September Slow Down

 

Yesterday, we heard how Jesus went off into the wilderness to pray in Mark’s gospel.  We then hear how Jesus came out of the wilderness, called disciples, healed the sick, and began to share his light and God’s love with others.  Finally, Jesus is earning his keep!  Wait, the next sentence states, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”  (Mark 1:35).  From my math-loving friends, Jesus engages in 22 verses of action before finding solitude with the Sacred.  Jesus doesn’t stay “on” forever; he turns the light switch to “off”.  He doesn’t keep giving but allows himself to receive.

 

What would it mean to rest with God?  What would that look like or feel like?  There are many different ways to rest or connect with God.  You can read a psalm, listen to music that soothes your soul, sit in silence, or slowly chew a piece of bread with a sip of juice as communion.  Notice that there is a rhythm here of rest and engagement.  There is a cycle of ministry and stopping the perpetual motion.  There is both being and doing.  Look back at September to ponder when did you stop?  Is there a holy habit in your week of spending time with the Sacred?   Or do you tend to cease movement only when you become so exhausted that your body won’t move another foot or run another errand?  To be intentional about all the forms of rest we need (see Morning Meditations from the week of September 1).  This isn’t just for one month; it is a holy routine or liturgy of our life.  May you find a space and place to be with God today in ways that hold you in healing love.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

In the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus wanders away from his disciples three times to breathe and be alone.  The first happens right after the baptism, when God’s voice says, “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”  Remember, at this point, Jesus hasn’t performed any miracles, preached any sermons, or cured any person who was ill.  God’s unconditional love wasn’t based on accomplishment or achievement.  God’s grace is given not for doing but for being.  Jesus received God’s blessing, and then we read, “At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.” (Mark 1:12-13).  First, this wilderness retreat was sounding so good until Satan showed up and spoiled the moment.  Second, the holy truth is that when we try to rest, retreat, and restore ourselves, there are temptations that call to us to “get back to it!”  Some voices clamor and create a cacophony in our minds, pointing out that emails are piling up, laundry needs to be folded, and these morning meditations don’t write themselves.  There is the script we swallowed from the culture that says, “to rest is to rust”.  Keep going, hustling, moving.  Suddenly, Satan isn’t some creature in a red suit with a pitchfork and pointy ears, but anything that lures us away from being in our belovedness. 

 

When you take time to rest, renew, and refocus on your relationship with God, what does your inner voice shout, trying to motivate you back into doing rather than being? 

 

Does that voice sound like a parent or boss?

 

What would God say in response to the script that demands and decrees you “earn your keep” around here?

 

You may want to go outside to sit under a tree to have a conversation with yourself about where there is resistance to rest within you.  As you reflect on the last four weeks, what have you picked up on slowing down and Sabbath that could be a healing, holy prayer practice in our lives in these days?  If Jesus slowed down three times, how might that be a model to sing to our souls?  Let these questions sing to you this day and week.  Amen.

Friday Prayer

 

A Celtic Blessing for you as you prepare for Sabbath:

 

I lay my head to rest,
and in doing so,
lay at God’s feet and in God’s hands:
the faces I have seen,
the voices I have heard,
the words I have spoken,
the hands I have shaken,
the service I have given,
the joys I have shared,
the sorrows revealed,
I lay them at your feet,
and in doing so
lay my head to rest.

 

This is a beautiful prayer to pray each night or journal as a moment to reflect with God.  Consider the people, places, and the planet we call “home” that you experienced and encountered today.   What words left a mark ~ words that soothed or seared like a hot coal?  What hands held you ~ with gentle grace or demanding fists?  What ways did you show up…and did you show up fully or with a mask of wanting approval and acceptance?  Where and when did you laugh and when did you feel hurt, tears, and frustration?  Offer all of this to God.  Remember, before you know (name and notice), you are known and loved by God.

May you know rest.  May you know peace.  May you feel engulfed in love and held by grace that has all of you.  Amen. 

September Slow Down

 

“We cannot become so impatient for the destination that we arrive before we are ready.  I already know everything I need in this moment to live fully. There is no other book or experience that will make me more complete. ... the caution is to not let the words in a book become a substitute for my own deep knowing.” ― Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred

 

You already have everything to be complete.  Do you believe that?  Part of our resistance and reluctance to observe the Sabbath is the never-enough-ness and scarcity that sings a powerful song to our souls.  We think we need more, can’t stop, and will be judged as lazy if we do.  Why do we believe another’s judgment (approval or acceptance) can make us more complete than God’s affection?  Let that question simmer in your soul today.  Why does another person get to hold the editorial pen in your life?  Why would a person’s approval ~ found when she laughs at your joke or nods at your idea ~ mean more than God’s claim of belovedness on your whole life?  Ponder today places you feel incomplete and imagine God holding your one wild and precious life in all its beautiful imperfection.  Amen.  

