Sabbath into 2026
We began from rest. In all of my years of following Jesus, reading the Bible, and taking classes in seminary, I had never heard anyone discuss this idea or considered it myself. Instead, it came from Eryn Lynum and her book The Nature of Rest, which she discusses on the 1000 Hours Outside podcast (episode #659). For six days, God created, and then rested on the seventh, the Sabbath. Lynum points out that God created Adam on the sixth day, which means his first full day of life was the Sabbath day of rest. We start from rest; we don’t earn it.
If Adam began life with rest, could we begin a new year with rest?
In the transition from Christmas to a brand new year—full of hopes, limitless possibilities, and now questionable leftovers—I can’t help but relish the idea of starting the year with rest. More than likely, we have definitely “earned” rest after the marathon of demands at Christmas, from making magic to balancing relationships and all their complexities to then somehow feeding others and maybe even ourselves. Still, that’s not the point. Adam didn’t earn his rest. He simply existed.
Inhale: God made me.
Exhale: And so I rest.
The pressure to act is loud. All over social media, people are sharing their tips and tricks to starting 2026 “right.” To set goals, join challenges, and find a word for the year. Please, hear me, these are not necessarily evil. I promise you, I will have some goals/targets/hopes/dreams/prayers/words/vision boards for 2026. To be honest, though, I like my goals how I like my eggs: over easy. Short commitments (over quickly) and achievable (easy).
Inhale: God is at work.
Exhale: And so I rest.
Instead of running into the new year with a beautifully filled calendar, a five-year plan crammed into one, and the audacious confidence of a toddler in the kitchen, I might meander through January. Maybe I’ll drink my coffee slowly and finish it. Maybe instead of rushing through a devo, I’ll read shorter Bible passages with more purpose and focus. Maybe instead of filling in the random five, ten, fifteen-minute gaps of my day, I will just be with God. (Okay, real talk, that last one was really hard to type out because…efficiency, you know?! Which probably means I would need to do this one beyond January . . . If you are reading this, you are now my accountability partner in this.) If I don’t have 2026 figured out on January 1, it will be okay. I will be okay.
Inhale: God sustains.
Exhale: And so I rest.
In the beginning, we started from rest; let’s start the new year from rest, too. We have a whole year ahead of us that will be filled with doing. But for now, maybe we Sabbath into 2026 and give a little more space for the goals/targets/hopes/dreams/prayers/words/vision boards to come.
Inhale: God made me.
Exhale: And so I rest.