September Slow Down

 

Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about a work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being. Walter Brueggemann 

 

The way of mammon (capital, wealth) is the way of the commodity, that is the way of endless desire, endless productivity, and endless restlessness without any Sabbath. Jesus taught his disciples that they could not have it both ways.  Walter Brueggemann

 

Re-read the above two quotes today and prayerfully ponder your response.  Some reading this can remember Blue Laws in their community growing up, where nothing was open on Sundays, except the church.  The church cornered the market on people’s attention.  So, the church filled Sundays with worship, Bible Study, and youth fellowship.  Richard Rohr comments that when Christianity arrived in America, it became a business, and we have the meetings to prove it.  What if the church encouraged Sundays or at least one day during the week to be a day of rest?  To stop cleaning, racing, and running around, trying to appease the Pharaohs of today.  What would that look like or feel like? 

 

Brueggemann goes on to suggest that we have a restlessness to keep on, but our restlessness can only find wholeness in God, who ceases to create during the week.

 

If taking one full day is too much, maybe it is half of one day or an hour twice a week.  What will you do?  Short answer: nothing!  Long answer: spend time with God, slowly eat your food, take a nap, and notice your breathing. 

 

May these words continue to guide us as we seek this September to find a sacred pace to life.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

Multitasking is the drive to be more than we are, to control more than we do, to extend our power and our effectiveness. Such practice yields a divided self, with full attention given to nothing. Walter Brueggemann 

 

A divided self is a state most of us know well and live in every day.  We let our attention roam from our phone to the television to the book we have open in our lap to the person who just entered the room.  Somewhere, we decided that we could manage all this.  Multitasking was promoted as a good thing.  Until we all started texting and driving.  Until we found ourselves answering an email in a meeting and realized we had missed half the conversation.  Unfortunately, video conferencing can lead us to think we can surf the web while listening and be present to both.  Brueggemann believes that this gives us a sense of control, or maybe makes us feel like a superhero leaping over piles of emails while catching up on the news and voting on the church’s budget.  And at the end of the day, what has stuck and stayed with you?  Maybe your tone in the email was too sarcastic, and that may not come off as well as you thought?  Maybe you can’t even remember who was at the meeting or what was said.  Maybe you are so exhausted that you don’t have energy to even pet the dog. 

 

To slow down is an act of resistance to the violence we do to ourselves and a theological posture that the person in front of us matters.  Today, be aware when you are trying to do more than one thing at a time and ask yourself, “Why”?  Why am I reading with the television on?  Why am I doing a crossword while talking on the phone?  Why am I listening to a podcast while I drive?  Consider ways that you can be present fully in the moment at least once today with a group of fellow featherless bipeds.  May I do the same.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

                       Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash

In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of the Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods. Walter Brueggemann 

 

To rewire our brains to believe that we are not defined or confined by what we produce and consume will take a minute in our lives.  We have been formed by the Protestant Work Ethic and cultural narratives that “rest is to rust”.  For many, the cultural sin of laziness is the deadliest.  And we have caught a cultural script that if we don’t spend what we make, we are somehow not good Americans.  Remember, after September 11^th, we were encouraged to buy things and go places.  Remember how often Thanksgiving to Christmas becomes a non-stop spending spree.  Remember how, as soon as Christmas is over, Valentine's Day goes up.  We are caught in a cycle of chaotic motion that impacts our emotions.  Stepping out of this stream feels not only counter-cultural but also like we may be shamed by family and friends. 

 

Consider, where have you tapped your credit card to pay this last month?  Groceries?  Yup.  Doctor’s visits?  Sure.  Maybe on theater tickets or eating out, and of course, the gas for our cars to get there.  To cease the endless consumption and production stretches our souls.  For fifteen minutes right now, remind yourself that you are not the balance of your bank account, nor your overflowing calendar with no margin, nor how many people you helped.  You are God’s beloved.  Period.  No reason or rationale.  Remember from Sunday, when Jeremiah said, “I am only…or I am just a child,” God didn’t accept that reason.  Age, gender, orientation, race, and beliefs are not disqualifiers for God’s call.  You are more than “only” or “just”.  How you see yourself may not be how God sees you. 

 

If trying to be still for fifteen minutes, grounding yourself in God’s presence makes you twitch, it is okay.  It does me too.  That is the anxiety of a culture that is addicted to hurry and scurry and the flurry of things.  We live in a world where leaders flood the zone with press releases every day, meant to short-circuit our brains.  We live in a world where social media makes an obscene amount of money to keep you clicking.  We live in a world where being bored is almost a sin. 

 

Breathe, be.  Remember the great words of the hymn, Breathe on me, Breath of God,
until my heart is pure, until my will is one with yours, to rest (my change) and to endure.

 

May it be so for you and me today and this week.  Amen.  

