by J. Dana Trent – Upper Room Books
Learn more and purchase from :
Discover a spiritual practice that helps you maintain spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental health.
“We toiled on computers seven days per week, rising as early as 4:00 a.m. to squeeze in spiritual quiet time before we both retreated to our respective laptops, typing the days (and weekends) away. Though I grew up keeping Sundays sacred, six years into our marriage, we’d fallen into the trap of using the Lord’s Day to catch up. … At its worst, our church attendance was less than 50 percent. … I began, for the first time in my life, to understand why people don’t attend church services.”
—J. Dana Trent, chapter 1
In our culture of constant busyness, most of us feel like we’re never caught up. The lines between home and work have blurred as we stay tethered to our mobile devices and computers. Many people use weekends to catch up on errands and other work that doesn’t get done during the week. God’s commandment to “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy” seems like a relic from a simpler time.
Many Americans balk at the idea of setting aside a whole day for worship, rest, and time with those who matter most to them. Yet we long for more time to spend on what matters most—unrushed time to rest, reconnect with friends and loved ones, and deepen our relationship with God.
An ancient spiritual practice exists that can help restore balance to our lives: the practice of keeping sabbath. But how exactly do we manage to build time for sabbath into our busy lives? Dana Trent explores this question in For Sabbath’s Sake.
With humor and honesty, Trent reveals her own struggles with setting apart a day devoted to God, rest, and community. This book traces the rich history of sabbath, helps you find ways to overcome barriers to this spiritual practice, and suggests achievable ways to build sabbath into your life.
J. Dana Trent knows something about you: you’re working too hard, multitasking too fervently, and not giving your soul a rest. She has a prescription for you, and it’s a good one, and on top of that, she’s a delightful writer. So get this book and slow down long enough to read it. You’ll be better off on many levels. –—Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration
To keep sabbath with our Creator is to learn to imagine the peace and justice that is possible when we work in God s way. I’m grateful to my sister Dana for pointing us toward this practice that is essential to a prophetic imagination. –—Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Reconstructing the Gospel
What a winsome narrator! What sprightly prose! Part memoir, part cultural critique, part historical deep dive, this book will edify you and inspire your own sabbath practice—and will thereby provoke your intimacy with the God whose creation and rest the sabbath hallows. –—Lauren F. Winner, author of Wearing God and Mudhouse Sabbath