3 & 4 October 2026 (Pastoral Page) THE SABBATH I AM CHOOSING TO TAKE

by Dn Paul Ng

The Church Camp theme this year was really timely for me. I had for a while, since the end of 2025, intended to take the last 3 months of 2026 off as unpaid leave. I was wanting a break, some time off to rest, but the truth was, I didn’t really know what and how to go about taking an extended break.

I didn’t want it to be just an extended holiday with overseas vacations, though that would be something I would definitely include during the time off. More so, I wanted it to be a precursor to retirement, which was just over the horizon. To have a little taste of what retirement could be like, and more importantly, to consider what the next challenge I could be taking on once retired.

But deep down, I knew that rest, the sabbath kind, was what I needed. And so, at the camp, one line from speaker Mark Buchanan stayed with me: “It never comes from pushing.”

I know what it is like to keep pushing. There is always another email, task or problem that seems to need my attention. Even when I step away from work, my mind often keeps going. And if I am honest, even faith can sometimes feel like one more thing I need to do well.

Sabbath offers me a different way of living. I stop not because everything is finished, but because I trust that the world, and my small part in it, does not depend entirely on me. That is not easy. There always seems to be one more reason to postpone rest. I am realising that if I wait until everything is done, I will probably never stop.

I think about Martha, and I understand her instinct to be useful, responsible and attentive. Her desire to serve was not wrong, but somewhere along the way, serving became striving. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.”

I hear His words not as a dismissal of her work, but as a gentle call back to Himself. Sabbath reminds me that my identity comes before my productivity. Before I am an employee, parent, leader, volunteer or servant, I am God’s child. His love is not something I earn by doing more. It is something I receive.

That is why Jesus’ invitation feels so personal to me:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

— Matthew 11:28

Jesus does not say, “Come when you have finished everything.” He simply says, “Come.” Sabbath is a way of coming away from the noise, back to Jesus, and remembering that God is God, and I am not.

For me, Sabbath cannot be only about sleeping longer or doing nothing. I want it to include worship, time with people I love, enjoying God’s creation, and space to recover what constant busyness quietly wears away. My hope is that my work and service will then flow out of intimacy with God rather than striving for God.

So, I am learning to ask a different question. Not, “Can I afford to take a Sabbath?” but “Can I afford not to?”

From October through December, I will be taking time away from work to practise Sabbath. I do not know exactly what it will look like. There may be days when I feel restless, guilty, or tempted to fill the space again. Still, I want to make room to stop, receive, worship, enjoy, and be present with God and the people He has given me.

You can ask me in January how it went. Really, please do ask me.

Perhaps there is something here for you too—not a formula, but permission to consider where rest might belong in a busy life. For me, protecting this time is less about mastering another discipline and more about learning to receive a gift.

I am beginning to see that Sabbath is not an escape from life, but a way of learning to live at Godspeed. As I stop pushing, I hope I will hear again the invitation that has been there all along:

“Come to me. Rest. Receive. And join me in what I am doing.”