The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath

By Mark Buchanan

Book Overview

Most of us feel utterly ransacked: we're waylaid by endless demands and stifling routines. Even our vacations have a panicky, task-like edge to them. "If I only had more time," is the mantra of our age. But is this the real problem? Widely acclaimed author Mark Buchanan states that what we've really lost is "the rest of God-the rest God bestows and, with it, that part of himself we can know only through stillness." Stillness as a virtue is a foreign concept in our society, but there is wisdom in God's own rhythm of work and rest. Sabbath is elixir and antidote. It is a gift for our sanity and wholeness--to prolong our lives, to enrich our relationships, to increase our fruitfulness, to make our joy complete. Jesus practiced Sabbath among those who had turned it into a dismal thing, a day for murmuring and finger-wagging, and he reminded them of the day's true purpose: liberation-to heal, to feed, to rescue, to celebrate, to lavish and relish life abundant. The gift of Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith, says Buchanan. Far from being some starched and dour day only to be endured, Sabbath is a day wide and bright, brimming with laughter, enough to lend beauty to all our other days. Readers will be changed forever by this pivotal book. "It seems very unsabbath-like to describe a book about Sabbath with the adverb 'urgently'--but we urgently need this book. Mark Buchanan shows us that our busyness is killing us--killin us--and that Sabbath is our best cure, our best path for rest and reverence and discipleship."--LAUREN WINNER, Best-selling author of Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath "With the easiness of long intimacy and a very deft hand, Buchanan here braids together into one gracious and sustaining strand the beauty of Sabbath, the wisdom of its keeping, and the generosity of God in gifting us with it. These pages are not just a blessing, they are a psalm that cries out to be joyfully engaged."--PHYLLIS TICKLE, Religion editor (ret.) Publishers Weekly and compiler of The Divine Hours

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0849918480
• ISBN13: 9780849918483
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: W Pub Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Bible and Life Study

Well written, very insightful and worth every moment of time you invest in reading this exceptional book. I and two other men as an accountability group, just finished this book and we all felt this was an exceptional book that caused us to rethink how we spend our time not only in our private devotions but also with our family and community. It also caused us to look at our work, our families, our life from a totally different perspective.

More Than A Book

This is more than a book - it's a study guide and wake up call on how to live our lives. It's a whole new way of keeping Sabath and using Sabath to become the people God wants us to be and to find the peace we long for.

Resting is Good

I'm a huge Mark Buchanan fan. His writing style is both lucid and lyrical. When it comes to presenting a fresh approach to the time honored and at times time worn practice of sabbath rest -- he gets is mostly right. Most of the insights he shares on reinventing Sabbath are helpful and encouraging -- especially for those of us who take life at too fast a pace too much of the time. Admittedly there are places where Buchanan's stories and illustrations seem disconnected from the truths they are meant to elucidate. But even then -- they have a memorable quality all their own. Like I said -- I'm a huge Mark Buchanan fan and 'The Rest of God' didn't change that.

Resting Today

This book appears at a time when few people know how to really rest. There are many ways of approaching that problem, but Buchannan's book seeks to reimagine how the biblical Sabbath can lead us to a truer understanding of rest. I read the book to say more about "the rest of God" (the title) than "restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath" (the subtitle), though of course Buchannan combines them skillfully. I enjoyed the many personal anecdotes drawn from the author's years as a pastor, and I equally appreciated the way in which he weaved those stories into more profound themes. The one that struck me most appears in the third chapter, where Buchannan writes that it is simply "our attention" that "God requires most from us." The challenge, of course, is to live out these ideas once the book is returned to the shelf, but Buchannan's imagery and ideas should help in the process of remembering what rest and the Sabbath are all about.