A.J. Swoboda > Quotes

“The great irony of Sabbath-keeping is how hard it is for us to say no to people but how with such ease we say no to being at rest with God.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Faith isn’t just Good Friday and Easter Sunday; faith is awkward Saturday too. So much is sitting in that tomb with the soon-to-be resurrected Lord. It’s so dark. So damp. So scary. The silence is deafening. But there is hope in there.”
― A.J. Swoboda, A Glorious Dark: Finding Hope in the Tension between Belief and Experience

“the problem with the Sabbath is there are huge rewards and incentives for not actually doing it. Modern church growth has basically been built on no rest. Our church industrial complex generally rewards Sabbath-breaking as a rule.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Humanity had only God’s goodness to celebrate, nothing more. Work had not even begun. The Sabbath teaches us that we do not work to please God. Rather, we rest because God is already pleased with the work he has accomplished in us.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“We have developed a community that celebrates the look of giving, but somewhere along the way we lost the point; our message has said we honor the look of giving over the heart of giving.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Messy: God Likes It That Way

“What if the church became the best place in the world to learn how to rest? This is an exhausting world, friend.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Being a Sabbath-keeper is basically the art of letting people down at a rate they can handle. There are times we cannot meet the needs of others. There are times we trust God to help others through others. Not every need represents God’s will for our lives. How freeing! Sometimes we cannot do everything we desire, even if those desires are good and wholesome. Jesus is Lord—we are not. Paul had to learn that lesson through his Bithynia experience. If this remains true, we are freed from any kind of messiah complex that maintains that we must do something about everything. If Jesus said no, so can we.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Faith is a gift; beliefs are not. Forming beliefs takes time and often hard work.”
― A.J. Swoboda, After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It

“A Christian does not see a Sabbath as a period of time. Sabbath, for a Christian, is a way of life. All of life for a Christ wanderer is a Sabbath. All of life is one big period of rest—not rest from the day job or rest from responsibilities, but rest from striving. From saving ourselves. From all of that.”
― A J Swoboda, The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith

“It turns out that freedom in Christ does not necessarily include freedom spatially, or relationally, or vocationally. More often than not, we will blossom most in those stuck places we’d never want to be or dreamed we’d be in in the first place.”
― A.J. Swoboda, The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith

“When God tells Eve that Adam will “rule over her,” he is simply lamenting what is to come. God is not commanding it. His language is descriptive, not prescriptive. Adam naming Eve, putting her in her place, was neither what God ordained nor desired. It is interesting that he names her for what he sees she is good for—having babies.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“We think we can fulfill all our own needs with the click of a button. And in many cases we can. Because of this, we trade the kind of community that is forged around a Sabbath for a “sense” of community wherein we are not vulnerable to each other in real and tangible ways.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Paul says there is only one line. And everyone is in it. That we are all broken sinners.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Messy: God Likes It That Way

“This means that the litmus test for true Christian ethics is how those who follow Christ love and serve and bless those who do not.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“In the end, it is easier to try to change God and the Bible than to change our lives. Usually we go for the more convenient option. It is always going to be easier to bend the ways of God around our lives than to bend our lives around the ways of God.”
― A.J. Swoboda, After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It

“A significant body of research suggests that even thinking about work is a stressful, anxiety-inducing activity.24 The problem is that when we think about work, it becomes work in and of itself.25 When we keep a Sabbath, it reorients the way that we think. Instead of thinking in terms of production, the day becomes about presence. Sabbath is not just ceasing from work, but ceasing to think about work.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“To keep a Sabbath is to give time and space on our calendar to the grace of God.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“The only thing original about me is my sin, and even that I plagiarize most of the time.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Freedom in America means being freed from any restraint. Freedom in Christianity is being restrained on the cross that one might be free. Jesus was trapped on a weighty cross and yet he was free. His executioners, however, were free from the cross but were trapped.”
― A.J. Swoboda, A Glorious Dark: Finding Hope in the Tension between Belief and Experience

“Why does God rest?” They contend that Sabbath is not God’s escape from the world (for if God escaped creation, we would cease to exist) but rather an intimate immersion into it. In other words, when God practices Sabbath, God delights in what God has made. Likewise, when humanity participates in the Sabbath, humanity is to “soak it up, be fully present to it and cherish the goodness of the world God has made.”10 Thus the opposite of rest is not work but restlessness. Humanity has become restless in its consumption, which “leads directly to the neglect of the places we are in and the people we are with.”11”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“The problem remains that we are not entering into the thing, Sabbath, that very well could begin to repair our lives. Similarly, Joel Salatin, a Christian pig farmer, writes that when people ask for prayer to be made healthy but do not live in a healthy way and eat healthy food, God will not acquiesce to our petitions. In short, “we’re ingesting things that are an abomination to our bodies . . . and then requesting prayer for the ailments that result.”18 God is not likely to answer in prayer what you are unwilling to repent of.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“A technological society blindly celebrates every technological advance, turning a blind eye to the effects technologies have on creation and the people around us.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Martin Luther echo this refrain: “God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Violating the eternal law is not like doing 40 in a 35-mile-per-hour zone when there is no traffic around; it is more like trying to violate the law of gravity. . . . An apple falling from a tree has no choice about whether to obey the law of gravity . . . [but] human beings can voluntarily wreck their lives by running afoul of the laws that govern their nature.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Few would disagree with the statement: creation is not operating the way it’s supposed to. Through abuse, misuse, and selfishness, humans have been consumers rather than stewards of the created world. As a result, the well-being of creation, its shalom, is harmed. We must be cognizant that things are in disrepair and that humans are the only part of creation capable of reversing the damage done.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“faith crisis” is really just our doing something that does not align with God’s ways.”
― A.J. Swoboda, After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It

“Someone once described to me a lake that was being drained. When all the water was drained out, garbage and other debris were found at the bottom of the lake, which could then be cleaned up. Silence is giving space to see what is at the bottom of our souls.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Erin Lane: “Sabbath freedom is not the freedom to spend our time wisely. Instead, Sabbath freedom is the freedom to live large.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Sabbath-keeping is earth-keeping.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World

“Both Sabbath and worship have largely become individualized—a difficult reality we must be sensitive to when thinking through the Sabbath. Without being sentimental, I do wonder whether something critical is lost when we disconnect our corporate worship from our Sabbath. I even wonder whether something is lost when we stop donning our Sunday best.”
― A.J. Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath: The Surprising Power of Rest in a Nonstop World