Sabbath

Above is my wife & boy, born in 2024, who I spend my Sundays with primarily, which are my sabbath day:

Generally How I Spend My Sabbaths

Pre-Baby Benjamin

Morning & Early Afternoon: Church Including my Duties There & Getting Back Home

Option A (Typically if I don't work too late the night before)

7:20-7:30 AM Depart home for church - 30 minute drive, multi-tasking legally while driving by listening or engaging in something spiritual, i.e. audio-books, prayer, worship, etc.8:00 AM-8:15 AM - join the pastor's council that I'm part of in prayer for the services of the day at WOW Church as part of my duties with the pastor's council.8:30 AM-10:30 AM - early church service including my duties as part of the pastor's council at church such as being available for prayer afterward for people in need of prayer.10:30 AM-11:30 AM - Sunday school at WOW Church including my duties with helping the Sunday school11:30-12:15 - drive around 30 minutes home from church, in some cases going by Costco or another store for groceries & other home supplies. While driving, multi-tasking legally while driving by listening or engaging in something spiritual, i.e. audio-books, prayer, worship, etc.

Option B (Typically if I work late the night before, especially if working until after midnight. Getting <8 hrs of sleep has a more negative impact on my performance, concentration & mood than most)

9:50-10 AM Depart home for church - 30 minute drive, multi-tasking legally while driving by listening or engaging in something spiritual, i.e. audio-books, prayer, worship, etc.

10:30-11:30 AM matches option A

11:30 AM-1:30 or 2 PM - 2nd church service including my duties as part of the pastor's council at church such as being available for prayer afterward for people in need of prayer.

1:30 or 2-2:15 or 2:45 - drive/errands matching option A

Afternoon & Evening: Family Time, Personal Tasks, Personal Development, Rest, but Not Wasting Time

After I get home from church, and in some cases, errands, how I spend my day depends on my wife's schedule for the day. I don't get as much time as many with my wife Monday-Saturday due to my hours at work, so Sundays are crucial to my relationship with my wife. If she's available all day and evening, I'll often spend that time with her. Sometimes we'll also spend some time with her family or my family. If she's not available all day, It is my goal to not waste time on merely leisurely activities, but seek to engage in truly replenishing activities, learning & useful non-real estate related tasks like writing on this website about spiritual matters, watching faith-based film/TV like the Chosen TV show & the Case for Faith series (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4) by Lee Strobel, writing drafts in a private format, writing to others, managing my large Wheaton College alumni Facebook group, my small Ministry Miles FB page, managing my small spiritually oriented Facebook group or other spiritually oriented groups, working on my Ministry Miles page, working on my homeless ministry page, working on spiritual videos/my Christian oriented Youtube channel, or otherwise. While I typically don't take the time for it, in some cases, especially if I have a heavy amount of sleep debt from the night before or a long work week, I'll sometimes get extra sleep on Sundays as well.

s

Post-Baby Benjamin

Sundays I care for Benjamin more than my wife, while my wife typically takes care of him on Saturdays even more than I do on Sundays, since I work on Saturdays.

Exceptions

It is important that I am still available for urgent matters at work in some cases. For instance, if someone asks for a showing, I can typically take the time to arrange for another agent to show a property. I use auto-replies on Sundays for those who text me, change my voicemail to a Sunday-specific message, and use auto-replies for those who email me. I set those up the Saturday night prior. If someone always needs me on Sundays, it's best for me to refer them to another agent and for them to stop working with me. See more exceptions and details on my Sunday policy from a business standpoint here.

My View of the Sabbath:

Is the Sabbath a biblical requirement?

Mark 2:23-28 is an example of how Jesus states in the New Testament that the Sabbath is something that is good for people, but not if it's being followed myopically to the point where it's actually hurting or depriving people needlessly.

23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Matthew Henry has a good commentary on the subject:

[1.] Whom the sabbath was made for (v. 27); it was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. This we had not in Matthew. The sabbath is a sacred and divine institution; but we must receive and embrace it as a privilege and a benefit, not as a task and a drudgery. First, God never designed it to be an imposition upon us, and therefore we must not make it so to ourselves. Man was not made for the sabbath, for he was made a day before the sabbath was instituted. Man was made for God, and for his honour and service, and he just rather die than deny him; but he was not made for the sabbath, so as to be tied up by the law of it, from that which is necessary to the support of his life. Secondly, God did design it to be an advantage to us, and so we must make it, and improve it. He made if for man. 1. He had some regard to our bodies in the institution, that they might rest, and not be tired out with the constant business of this world (Deu. 5:14); that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest. Now he that intended the sabbath-rest for the repose of our bodies, certainly never intended it should restrain us, in a case of necessity, from fetching in the necessary supports of the body; it must be construed so as not to contradict itself—for edification, and not for destruction. 2. He had much more regard to our souls. The sabbath was made a day of rest, only in order to its being a day of holy work, a day of communion with God, a day of praise and thanksgiving; and the rest from worldly business is therefore necessary, that we may closely apply ourselves to this work, and spend the whole time in it, in public and in private; but then time is allowed us for that which is necessary to the fitting of our bodies for the service of our souls in God's service, and the enabling of them to keep pace with them in that work. See here, (1.) What a good Master we serve, all whose institutions are for our own benefit, and if we be so wise as to observe them, we are wise for ourselves; it is not he, but we, that are gainers by our service. (2.) What we should aim at in our sabbath work, even the good of our own souls. If the sabbath was made for man, we should then ask ourselves at night, "What am I the better for this sabbath day?" (3.) What care we ought to take not to make those exercises of religion burthens to ourselves or others, which God ordained to be blessings; neither adding to the command by unreasonable strictness, nor indulging those corruptions which are adverse to the command, for thereby we make those devout exercises a penance to ourselves, which otherwise would be a pleasure.

Biblical Exceptions

In my work, I don't do showings on Sundays, but even then on at least one occasion I made an exception when a buyer showed up to the house of a seller unannounced and requested a showing unaccompanied with the sellers home. Since I was available, I promptly went to the house. In the vast majority of cases for Sunday showings, I'm able to arrange for another experienced agent to show buyers properties.

Jesus was frequently criticized for being supposedly in breach of a very narrow view of the Sabbath, whether because he was healing that day or otherwise.

Luke 14:1-5 states:

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.

5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.

Must a Sabbath be on Sundays?

Personally, I don't think so. That said, Sunday is perfect for me, since much of real estate is at a standstill on Sundays, family is more available since they're mostly off work, & church is on Sundays.

Did you know that the original Sabbath (for the Jewish people) that is still celebrated today was actually from Friday at sunset to Saturday night at Sunset? Christians changed the day of worship to Sundays to honor the day that Jesus rose from the dead. That should be an indication by itself that the actual day doesn't matter as much as the practice of resting once fully every week from your work.

Colossians 2:16 states, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath."

Biblical Problem with Limited Dedicated Spiritual Activity, But All Play Every Sabbath

See Isaiah 58:13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly;"

If we go to Matthew Henry's commentary again on the passage, he states, "The sabbath is a sign between God and his professing people; his appointing it is a sign of his favour to them; and their observing it is a sign of their obedience to him. We must turn from... doing our pleasure on that holy day, without the control and restraint of conscience; or from indulging in the pleasures of sense. On sabbath days we must not follow our callings, or our pleasures. In all we say and do, we must put a difference between this day and other days. Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord's day, and is fitly called so still; and for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ's day, Revelation 1:10. If we thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, we shall have the comfort and profit of it, and have reason to say, It is good to draw near to God."

Related:

Time Management