comes out, that just feeling grounded [00:27:00] in your week when you practice Sabbath and feeling a little bit unsteady when you don’t.

And I think that’s a very interesting, but I mean, it’s just God’s wise. He designed it.. He designed it to be six days of work and one day of rest. Then when we operate outside of that, that perfect design, we feel it. We do feel it. I think we’ve just become, we’d be, we’ve gotten into such a chronic place of hurry and hustle that we ignore it.

Like, it’s kind of like when your body is so inflamed that you don’t even realize it’s inflamed anymore. And then as you start to become more healthy, you start to realize. Oh, I’m not supposed to feel that way. It’s supposed to feel like this. And I think the same way with Sabbath when we pull back a little bit and we start practicing it and we’re like, oh, I’m not supposed to feel unsettled all the time.

That’s not how this is supposed to happen. I think that’s a really powerful statement about [00:28:00] feeling grounded in your week. I really do. Well I w want to make sure that we talk about minimalism in Sabbath.

Do you feel that you are connected at all? Like have you seen any kind of connections or correlations or what are your thoughts?

Lisa: So minimalism is, is really it’s the practice of letting go of what’s excess and keeping the things that you find value in. And. Most of the time when we think of minimalism, we think of the pretty Pinterest, uh, photos of the clean white rooms and clean lines.

And of course there’s some potted green plants and it’s very beautiful. All right. Minimalism is so much more than that. And I am actually pretty. My husband and I different this, he actually would love a place like that. I, on the other hand, I like color and I like, um, a little bit more artistic feel.

Rachel: You are a [00:29:00] 4.

Lisa: Right. I am a 4 through and through. Um, and so, um, for me, I, it’s more about. Uh, do you, do you remember the show, the Marie Kondo, um, uh, is that I think that’s the show, right? Where, uh, you would have you hold something and she would ask you, does it spark joy. And it seems a bit cliche and a little bit cheesy at first, but really when, when I, um, considered, is this something I want to hang on to that that could be a piece of clothing that could be a piece of kitchenware.

That could be something in my calendar. Does, is this something that is bringing me joy? Is this something that. Bringing life to me. And if it’s not, then perhaps it’s time to release that. Not everybody can just release everything that doesn’t bring them joy and then just like go out and buy all new stuff.

Right. If we’re talking about stuff or, um, maybe the thing that brings you joy is going and, you know, buying a van and traveling around the USA and that’s [00:30:00] maybe just not feasible for you right now. So there’s, there’s a little balance as well with that of understanding the place that God has you at and being content in that, but also really seeking out and asking God, Is this the right place of where you have for me right now, is this, is this the right direction for me?

Because if you’re in a place and this could be again, volunteering at church, this could be volunteering in your community. This could be doing really good things. There are so many good things that we could all be doing. But not all good things are the things that God has for you right now. And I think that is really important that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something.

I have been told that like my whole life and I’m still learning that lesson. I just turned 40 last month and I’m still learning that I just cannot do everything.

Rachel: My mom, my mom always said, um, saying no to the good thing and yes to the best things.

Lisa: Absolutely absolutely.

Rachel: Easier said than done, but it is a [00:31:00] good, good thing.

Lisa: Yeah. And it’s not a new concept. Um, but with the, in the past a handful of years, obviously it’s become far more trendy, but people have been talking stoicism has been around for hundreds of years. Right. So there’s the. People have been saying all of this stuff for a long time. And really when we even look back at Jesus and how he sends out the sends out the 72 and he tells him like, don’t bring anything with you.

Like that’s the ultimate minimalism, right, right there. So, um, you know, the reason why the Pharisees talked to Jesus about. Uh, about the Sabbath is because he, they were actually out there like picking up grain. They were, they were getting their food for the day. That’s what they were doing. And so they were, he was challenged because he was, he was working on the Sabbath again at that legalism word. But again, what Jesus shows us is it’s not about what you’re doing or what you’re not doing. It’s about the heart of why you’re doing it.

