Wanting to be productive is not bad, but it is a mindset that can easily spiral out of control. I can do my banking, check email, shop online, message people, or watch YouTube any time of the day. I can go to the gym or shops at any hour of the day—or night. In fact, not too far from my house, a 24-hour automatic tanning salon just opened. I had no idea this was a business model the world needed, but apparently there is a group of people crying out for 2:00 A.M. tanning sessions.

The world needs to learn how to take time to stop. I need to learn how to take time to stop. One ancient practice that has consistently helped me is the seventh-day Sabbath. It comes from a Hebrew word that literally means “to stop.” After the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, God had to teach them how to live like free people again. Part of this was learning to stop, which, to a people who had been in slavery their entire lives, would have been incredibly counter-cultural.

This is what they were told:

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8–11).

Every week from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, they were to refrain from work. Not even their servants nor animals could labor. To people who had never stopped working, this must have been good news.

I feel fortunate to have been raised in a home where I was taught to keep the Sabbath, but it is something I have been relearning in each season of life. In school, keeping the Sabbath was easy. I didn’t have much on my plate and didn’t need an excuse to not do homework on the weekends. When I got to university, I really started learning what it meant to force myself to stop for 24 hours. Now that I have kids and a busy job, taking time to really keep the Sabbath is only possible if I intentionally build it into my life. To keep it simple, here is what I try to do in that 24-hour period each week.

Stop. I don’t do anything I would class as labor unless it is absolutely essential to do during that time or it is a blessing to someone else.

Rest. I also try to stop working. I strive not to think about my work, money, or anything else that is part of my regular life.

Worship. I take time to focus on God, to celebrate who Jesus is and what He has done for me. I remember that He loves me and that He is a good God.

Enjoy. I make time for fun on the day! It’s not meant to be a burden—but a gift. Enjoy it. Eat some good food, go somewhere beautiful, wherever that is.

Gather. I carve out time to gather with my spiritual community, my family, and friends. Sabbath is always better together.

In a world that is telling you to “go, go, go,” maybe it’s time to stop long enough to listen again. Why not incorporate some silence into the soundtrack of your life? If you still need convincing, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes about the Sabbath from pastor and author Eugene Peterson.

“Sabbath is the time set aside to do nothing so that we can receive everything, to set aside our anxious attempts to make ourselves useful, to set aside our tense restlessness, to set aside our media-satiated boredom. Sabbath is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude, to receive quiet into which forgotten faces and voices unobtrusively make themselves present, to receive the days of the just completed week and absorb the wonder and miracle still reverberating from each one, to receive our Lord's amazing grace.”*

The Productivity Trap by Josh Stothers	From the August 2025 Signs