EPISODE · May 11, 2026 · 58 MIN
#22: On Rest — Vacation, Holiday, and the Holy Day We Keep Forgetting | Ruck The Way Podcast
from Ruck the Way · host Gabe Smith and Chris Furr
Coming up — Mini Pilgrimage in CharlotteSaturday, May 16 · 9:00 AM · McDowell Nature PreserveA taste of what Ruck the Way is all about — walking, community, and a moment set apart. Chris is flying in from Scotland. The kilt has been promised. Bring your kids. Bring your dog. Bring a friend.This is also our official US launch event for Ruck the Way as a nonprofit. Food, fellowship, and a real mini pilgrimage experience.RSVP and details: www.rucktheway.comOne small stepIf this episode found you tired and you don't know where to start, here's the invitation Gabe and Chris leave us with:Pick one thing. Cut work off at six. Block a Sunday on the calendar. Plan two weeks off — actually plan it. Or just sit with the questions: What do I believe will happen if I rest? Is that really true?Grace, kindness, curiosity. That's the pace.Gabe and Chris sit down (well, Gabe sits, Chris is in Scotland, and the dog is wandering the studio) for an honest conversation about something neither of them claims to have figured out: rest.This one is less a "how-to" and more a "we're-in-this-with-you." Two friends, three cups of coffee, one wandering dog, and a long look at why rest is so hard — and so necessary — in a culture wired for constant output.What we get intoWhy "vacation" (from the Latin vacare, to be unoccupied) is defined by what it isn't — and why that might be part of the problem"Holiday" as holy day — a time set apart, not just emptied outWhat the French and the Scots understand about rest that most Americans don'tThe uncomfortable origin of retirement at 65 (spoiler: it wasn't about your flourishing)Sabbath as something baked into creation — not a suggestion, but a rhythmThe Shemitah, the Babylonian exile, and what happens when we refuse to let things restWhy we don't work toward rest — we work out of itThe deep difference between absence-of-work and reconnection-with-lifeHonest confessions about boundaries, the church on Sundays, and why two weeks off matters more than oneSmall steps for people who feel like rest is impossibly far awayA few lines worth sitting with"We're meant to enter into work out of rest — not work our way into it.""Perfect is the enemy of good in this case. Take a step.""Let the walk do the work."Mentioned in this episodeThe Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath by Mark Buchanan — the book Gabe references on entering work out of rest rather than collapsing into itThe Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1951) — the modern classic on Sabbath as a "cathedral in time," and the source of the story Gabe shares about Heschel's daughter remembering Friday night Shabbat meals and her father floating in the poolThe liturgical season of Ordinary Time — green, unhurried, often overlookedThe Jewish practice of the Shemitah — every seventh year, the land rests
What this episode covers
Coming up — Mini Pilgrimage in CharlotteSaturday, May 16 · 9:00 AM · McDowell Nature PreserveA taste of what Ruck the Way is all about — walking, community, and a moment set apart. Chris is flying in from Scotland. The kilt has been promised. Bring your kids. Bring your dog. Bring a friend.This is also our official US launch event for Ruck the Way as a nonprofit. Food, fellowship, and a real mini pilgrimage experience.RSVP and details: www.rucktheway.comOne small stepIf this episode found you tired and you don't know where to start, here's the invitation Gabe and Chris leave us with:Pick one thing. Cut work off at six. Block a Sunday on the calendar. Plan two weeks off — actually plan it. Or just sit with the questions: What do I believe will happen if I rest? Is that really true?Grace, kindness, curiosity. That's the pace.Gabe and Chris sit down (well, Gabe sits, Chris is in Scotland, and the dog is wandering the studio) for an honest conversation about something neither of them claims to have figured out: rest.This one is less a "how-to" and more a "we're-in-this-with-you." Two friends, three cups of coffee, one wandering dog, and a long look at why rest is so hard — and so necessary — in a culture wired for constant output.What we get intoWhy "vacation" (from the Latin vacare, to be unoccupied) is defined by what it isn't — and why that might be part of the problem"Holiday" as holy day — a time set apart, not just emptied outWhat the French and the Scots understand about rest that most Americans don'tThe uncomfortable origin of retirement at 65 (spoiler: it wasn't about your flourishing)Sabbath as something baked into creation — not a suggestion, but a rhythmThe Shemitah, the Babylonian exile, and what happens when we refuse to let things restWhy we don't work toward rest — we work out of itThe deep difference between absence-of-work and reconnection-with-lifeHonest confessions about boundaries, the church on Sundays, and why two weeks off matters more than oneSmall steps for people who feel like rest is impossibly far awayA few lines worth sitting with"We're meant to enter into work out of rest — not work our way into it.""Perfect is the enemy of good in this case. Take a step.""Let the walk do the work."Mentioned in this episodeThe Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath by Mark Buchanan — the book Gabe references on entering work out of rest rather than collapsing into itThe Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1951) — the modern classic on Sabbath as a "cathedral in time," and the source of the story Gabe shares about Heschel's daughter remembering Friday night Shabbat meals and her father floating in the poolThe liturgical season of Ordinary Time — green, unhurried, often overlookedThe Jewish practice of the Shemitah — every seventh year, the land rests
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#22: On Rest — Vacation, Holiday, and the Holy Day We Keep Forgetting | Ruck The Way Podcast
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