Rachel: [00:32:00] Exactly. And so that, that idea of minimalism of stripping things away and just leaving what is a value and what of, what is, um, what is a value in the week?

I think the idea that Sabbath kind of. When we, when we talk about minimalism and you had mentioned about, um, taking the things out that we don’t need. Right. And just kind of trusting that what we have is enough. Yeah. And I feel like with Sabbath, there’s almost a level of that too. Okay, you’re going to strip this away a little bit.

You’re going to take out that, that work out of this day, and you’re going to trust that you have what you need to make it through the week. And so, um, yeah.

Lisa: I think they’re very, very intertwined. And I think that as, uh, I think that I’m still a work in progress with the idea of minimalism and, uh, and Sabbath, for sure.

Just understanding [00:33:00] I can’t do it all, but, but a really good story too. Even to references when the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness about the quail and the, the manna and, uh, And God says, collect enough manna on Saturday, the day before the Sabbath, right. Then don’t go collect any on the Sabbath and watch the reaction.

Some people maybe didn’t do that. And then they didn’t have any food. And some people collected too too much on the other days. And then it foiled the next day. So it’s, it’s very intriguing to watch their reaction and then to see myself in that story that I, I have. Same things where I, I try to take too much and it spoils.

And then I end up angry and frustrated and agitated because I don’t have any space for my soul to breathe.

Rachel: Lisa this has been such a fun conversation. I’ve really enjoyed it. And just love what you had to say today. I want to make sure that our listeners know where to find you, because[00:34:00] you do, you write beautifully. And I want to make sure that they get a chance to look at your resources and follow you and all those things. So can you tell us where can they find you? And, um, I know you have a resource for them, so how can they get.

Lisa: Yeah, absolutely. So my husband and I, we have a Facebook page at Bob and Lisa Garren on Facebook.

And so you can find us there on Instagram. You can find me personally, I’m at Lisa Garren underscore, and then we’re also at head and heart space as well on there. And then, um, headnheart.space space is our website and you can get our free resource there and it’s, um, it’s not, and it’s not head and heart that space of head and the letter N heart, that space

Rachel: we’ll link to everything.

Lisa: Perfect. Our free resource is a five day worksheet on living an intentional Christian life. And [00:35:00] it’s really a five day breakdown of Romans 12 with one simple question to evaluate at the end of that. So I would encourage each of you to pick that up and respond to me. Let me know how it challenged you outside of your comfort zone.

Rachel: I love it. Thank you so much before we close. Do you mind if we pray?

Lisa: Absolutely.

Rachel: Would you like to lead us?

Lisa: I would love to. Thank you, father. God, thank you so much for this. Just the sweet conversation with Rachel and all of the audiences listening today, Father God, thank you for the ways that you are challenging us to not be dependent on our own attempts or struggles or efforts, but that we lean fully into you and trust you. Father continue examine our hearts. As we wrestle through this topic of Sabbath [00:36:00] reveal to us your truth and guide us in the steps that you have for us, not in the steps that we think we should be going. Give us wisdom as we seek out what to strip away and what to keep in our lives.

And again, it just keeps coming back to that idea of trust. Help us to just trust you as we lean into, um, as we lean into in this topic in Jesus name. Amen.

Rachel: Well, thank you, Lisa, for joining me today. Really appreciate it. And thank you for listening into today’s episode. Let’s plan to meet back here next week and continue our conversation on Sabbath rest and what it could look like in your life bye.

 Hey, I just want to say thank you for joining me for today’s conversation. I know many things demand your attention. I don’t take lightly the privilege it is to share your time. I want to make things as easy and simple for you. So I’ve linked to all the resources mentioned in the episode in the show notes, [00:37:00] and you can always find the link and more helpful information on my website, www.simplysabbath.com.

As we say our goodbyes, let me remind you that what we’re talking about in this podcast is not just another thing to add to your to-do list. This is not another expectation for you to live up to. It is a gift out stretched from the hand of your creator. An invitation to press pause on walking alongside Jesus in all the things He’s called you to do. And instead the down, across from Him and just be with Him.

It is an invitation to Simply Sabbath.