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Taking Breaks and Finding God
Kate Bowler - a very funny and authentic Christian author and podcast - recently wrote, "I’ve been thinking a lot about this season of too much. The too-muchness of what summer becomes—all that humidity and expectation and self-applied pressure. Every summer...many of us are fried. Overextended. Emotionally (or literally) sunburned. There’s something about July that makes people feel like they’re doing it wrong. If your beach days aren’t picture-perfect, if your kids whine, if your vacation gets derailed—are you even summering correctly? One friend told me, 'I’m supposed to be soaking it all in. But I’m just soaked. In sweat. And resentment.' Bless it all."
I've heard something similar from several friends at Saint John's - the surprise that we are barreling our way through a season that used to be a time meant for languid naps in the shade when you've dozed off while reading the latest pulp fiction novel. Summer has become just another block of our life we are meant to plow right through, cramming in meaningful memories with grandkids, focusing on home improvement projects you've been putting off until the 'good' weather, or traveling to places to check off our ever-growing bucket lists. And this is how we use our "vacation time."
God offers us a different time of rest and renewal: God called in "sabbath," a time that God commanded was not to be about how much you can do or what you can produce (and therefore tied to your worth). And God knew that we humans, created in God's image, also need a time set apart to focus on...nothing, really. To simply be, listening to the sounds of cicadas while you look at the glorious black-eyed susans and pink cone flowers growing in your garden. And in this space, this rest, perhaps you'll spend a few minutes talking with your Creator, and listening for the voice of Jesus.
In this week's Gospel, Luke writes, "Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.' Jesus said to them..." But I wonder if first, Jesus told the disciples to begin as he does, going off to a quiet place to sit and rest in God's presence, to listen to the hum of locusts and the cry of eagles, and in that space you'll come to understand how to approach God.
There are about 5 weeks left of summer. I pray that you will take a break from the busyness of doing and spend some time in the rest of the One who created you.
Blessings,
Rev Jill
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