Big news: As of today, The Good King is streaming in full over at BEC! In this post, Ghost Ship band leader Pastor Cam writes about what his personal and family Sabbath time looked like during a demanding recording season.
When Ghost Ship finished our record, my family and I got away to the coast for a few days to recuperate and celebrate. One night, my wife, Hailey, and I were talking and reflecting on the whirlwind we had just come out of when she said, “You know, the past few months been the hardest season of our marriage . . .”
She paused. I got nervous.
She continued, “but it’s also been the best season of our marriage.” I exhaled.
This is the brief story of why she said that.
Shepherded in Sabbath
A few weeks before I went into the studio last August, two of our executive elders, Pastors Dave Bruskas and Sutton Turner, called a meeting with me. I was a little anxious what it could be about, but when I got there I realized I didn’t need to be at all—they wanted to take a chance to take care of and encourage me. What they basically said was that I was going into a busy season where I would be carrying a lot of weight, they wanted to shepherd me through it. At the time, our church in Downtown Seattle was running five services (one on Saturday, four on Sunday), and to get the recording done we’d need to work Monday through Friday in the studio. Basically, I was staring down the barrel of eight weeks of seven-day work weeks.
Here are the four main points I took from Pastors Dave and Sutton:
- I need to keep my priorities straight: follow God first, lead family second—and do everything else after that.
- I must keep the Sabbath during busy seasons.
- I must keep the Sabbath every day, especially in the times where I can’t keep the Sabbath for an entire day.
- Real Sabbath is spending my entire life resting in the work that Jesus finished on the cross. (Whoa! Mind blown.)
I left the meeting encouraged, convicted, and excited about the recording season.
I heeded the words of of my pastors, and here’s what Sabbath looked like over the course of the next eight weeks: Almost every day, for roughly 56 days in a row, I worked at least eight hours. And every day—every single day, 56 days in a row—I did two things: I rested in the finished work of Jesus, and I put my family before my work.
1. Rest in Jesus
Resting in Jesus looked like this: I would wake up and lean on him for strength and vision. This didn’t always look like hours of Bible reading at dawn—it looked more like me rolling out of bed exhausted, praying something like, “Jesus, help me,” and then spending some time staring at his face in silence.
2. Put family first
Putting my family first looked like this: I had a standing appointment from 5 to 6 p.m. every day on my calendar that was unshakable. Title: Sabbath with Family. Location: Backyard.
That hour of the day in the backyard still remains some of the richest memories that my family has. Here’s how I spent that time:
- Holding my 6-month-old son, Campbell
- Playing with my two-year-old daughter, Riley
- Splashing around in the little kiddie pool
- Lying in a hammock
- Kicking a soccer ball
- Singing songs
- Talking with my wife about how Jesus had sustained me through the previous nine hours of the day
- Sometimes eating dinner, sometimes forgetting to eat dinner, and most importantly,
- Leading my family in resting in Jesus.
It was like leading a really small backyard worship service. Corporate worship took the form of gathered rest.
Reminding to rest
I think that is why my wife came out of 56 days of hard work saying, “This has been the best season of our marriage.” I look back on this barely past season and I actually miss it. I realize that now that I have a full day each week that I could use for Sabbath with the family, I get lazy about doing a good job keeping it sometimes. Sometimes when I’m able to rest for a full day, I forget the reality of the fact that I need to rest in Jesus every day. My week starts to get backward. I start to wake up on Sunday mornings and think, Well, I have a Sabbath day coming on Saturday, so I’m going to work out of my own strength for the next six days. Of course then I just go home, crash, and crawl over to Jesus and ask him to pull out the old defibrillator and resuscitate me so I can do it all over again. I’m writing this all down today as a reminder to myself that all of my strength comes from Jesus. I need to go to him first, rest in him, and let all of my work flow out of that.
The Good King drops next Tuesday, June 11. If you’re in the Seattle area, be sure not to miss the album release party on Friday, June 14.
