Most of us feel utterly ransacked. We are waylaid by endless demands and stifling routines. Even our vacations have a panicky, task-like edge to them. "If I only had more time," is the mantra of our age. But is this the real problem?

Widely acclaimed author Mark Buchanan states that what we've really lost is "the rest of God—the rest God bestows and, with it, that part of himself we can know only through stillness." The gift of Sabbath is essential to our full humanity and faith. God, knowing that, and knowing how easily we might neglect it, made it a command. We've neglected it anyhow. We've lost the rest of God.

This book seeks to change that—to help us receive anew the gift of Sabbath, this day of rest and play and replenishment. Sabbath allows us to live more fully into our status as free people, people released from the gruelling, incessant demands of taskmasters. And in the sweet shadow of Sabbath, we anticipate the ultimate rest—heaven.

Mark Buchanan is a pastor on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He is the author of many books, including Your God is Too Safe, Things Unseen, and The Holy Wild.