Resting & Reflecting – A Freedom of a Different Kind
Sunday was a restful day for us. The ancient spiritual practice of sabbath (a day or time of rest and renewal) is one of the life giving rhythms we’ve adopted as we’re learning to follow the ways of Jesus.
Go, go, go and do, do, do with no time for rest or margin is a recipe for life burn out and spiritual weariness. Brene Brown writes, “We wear busyness as a badge of honor. We’d be afraid of what people would say if we weren’t busy.”
Some days are just meant to enjoy — enjoying the good things and gifts from God. Sunday fit the bill! We awoke to not much of a plan or agenda other than to rest, and enjoy some of our favorite and renewing activities. Not to bore you with all the 411, but these are a few of my favorite things:
- An early morning sunrise with coffee in my favorite Loving Community coffee mug (find out how you can get yours) and contemporary folk music on Pandora.
- Taking my faithful canine companion Boomer outside for his morning sniff around, and well you know…
- A little spiritual food via my morning meditations, and reading, and reflections.
- A little physical food with my fav – egg beater scrambled eggs, sausage, and peach mango salsa.
- A quick cat nap (which you can do at 8 am when you get up at 5 am! I love naps!)
- Then Sharon and I laced up our running shoes and chose to worship outdoors (another spiritual practice) in the form of prayer walking our neighborhood.
- We strengthen our bodies while covering our familiar 3 mile loop around our neighborhood, passing by some 15,000 people in our densely populated community.
- We talked about, and prayed for various neighbors and situations over the proceeding 45 minutes. Healing for a neighbor friend’s mom in surgery. Thanksgiving for a godly couple who volunteer with us. Strength and grace for our friends at Arbor House Memory Care Center. Hope for those in the Budget Suites. Spiritual connections with our many neighbors living in apartments. And gratefulness for our local coffee shop and Mexican food restaurant.
- It was warm outside. However we found God in the southern breeze and cloud cover — God’s provision.
- And mostly we listened and noticed…to the sounds of God’s creation, the noises of the city, the people he has called us to live with and love as neighbors.
On this July 4th weekend, when we will celebrate our nation’s freedom, I was reminded throughout our walk and worship that many of our neighbors, while living in a “free nation”, do not know or enjoy a richer and fuller spiritual freedom. For them we prayed the “old school” words of the Prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted. and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.” ~ Isaiah 61:1 NLT
Proclaiming freedom,
Jim
