Most of my thoughts and ruminations right now are finding their genesis in Mark Buchanan’s book “The Rest of God” (2006). These posts are my working out of his teaching in my own life.
I no longer like to go on a vacation where I do a lot of sightseeing and activities and call it restful. It’s not restful being on a schedule or running from site to site in a new place. It’s just as tiring or more than going to work all week. In the past I would go on this sort of vacation and come back to work and feel worse than when I had left. I had seen a lot but I had run myself ragged in the short time I was gone, packing in every minute. Vacation in its root means to vacate, or leave or evacuate something. When we go on vacation do we actually leave behind our busyness, or do we just take on a new form of busyness, vacation busyness? We need to learn how to find real rest. A time that is set apart for restoration and renewing of our mind, so that we can continue on in our day to day work. Romans 12: 2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV)
I must admit that more often than not my dream is to just not work anymore. I mean wouldn’t that be the ultimate in rest? You wouldn’t have to DO anything. I have been deceived multiple times into thinking that if I just didn’t have to work my life would be easier, more restful, less frantic. Why haven’t I won the Lottery or that HGTV Dream Home yet? Oh wait, I don’t enter the lottery… But would my life really be more rested and less frantic if I didn’t work? No I don’t think so. In fact when I stay home and do nothing, I don’t feel any better either. I just feel lazy and like I wasted the day.
I think we really need work. It helps us feel productive and feel purposeful. No the answer to my struggle against a hectic life and busyness is not stopping work. We were created to work. Adam was given the Garden of Eden to tend, and the animals to name and care for. Later work became at its core frustrating after the fall (Gen 3:17-19), but there is still so much satisfaction in a good day’s work. I often find working in my garden so restful and restorative. I see the fruit of my labor in the tidiness of the flower beds, the growth of the vegetables and blooms. God is at his core a grower of this world, a gardener of our spirits. We are replicating God’s work. I love to build things for my house. I love to create and knit something from nothing. To see an idea or plan take shape and come to physical existence is so exiting and satisfying. Again, this is one of God’s core characteristics. He is the Creator. And now we get the opportunity and joy of creating. So removing work from our lives is not what we need. It is not the solution.
Rest is really setting apart time for the sacred. Sabbath time is a time to renew our minds, to re-center and refocus on God’s core plan for us, for this world, to remind ourselves of truth. What we really need is to be made new in the attitude of our minds. Ephesians 4: 22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” I’ve never been good at “quiet times” with the Lord. I’ve never been naturally disciplined to take and make time sacred. This is my next quest, this is how I will stay rested. I suppose I need to just start trying.
7/15/2012
7/06/2012
Purpose
Do you know what yours is? It's amazing how much purpose drives us. We need a purpose in life. Some core value to live for. Now as a believer definitely we have the"macro" purposes to live by. For example Matthew 22:37-39 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There are others like "Be fruitful and multiply", but my participation in that command isn't quite for this moment in my life. So how do we use the gifts we have been given by the Lord? What has He created you to do here?
You see this last year was pretty big for me. First I hit the ten year anniversary at my work and subsequently received my first ever sabbatical. A great blessing, but also a time marker. You see that sabbatical had always seemed so far off, and in my mind I would have accomplished so many things by that time in my life. It was an important year of reflection. Also it was a year marked with a very intense project, long hours and exhaustion. And what was it for? You see, my purpose, what I was created for....it's not what I am doing in my day to day job. That began to gnaw at me. I knew shipping shoes, improving processes, and making sure you could buy NFL jerseys was NOT what I was passionate about. I am good at it, and for years that success and the idea that I had time lulled me into complacency. But that is not what I want my life defined by. So what was my purpose?
After my year of reflection I realized this purpose this calling has been incubating and growing in me for some time. I just needed to articulate it. Here it is...
I am called to encourage, give rest, restore and lift up those that have died to themselves and have committed to a life spent in service to their God and savior. With the goal of keeping them healthy so that they can continue to live out their purpose and calling.
This is what I am passionate about! Now that it's articulated I can't wait to see how God shepherds me in it and where we will go. I have visions but God is the real vision caster and Creator. My prayer is that I will see the next steps one at a time. For now though, I have that core value to go back to. That is who I am. That is how I define myself. I am no longer confined to being defined by my job or my success at it. This has brought me so much freedom. I hope you find and articulate your purpose and calling in life. I am praying you will. Here is a quote that really speaks to the place I am in. Honor your purpose.
