Part of the reason we can’t truly find rest is that we are trying to validate our existence to ourselves or to other people. To experience full rest, we need to be free from the voice of self-condemnation.

Saint Benedict’s rule was designed with “a little strictness in order to amend faults and to safeguard love.” His rule is also famous for its gentleness and flexibility. He insisted that “in drawing up its regulations, we hope to set down nothing harsh, nothing burdensome.”7

Sabbath enables us to define ourselves less by our achievements and more as beloved daughters and sons of God. As we become more aware of how much we are cherished as children of God, we grow in our trust of God.

Ironically, attempting too many spiritual practices at once can actually keep our relationship with Jesus on the surface because we are not able to experience him deeply in any of those activities. It’s like speed dating. You can’t have a significant conversation with any one person even though, or rather because, you’re doing a lot of “dating.”

We feel we have to do something to justify our existence. At school, at work, or as parents in the home we feel like we need to outrun our peers to validate our worth.

We don’t read the Bible, pray, or perform some “spiritual task” so we can check them off our to-do lists. The practices, rather, create space for us to enjoy company with Jesus. They enable us to receive the life of God and are thus aptly called “a means of grace.”

Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly,

Most of all, Sunday was a day for enjoying God’s presence.

Benedict’s perspective can be summarized in the famous dictum, “To pray is to work; to work is to pray.”