September Slow Down

 

Another poem/prayer for slowing down.  Blessing from Jan Richardson

 

Even in the desert,
even in the wilderness,
sabbath comes.
May you keep it.
Light the candles,
say the prayers:

Welcome, sabbath.
Welcome, rest.
Enter in
and be our guest.

 

What would it mean to treat the Sabbath like a guest?  Would you keep texting on your phone if the Sabbath were sitting in the chair?  Would you stand at the sink shoveling food into your mouth if the Sabbath were in your home?   What would you ask the Sabbath?  Seriously, sincerely, what questions do you have after reading these morning meditations on slowing down this month?  Our Jewish siblings light a candle to welcome the Sabbath.  You could do the same thing.  Here is the prayer our Jewish friends pray, “Blessed are You, God, Ruler of the universe, who sanctified us with the commandment of lighting Shabbat candles.”  Then begin to bless people in your family and friends.  Bless creation outside your window.  Bless your life.   Remember from yesterday, your words don’t have to be eloquent or extravagant or even rhyme!  Let words flow and moments of beautifully uncomfortable silence, too.  And let God and the Sabbath bless you this day with moments to rest and notice the rest as a guest.  Amen. 

September Slow Down

 

PRAYING  ~ by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest, but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

 

What I love about Oliver’s poem is a reminder that Sabbath doesn’t have to go according to your plotting and planning.  Sabbath could be like a weed in a vacant lot, weeds persisting through a bed of rocks, weeds persisting and insisting to be seen, and weeds singing to your shy soul.  Where are there weeds in your life?  That is, something you may not necessarily want or initially see as a nuisance, but could hold a blessing?  As we try to find words for this, notice that Oliver says you don’t have to rush to get all your ideas/thoughts to rhyme or to make sure you make good use of your time, but rather be.  Be in that moment where you say, “Thank you”, and listen for an echo of the Eternal in response, which might just be found in the most unusual places and people ~ that which we thought was metaphorically a weed ~ but is actually a part of God’s good creation.  Amen.

September Slow Down

 

A Sabbath Poem by Wendell Berry

 

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

 

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

 

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

 

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

 

What I love about this poem is the honesty that when we are still letting quiet envelop us, when we stop the hustle and bustle of our frenzied life, fear pays a visit.  Notice that Berry listens to the song that fear sings ~ both what is afraid of you and what you are afraid of.  Both are important.  Have you ever paused to consider who/what might be afraid of you?  This seems preposterous!! Who could be afraid of me?  Hold that question, let it sit with you for a while today.  I wonder, what song is fear singing right now to you?  Is it shouting or soft whispering?  Does it cause your heart to race?  It is in the hearing and listening ~ which is to say the paying attention to it, that Berry claims we begin to empty fear of its power.  Remember, Sabbath is a time to slow down and savor.  When we do, our monkey minds may decide to come over and throw a temper tantrum!  After those songs of fear, Berry, claims your life will sing.  Your shy soul will sing.  Listen!  Listen!!  Do you hear?  Amen.

Friday prayer

 

God of rest, You call us to a quiet center where we can be; may we find moments to slow down and stop today ~ not only when we are so physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted we collapse.  Surround us, especially when our monkey mind starts shouting and screaming to go and do something.  Sustain us as we slow down with a reminder that Your love is never earned but given unconditionally and unceasingly.  Help us find the rest notes we need in the music of life today, trusting that creativity enjoys/needs moments when the paint brush of life is put aside for a time and to step back, knowing that any time we are fully present to You is holy.  May the meditations of our minds from this past week, when we have slowed down, teach and tell us what we need to hear and remind us who/whose we are.  In Your Sabbath-slow-ripening name we pray.  Amen.   

September Slow Down

 

That divine rest on the seventh day of creation has made clear (a) that YHWH is not a workaholic, (b) that YHWH is not anxious about the full functioning of creation, and (c) that the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work. Walter Brueggemann

 

When I go on vacation, I sometimes remind myself that our church existed sixty-plus years without me, and it can surely survive at least one week with me being gone.  When I fail to answer a call and the person leaves a message, I remind myself that it is better to share God’s love when I am fully present rather than distracted while driving.  When an email sits in my inbox for so long, I start to wonder if it will go bad like the cheese in the fridge. I remind myself that I am not a Super spiritual person who can work every hour of the day. 

 

God is not addicted to work; God doesn’t need everything perfectly polished (including you and me); and life flows on not only in endless song but in rest notes too.