"When salvation comes to your house, first you think differently, then you act differently. First you shift the imagination with which you perceive this world then you enact gestures with which you honor it." Mark Buchanan The Rest of God (2006)
You see this last year was pretty big for me. First I hit the ten year anniversary at my work and subsequently received my first ever sabbatical. A great blessing, but also a time marker. You see that sabbatical had always seemed so far off, and in my mind I would have accomplished so many things by that time in my life. It was an important year of reflection. Also it was a year marked with a very intense project, long hours and exhaustion. And what was it for? You see, my purpose, what I was created for....it's not what I am doing in my day to day job. That began to gnaw at me. I knew shipping shoes, improving processes, and making sure you could buy NFL jerseys was NOT what I was passionate about. I am good at it, and for years that success and the idea that I had time lulled me into complacency. But that is not what I want my life defined by. So what was my purpose?
After my year of reflection I realized this purpose this calling has been incubating and growing in me for some time. I just needed to articulate it. Here it is...
I am called to encourage, give rest, restore and lift up those that have died to themselves and have committed to a life spent in service to their God and savior. With the goal of keeping them healthy so that they can continue to live out their purpose and calling.
This is what I am passionate about! Now that it's articulated I can't wait to see how God shepherds me in it and where we will go. I have visions but God is the real vision caster and Creator. My prayer is that I will see the next steps one at a time. For now though, I have that core value to go back to. That is who I am. That is how I define myself. I am no longer confined to being defined by my job or my success at it. This has brought me so much freedom. I hope you find and articulate your purpose and calling in life. I am praying you will. Here is a quote that really speaks to the place I am in. Honor your purpose.
"When salvation comes to your house, first you think differently, then you act differently. First you shift the imagination with which you perceive this world then you enact gestures with which you honor it." Mark Buchanan The Rest of God (2006)
4/05/2010
You know what assuming does right?
Last year I focused on losing weight and through Weight Watchers (which I seriously recommend) and some serious discipline I finally proved to myself that I could in fact lose the weight I thought I was forever going to have. In many ways it was just an effort to prove an assumption wrong, that I was just genetically predisposed to be the weight I'd been for years. That assumption was totally wrong. I lost 20 lbs, and still going.
So after that enlightening experience I decided to test another assumption. That assumption being that I am not really an athlete and that I will NEVER ever be a runner. In fact I used to tell people (usually at work, the world of runners!) that I only would run if someone was chasing me. Yep, great motto huh? And this weekend I'm running my first 5k run ever.
How did this happen? Well it started with my walks in my effort to lose weight just not feeling like enough effort. I started just having the urge to run. Maybe this was due in part to the fact that I was feeling more in shape than I had in a very long time. Just running a block or two and then walking. Then running a little farther and a little farther. For a while all I could do was the walk/run effort so I needed another driving force. Erin and I decided we'd try and run a 5k together to motivate ourselves to actually get to the point where we were running more than walking. For the past few weeks we've ran for set periods of time and walked for a much shorter time. It helps that the Nikeplus technology makes it so much fun to track my runs, pace and time.
It's so satisfying to know that I'm now running. I'm a runner!!! Another assumption about myself that was not true. What's next? What are your assumptions about yourself? Challenge it, you might be pleasantly surprised that you too can experience a runner's high and its not a myth.
So after that enlightening experience I decided to test another assumption. That assumption being that I am not really an athlete and that I will NEVER ever be a runner. In fact I used to tell people (usually at work, the world of runners!) that I only would run if someone was chasing me. Yep, great motto huh? And this weekend I'm running my first 5k run ever.
How did this happen? Well it started with my walks in my effort to lose weight just not feeling like enough effort. I started just having the urge to run. Maybe this was due in part to the fact that I was feeling more in shape than I had in a very long time. Just running a block or two and then walking. Then running a little farther and a little farther. For a while all I could do was the walk/run effort so I needed another driving force. Erin and I decided we'd try and run a 5k together to motivate ourselves to actually get to the point where we were running more than walking. For the past few weeks we've ran for set periods of time and walked for a much shorter time. It helps that the Nikeplus technology makes it so much fun to track my runs, pace and time.
It's so satisfying to know that I'm now running. I'm a runner!!! Another assumption about myself that was not true. What's next? What are your assumptions about yourself? Challenge it, you might be pleasantly surprised that you too can experience a runner's high and its not a myth.
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