Book: The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan

Reviewed by: Kara Christian

Today’s young people are living radically different lives than those of the generations before. It is no longer wake up, go to school, come home, do your homework, and get to bed nice and early. Our lives are bombarded with endless responsibilities and unavoidable demands on our time. We fight daily with pressures and expectations that seem impossible to meet while becoming discouraged and upset that our time with God has slipped to the back burner. In this book, incomparable author Mark Buchanan reveals to us the reason for such chaos. We’ve lost the “rest of God” or, better yet, never understood it in the first place. We’ve too long neglected God’s own remedy to life’s busyness, the Sabbath.

Buchanan not only speaks of the Sabbath as a calendar day we set aside each week, but also explains that Sabbath is an attitude, a state of mind and being. The author states, “We have forgotten the ancient wisdom, rooted in God’s own rhythm of work and rest, of Sabbath. Sabbath is elixir and antidote. It is a gift for our sanity and wholeness—to prolong our lives, to enrich our relationships, to increase our fruitfulness, to make our joy complete. Sabbath restores our bent and withered parts.” The Rest of God will help to nurture and replenish your soul while giving practical applications for establishing a Sabbath in your own life.