 

I recently heard an interview Julian Davis Reid.  I invite you to Google his name and listen to some of his music, letting it drench your soul and slow your breathing.  The video above is one of his versions of God's Eye is on the Sparrow.  Or feel free to listen to music that slows that pulse of your soul, heart, and that tiny vein in your neck.  Music helps us slow down, activates another part of our brain and soul, and life.  May you find a melody of music today that allows your soul and body and heart to find a holy rhythm with God.  Amen.

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.  

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)

A question was once asked of Dallas Willard, “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?” His response was, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” 

 

At some point this week, take out your calendar for the last year.  Starting in January of 2025, write down experiences, events, and encounters that have filled your days.  This is what James K. Smith calls a “liturgical audit”.  Every person has a rhythm and routine in life.  I start my day with exercise, writing, pastoral visits, meetings, eating, and reading.  Those are major buckets each week (along with sleep).  Maybe for you, it is doctor’s appointments that take a few hours each week or volunteer opportunities.  Look in the rearview mirror of your year to see what has brought you to this moment.  Pay attention to special moments ~ like trips or guests who came to visit.  Next, write down the emotions you feel with each calendar item.  This might take a minute because you may not have thought much about your soul as you eat or when you attend that meeting.  My hunch is that in the cobwebbed corner of your shy soul, those emotions you feel have been tucked away waiting for you.  For example, does that meeting energize or exhaust you?  Does going to that event feel like you are going through the motions or fill you with the emotion of delight?  Finally, write down why you do each of these things.  Do you feel you have to?  Do you feel called to or passionate?  Maybe you have forgotten why you do this.  For my Type A friends, you can make a wonderful three-column chart out of this spiritual exercise.  For my artistic friends, you can use different colors as you write randomly across the page.  Do this in a way that brings a smile rather than a frown to your face. 

 

Finally, I invite you to rest.  Seriously, go take ten minutes to sit in your favorite spot in your home or park or coffee shop.  As a follower of Christ, Jesus’ words above are for you.  Take a break, get rest (remember there are 7 ways from last week), cease from the constant coming and going to breathe and be.  May this invitation breathe life into this day.  Amen. 

Friday Invitation

 

This weekend, I invite you to name which of the seven kinds of rest you need the most (see Monday’s post).  Maybe it is physical, so you take a nap.  Maybe it is emotional, so you stay off social media and limit your news consumption.  Maybe it is social or spiritual, so you will take some time to be with God on your own.  We need all seven, but trying to cram all seven into one day can be difficult.  So instead, focus on one for today, tomorrow, and Sunday. We will keep holding space in September to slow down to the Sacred’s speed to let our souls catch up. Amen.  

September Slow Down

 

Today, I invite you into a moment of silence.  In this silence, you won’t do anything.  You will focus on your breathing, each inhale and slow exhale.  When your mind interrupts and says you will be late to an appointment, breathe and thank your mind, but the appointment isn’t for another two hours.  Or when the ceiling fan clanks, thank it for cooling you off and focus on your breathing.  We all suffer from monkey mind, where our thoughts grab hold of the steering wheel and punch the emotional gas of life to 100 mph.  We need breaks to breathe and rest.  Remember, God rests.  This is a holy resistance in a culture addicted to hurry.  It is prophetic to say that you matter to God, not because of what you accomplished today, but because all matter matters to God.  Breathe with me today, the breath of God, filling you with the love we need.  Amen.  

September Slow Down

 

Yesterday, we engaged in a prayer practice of paying attention to our body, mind, and all the things going on around us.  Yesterday, we considered the information we received internally and externally.  Today, we turn to the responses and reactions we have ~ creative/intellectual and emotional.  Remember, you are a great scientific experiment.  There are chemical reactions happening inside you right now as you are reading.  You are having a response to these words.  Sometimes we need rest from always needing to have an opinion on everything. 

 

This can be difficult and demanding because the world around us seems to demand that we respond always.  You must form a thought about that event, and you must honestly name your emotion for everything.  Maybe we don’t need to say something about someone’s post and picture of their dinner.  I can be glad they are eating, but does everything warrant a comment and commentary from me?  It can be exhausting to spend our lives on this treadmill.  God steps off and steps away from creating. 

 

To rest our minds and hearts is to open space for the Sacred.  Remember the descriptions from Monday:

 

Creative ~ we stop trying to come up with clever ideas or brilliant insights; rather, we receive.  To rest creatively is to cease believing the lie that it is better to give than receive; instead, open your hands.

 

Emotional ~ we live in a culture that loves to fan the flames of outrage and where we race around believing that only we can prevent forest fires.  Emotional rest calls you to slow down long enough to listen to your heart and pay attention to what is stirring in there.

