Andy Crouch on True Rest vs. Leisure: How Sabbath Breaks the Idols of Work and Technology

Good Faith

News, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can Sabbath Rest Be a Circuit Breaker for Idolatry?

Host Curtis Chang and Good Faith podcast regular Andy Crouch explore how practicing true Sabbath rest can help Christians break free from burnout, technology overload, and the constant pressure to produce. Andy explains the biblical vision of Sabbath, the difference between rest and leisure, and why so many people feel enslaved to email, phones, and digital noise. They offer practical tools for burnout recovery, Sabbath rest practices, and Christian digital detox, helping listeners rediscover rhythms of rest, contemplation, and spiritual formation. If you're searching for guidance on how to practice Sabbath, how to disconnect from technology, or how to recover from burnout as a Christian, this conversation with Andy Crouch provides a hopeful path to real rest.

(02:24) - The Value of Rest Modeled in Creation

(13:04) - The Cycle of Rest, Contemplation, & Creation in Modern Work

(21:31) - Is Ceasing Labor Different Than Resting From It?

(28:49) - Breaking Free from the Labor Involved in Leisure

(32:18) - True Rest Requires Spiritual Practices

(37:44) - How Can We Rediscovering Sabbath Rest Together?

Drawing from a previous conversation with Andy Crouch, this episode examines how Sabbath rest revitalizes the inner life.

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Mentioned In This Episode:

Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath: It's Meaning for Modern Man
Andy Crouch's The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place
David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Scriptural Thoughts on Rest:

Genesis 1–3 (ESV) - Genesis and the Creation Story
Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV) - The Sabbath commandment
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (ESV) - Observance of the Sabbath Day

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think in a way the Bible is so pre-modern that it can't imagine people would have to be told
0:05.2	you should put away your phones and go to sleep. So that's not a commandment. I mean, I just think
0:10.0	ancient people couldn't imagine a world in which people just don't even sleep at night. But it does
0:14.3	make very fundamental a weekly practice of a day, a day of rest. And I just think that's essential. And the people I know who do it
0:24.2	are so grateful and humble and happy people. Their lives are not perfect and they're not happy
0:30.2	all the time. But their baseline is so different from people who don't. And I just want to say,
0:35.3	like they say, that, hey, keep coming back, it works,
0:37.7	keep taking a day off every week,
0:39.8	and you will find good things will come,
0:42.5	not prosperity in some mechanical sense,
0:45.2	but like the good life is a life with that day off.
0:49.1	As an image bearer of God,
0:50.1	it's like your birthright to have that day.
1:07.2	Thank you. God, it's like your birthright to have that day. Welcome to the Good Faith podcast with your host, Curtis Chang. And the Good Faith podcast is a production
1:13.6	of Redeeming Babel. And it's where we gather with friends who follow Jesus and together we're helping
1:20.5	each other make sense of the world. And joining me today is very good friend, Andy Crouch,
1:26.8	who's going to help us make sense of a very important
1:29.8	topic that often is neglected in this world, and it's the topic of rest. So, Andy, thank you
1:35.9	so much for joining us. It is a pleasure to be back. And we actually, it's not only a pleasure,
1:41.8	but it's a rare opportunity because Andy is about to go offline for quite some time on an extended sabbatical.
1:52.0	So we thought we were going to miss Andy for at least until next year.
1:56.6	So this is a long sabbatical Andy is taking and shows his commitment to a very serious practice
	...

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