Have you ever struggled with keeping Sabbath? What do you do after church on Sunday? Is your Sabbath only 60 minutes long? Or do you keep Sabbath for full 24 hours? And how on earth is it possible in this hectic world? What are your Sabbath keeping strategies?

This is something I’ve struggled over the years. I felt guilty for not offering up the whole Sunday for God but at the same time I knew that as a professor I needed to prepare for my Monday classes and the whole work week with reviewing stuff on Sunday. (Btw, Michael Hyatt had a great post about the importance of the weekly review.)

My solution to the problem came from thinking about Jewish Sabbath keeping habits. Wikipedia tells us “Shabbat is observed from sundown Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact time, therefore, differs from week to week and from place to place, depending on the time of sunset at each location.” I decided to keep Sabbath from dinner time on Saturday to dinner time on Sunday night. It changed everything. Who would work on Saturday evening anyway? So I was thrilled to start my non-working time on Saturday night! This has worked beautifully for me.

Even if you love your work, you need the time to recharge your energy and refocus on God. Once you have started to keep Sabbath for 24 hours a week you don’t want to go back for working non stop. Sabbath-keeping becomes a joy instead of a burden. I dare you to try it.

Q4U: My other great ways to succeed in keeping Sabbath is to reserve Sunday for family and friends and stay away from stores. How about you? What are your Sabbath keeping strategies?