It was Daylight Saving Time and my husband tried to change the time on our oven. He told me had had some trouble with it and I wasn’t worried. I’d changed it many times before. But when I tried to change the time, I noticed that I couldn’t do anything with the oven. It wasn’t working. There was some kind of strange error code. I tried flipping the breaker, but to no avail. It was time to call appliance repair.

The repairman arrived and glanced at the error code. “Oh, it’s in Sabbath mode,” he said.

“Sabbath mode?”

“Yup. You just need to look up how to get it out of that mode in your manual.”

I couldn’t find the manual quickly, so Google explained that I just had to hold the clock button down to change it.

“That’ll be $75,” the repairman said. OK, so he wasn’t that rude, but that’s what it cost us to fix our oven. Ugh.

Why Do You Need a Sabbath Mode?

My husband kept thinking about the $75 bill, but I kept thinking about an oven mode that kept you from using the oven. Why would one need that?

I know that Jewish people observing the Sabbath aren’t allowed to cook. But why would you need to disable your oven? Couldn’t you just not bake?

A few weeks have passed since I asked myself these questions–a few weeks full of stress and busyness and what one of my Periscope viewers (catch the replay below) called “the creep.” In that time, I have felt exhausted, sick, and discouraged. Guess why.

• I had been ignoring my rule about not working past 8 p.m.
• I had been ignoring my rule about not working on Sundays
• I had been ignoring my rule about not working through lunch

The short answer to why I was starting to fall apart is that I hadn’t used my Sabbath mode.

We need a Sabbath mode so we can be strong physically.

Lack of sleep and unscheduled time can lead to illness and exhaustion that can sideline us for weeks or months. Our bodies weren’t created for continuous operation. In Mark 2:27, Jesus says: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” God asked His people to rest, not because He needed them to, but because they needed to.

We need a Sabbath mode so we can be strong emotionally.

I don’t know about you, but the most exhausting parts of my life are emotional, not physical strain. If I don’t have down time to process it, pray about, and talk about it, I will get testy. If it goes on long enough, I will get depressed. I love what Psalm 127:2 says about rest: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” Rest is God’s gift to us.

We need a Sabbath mode so we can be strong spiritually.

Exodus 20:11 says: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.” When we work seven days a week, we can begin to believe that we are even more important than God. Even though I use my oven A LOT, life in our home wasn’t much different. We got to go out and I made meals that didn’t have to be baked. If you take a Sabbath rest, your family will survive, too.

When Are You Going to Go Into Sabbath Mode?

I determined that I need to turn my Sabbath mode on again at lunch time, after 8 p.m., and on Sundays. I asked not to be scheduled for tennis matches on Sundays unless I am really needed. I am going to tell my family to object if I try to keep working after 8 p.m.

Decide when your Sabbath will be and how you will keep your buttons from being pushed to keep working.

Need more? Catch the video where I discuss needing Sabbath and consider reading

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