Rest better. Care for yourself. Establish a “healthy relationship with yourself.” These are the new laws that reign in the corporate consumer capitalist treadmill we run on. Even our rest has to be “productive.” But many people report that lazy weekends in front of Netflix, trips to the spa, or even relaxing is not even restful in our anxious over-saturated culture. Is true Sabbath even possible in the age of smart-phones and social media that never truly let you leave the office or clear your mind?

Commands to take sabbath are just that, commands. They are functions of the law in our lives that give us the false promise that if we do something just right we’ll be more productive, more valuable, more admirable and more loved. Might God be up to something else when we are invited to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy?

As St. Augustine reflected in his famous autobiographical prayer to God, “Our hearts are never at rest until they rest in you.” True Sabbath is this. The gift to rest in God’s presence opens up when we hear God’s promises as limited creatures but also infinitely beloved children. In short, true Sabbath is hearing and trusting the Gospel.

At the 2025 Crossings Conference we will hear a variety of speakers walk us through this gift of Sabbath that is given to us in a preacher’s words. As a counter-point to the growing and inwardly obsessed culture of “self-care” we will hear how God claims and renews us for a different kind of relationship with our neighbors and all creation. During times of teaching, worship, and fellowship we will reflect on what God’s promise of rest in Christ might mean for us and for our neighbors. No longer will Sabbath be a vision quest to seek and work on our better selves with some “me time,” but the good news of one who seeks us, weary and heavy burdened as we are, to give us rest.