Not a once-a-year Deal: Why we need Father’s Day every day

Even if you are not a father (and yes, ladies, this is obviously you!), or if you have had experiences with your dad and are thankful this past Sunday is over, consider what it would be like if every day were Father’s Day.

Professing Christians do celebrate their Father every day with combinations of Word, prayer, song/music, silence, petition, reflection and practice. Thinking broadly, maybe we should all be even more intentional about celebrating Father’s Day each day of the year. To acknowledge and worship our Father each day, I invite you to consider Sunday Sabbath and its practices more fully each day.

“Yikes!” someone is thinking. “I’m guilted enough with my worship attendance. You want me to do extra? Really?”

I’m not suggesting you add anything to your already overly-jammed schedule. I am suggesting your busy-to-burn-out life could use a refresher—a breather—each day. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

In Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, Wayne Muller invites us to expand the meaning of Sabbath (or rest). Typically, Christians have considered Sunday to be the Sabbath day. Today, how often do Christians fully rest on Sunday? Right. That’s my point. These days, we are always on the move. And it’s exhausting.

Muller suggests the daily routines we are currently doing can be Sabbath practices. How you mow your lawn, for example, can be a Sabbath practice. How you go about taking a shower, where you do and do not spend money, and even how you prepare for bedtime can become intentional rituals. These intentionally created rituals can be ways we purposefully bring our Father into each day of our overly busy lives.

Rather than add another “thing” to your schedule, expand your Sabbath time by bringing the Divine into your daily practices. Firing up the chainsaw, watering your garden, or reading to your favorite little ones can be Sabbath or sacred practices, not just secular ones.

Muller writes of a man who squeezes fresh orange juice every day and then sits facing the window that reveals the rising sun. This man’s fresh squeezed juice is a way of acknowledging and making intentional room and space for God. Imagine something like this being a Sabbath practice.

The long-term effects of us keeping this busy are obvious, so make Father’s Day every day. Walk during lunch this summer with God beside you. Read a verse of scripture while you wait for your computer at work to hum to life. Pray when you tie your shoes. Honor your body with nutritious food. Listen to silence.

These spiritual practices do not take away from Sunday Sabbath; if anything, they connect one Sunday to the next.

Here’s the bottom line. Do NOT add anything to your day except the intentional experience of Jesus’ love in a practice you’re already doing. And Happy Father’s Day every day.