 

Can you imagine a moment today when you don’t respond to something?  Pro tip: I would not encourage you to start this prayer practice with the news.  Rather, pick up a book you are reading or from your shelf, read a few sentences, and practice just receiving rather than reacting.  Let the words wash in and out, like waves you are watching roll in on the beach.  This takes time.  Our culture has James Bond-villain level creativity at pushing our buttons.  Read something, notice what you are feeling, but don’t race off to write a letter to the editor or comment.  Breathe and be.  If you want to level up, here is another prayer practice.  Respond to an email, but DO NOT send it.  Walk away for at least two hours, go do something you enjoy or take a nap.  Then, come back and read aloud, imagining you are saying the words right to the person’s face.  How does the email sound now?  To be sure, this takes time and practice.  Be gentle with yourself and find moments to rest your mind and heart in God’s sacred spaciousness.  Amen. 

September Slow Down

 

As we continue to consider the seven ways of rest (physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional, social, and spiritual), I invite you to draw a stick figure.  The more primitive, the better!  You can use a pencil, crayon, or whatever writing instrument you have handy.  After your amateur Picasso figure is ready, I want you to scan your body from the top of your head to your pinkie toe.  I encourage you to pay attention to where there are aches and pains ~ perhaps in your shoulders or legs.  Is there a muscle in your body that feels particularly strained or stressed?  Gentle touch where there is a knot in your body, and record that space on your paper.  Now, next to your stick figure head, I invite you to list what is racing and running around like a hamster on a wheel.  Note, this should include good, bad, and that you need to pick up milk today from the store.  Get it all out on the paper next to your wonderful, oblong-shaped head you drew.  Now, what are you seeing, hearing, tasting, and sensing?  Look around the room. What brings you joy or frustration in the room?  For example, I get frustrated by the clutter on my desk, can feel the wind from the ceiling fan on my skin, and hear a bird chirping outside my window. 

 

After you’ve done this, take a few deep breaths.  To be sure, this practice won’t solve everything in your life.  But you have started the day by noticing that your body is carrying a lot right now.  My hunch is your paper is full, especially around the mind/head you drew.  Given all the signals that are sent to us, both internally and externally, we need to take the time to write down what is in the backpack we are lugging around, causing us to hunch over.  How might you share with God?  Is there something God is asking you to let go of your tight grasp of certainty on?  May this prayer practice remind you that slowing down, resting, often means first needing to notice all the chaos in and around us.  Remember, God creates with chaos when we let the Sacred stir over the waters of our life. Amen.

September Slow Down

 

On the seventh day…God rested. ~ Genesis 2:4

 

What images come into your mind when you think of “rest”?  Maybe lounging on a beach with a book in your hand or hanging out in a hammock?  Rest can be hiking, talking to a friend, or taking a cooking class.  Rest is not only stopping physical movement and forcing yourself to sit down in a chair, although that is needed.  There are many forms of rest, but we tend to think primarily of the physical expression of this word.  We live in a hustle and bustle culture that worships at the altar of busyness.  We want to be needed and necessary, filling our calendars each day until we fall exhausted into bed.  When this doesn’t happen (either because we are unable to physically keep on keeping on or because we struggle to find expressions for our energy), we can tend to judge ourselves or call ourselves names we would never speak aloud to a friend.  We base our worth not on being God’s beloved, but on what we tick off our to-do list.  We are addicted to our own busyness.  Recent research reveals we need seven forms of rest.  These include:

 

Physical ~ this need not be seen as passive or sleeping.  You can physically rest while doing light yoga and stretching can help our bodies unwind the tension we all carry.

 

Mental ~ we consume more information than any previous generation, and our minds suffer from overload.  I am surprised that smoke doesn’t billow out of our ears.

 

Sensory ~ we live in a noisy world with dinging notifications on your phone with its bright screen.  We need to step away and find a sacred silence.

 

Creative ~ we stop trying to come up with clever ideas or brilliant insights, rather, we receive.  To rest creatively is to cease believing the lie that it is better to give than receive; instead, open your hands to the Creator’s offering and presence.

 

Emotional ~ we live in a culture that fans the flames of outrage, and we race around believing that only we can prevent forest fires.  Emotional rest is slowing down long enough to listen to your heart and pay attention to what is stirring in there.

 

Social ~ there is a difference between solitude and loneliness.  Solitude is the decision to be by yourself; loneliness is when you crave companionship and can’t find it.  We need moments to be with ourselves, away from others. 

 

Spiritual ~ to breathe and be held by your belovedness in God.  This can include rest from prayer practices, especially if you find yourself going through the motions.

 

Did any of the above surprise you?  Did any stand out to you as a form of rest you need?  How may you schedule your calendar and practice one of the above forms of rest this week?  Don’t worry if you don’t have a whole list of ideas; we will keep coming back to these forms of rest this week.  May God, who blessed rest in all its fullness, bless you today with ways to breathe and be.  Amen.