All tagged sabbath
For many of us, the default rule of life demands our production and performance. I fear we have allowed ourselves to accept busyness as fruitfulness, when in reality these two things don’t go hand-in-hand all the time. There are so many good things we can do for the Lord, but “good” doesn’t always equal “fruitful.”
Your body, mind, and soul respond in gratitude when you care for them. The people in your world appreciate being around you when you are fully who you were created to be instead of a dried-up, used-up, depleted version of yourself.
I believe depression is real. And it happens to Christians. It happened to a great prophet, Elijah. Read I Kings 19. He was so depressed he wanted to die.
When we wait, we unfurl our hands from their tight-fisted demands and curl our fingers around the hand of God.
May you find rest in the winter of doubt and receive the affirmation of spring.
Sheep respond to nurture, and we are sheep according to John’s Gospel. Thus, we know our master’s voice of grace, which causes us to turn our heads and assent to follow.
This week I saw a sheep with an adopted master, following close because it knew familiarity and care. It had everything it needed and responded simply in acceptance.
In stillness and silence, the gut string chord of striving relaxes to the ringing philharmonic of divine sufficiency; it is enough.
Squaring off against the darkness, acknowledging its created separateness from the light that is God in the lives of people, is our posture for this season.
A Grateful Haiku:
Gratitude unties
resentment’s tangle leaving
fresh eyes for God’s gifts.
Scott Sauls writes, “Christians possess resources in Christ to pursue harmony between individuals and groups who could not possibly come together, let alone love one another, outside of Christ.”
Radical hospitality calls us to ask ourselves what amount of our own preference might we be willing to sacrifice to create space for the perceived need of another.
God’s image is presented to the world through the people of God, who use all available resources to meet the needs of the world because that’s what God does for us.
My first favorite memory verse was around age 14, and it happened to be Exod. 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.” Hmm, wonder if there’s something to that.
In a world that values productivity – doing more and more – Jesus reminds us that faithfulness is greater fruit than fame. There’s always work to do … so we must begin in prayer.
Gathering one another for nurture, for centering, and allowing oneself to be gathered, for focus, admonition, and empowerment: this is the maternal work of God.
Is the voice of God always a word? Might it be found in a child’s exploration of a grandparent’s elderly, muscular hands? Is God’s voice in the soil they worked? Listen.
Ask, seek, knock. Pray those bold prayers and there will come a day when God’s responsiveness comes tumbling after you. Expectantly wear sturdy shoes every day of your life lest you be bowled over by the love of God.
Next time you feel the savage overcoming the serene, try taking a moment to experience some element of nature.
Finding rest from our work is a spiritual practice first introduced by God in the creation story. Even God models the ability to observe the sabbath period as an important part of our missional work in the world.