September Slow Down Prayer

 

God, help me find a quiet center in the crowded life I lead.  Help me open the doors of my heart to let Your hope, love, and peace enter, freeing me from perfection, performance, and being right.  God hold me because this feels so counter cultural.  Grant me the strength that I am more than my calendar.  I am more than a random collection of atoms; I am your beloved.  Being Your beloved invites me into a relationship with You.  It is from my relationship with You that I am shaped to connect with others and this world.  Awaken my imagination to dream dreams of new ways to spend time with You, as central to the faith I long to grow and share in these days.  Guide, ground, calm, and call me to continue to let Your light shine in and through me.  In Your savory pace name we pray, Amen.  

September Slow Down

 

While I love the quote from Dallas Willard about ruthlessly eliminating hurry, my Type A personality can want to dive headfirst into these words and solve my life by the end of the day ~ once and forever!!  Any spiritual practice takes time.  You were shaped by your family over the years of childhood.  You were shaped by your education, teachers, and sitting in a classroom.  You are shaped by culture through countless micro-interactions, some even subconscious, every day.  If we want to be slow and savory, we can practice that intentionally in small ways that can be like water shaping a rock over the years.  Here are a few thoughts from John Mark Comer:

 

Drive the speed limit, drive in the slow lane, and stop fully at stop signs.

Get into the longest line at the grocery store and don’t pull out your phone.

Watch a full-length film with friends and discuss afterwards.

Read a novel over a long sitting without your phone in reach.

Listen to an entire album, maybe choose one from your youth that you loved!

 

None of these suggestions is revolutionary, but they are revelatory!  You will discover things about yourself you may have forgotten amid the blur of busyness.  May God who loves to pay attention, participate in the present moment, enfold and hold you this day.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

Yesterday I asked, Why do we let our human-made devices dictate our day and make demands on us more than Jesus’s savory pace?  Do you have any insights or responses to that question?? I know I struggled with that question.  I felt like I was watching a debate between my Type A personality demanding I stay connected, and my heart says, “But maybe God’s love will enfold the person while they wait.  Plus, there is already a savior of the world, and it isn’t you.”  Ouch!  I like having a cape and coming to save the day.  You maybe wondered, how?  How can we have a more savory pace, take a break, and rest?  What does that look like?  I am so glad you asked.  These come from John Mark Comer 

 

• Set a daily prayer time to sit in silence, beholding God for ten minutes or slowly reading through a Psalm multiple times in a prayerful spirit. Or consider pursuing this practice each time you gather.

 

• Practice deep, slow breathing for 3 minutes in the morning and evening as a way of welcoming God’s gentle and slow presence into your mind and heart.

 

• Take a thought inventory of the most common ruminations and worries you experience during the week and share them with a trusted friend in your community. Pray together, offering them to God in trust.

 

I love the beautiful simplicity of these.  They are not asking you to run off to a monastery for a week or throw away your calendar.  Remember from Monday, the events and experiences in our lives connect us to others.  Remember, there are good and holy moments that fill you with delight.  Remember, grace is opposed to earning, not effort.  Grace calls us to show up, not solve everything or feel the weight of the world. 

 

Pick one of the above invitations, or create your own prayer ritual to include in the liturgy of this day.  Whatever connects you to God is holy.  May you find rest, peace, hope, wholeness, love, and God’s grace each moment this day.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat.  Mark 6:31 (The Message)

 

What is your response to Jesus’ invitation to rest?  I am a Type A person who deeply desires to be needed and necessary, and I can twitch when I stop (or I end up falling asleep for a nap because of exhaustion).  To be refreshed and renewed with Christ is an invitation for us all.  And I know that Protestant Work ethic tyrant who lives in your brain says, “Humph, must be nice to rest when there are people who are working five jobs today!  Why should I rest?”  Our minds can be our own worst enemies when it comes to relaxing into God’s presence.  Our cultural aversion to being seen as “lazy” has led us to be addicted to hurry, and this is fed by the fact that your phone is now an appendage you can never be without.  I still remember when the phone hung on the wall in our home.  If it rang, you were not home, you wouldn’t know.  Then, of course, came the answer machine, pagers, and early handheld devices that are now causing us to all feel like we never get to rest.

 

Imagine, not just silencing your phone, but powering it down.  I see the cold sweat breaking out on your forehead!  Why do we let our human-made devices dictate our day and make demands on us more than Jesus’s savory pace? 

 

I encourage you to answer this question.  I know it makes me uncomfortable!  What if someone needs me?!?  They might have to leave a message.  They might have to wait upwards of half an hour while I pray or breathe or remember that grace is opposed to earning (it is unconditional).   Hold this tension.  As always, if you’d like to talk, let me know.  May the Sacred who calls the seventh day holy and for a ceasing of work get a word in edgewise to our chaotic world and souls this day.  Amen.