January 2

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I woke up to my alarm clock at 9:30a.m., groggy and said goodbye to my sweet husband, who is on his way to a week long conference.

I did not sleep well last night, so my energy stores for the day were minimal. That is ok. I’m giving myself permission to take it slow these first few weeks. It has been years since I’ve slept well.

I played some guitar, focusing on a favorite of mine,”Glorious Ruins”. I played until the indentations in my fingers no longer allowed for the strings to be pressed down. It will take a while to build up my callouses again. However, I’m not hurried, nor feeling rushed to enjoy something, because January’s calendar is blank, on purpose.

I played with my kitty, with a feather toy she’s obssessed with.  If it were not for the 2 feet of snow blanketing her playground, she would be out catching birds, and other small creatures. For now she’s content swatting, licking, pounching on her “fake bird”.

The evening ended with meditating on Psalm 23. What does it mean for my day to day life, that He is my Shepherd?  I pulled out my thin tip pens and watercolors to test my hand at an artistic form I once was familiar with. Back in high school I was mentored by a dear lady who loved Jesus and calligraphy. She took in 7 of us gals to read the word and practice calligraphy. I cannot say I ever mastered it, but with repetition and frequent practice I could make my way around different lettering styles.

Its time for some sleepy time tea and a hot bath to wind down for the night. I’m hoping to establish bedtime rhythms, for more restorative sleep. Do you have a bedtime routine? Is there anything you couldn’t do without before heading to bed?

Take a listen to “Glorious Ruins”: …Let the ruins come to life, in the beauty of your name, rising up from the ashes, God forever you reign. My soul will find refuge in the shadow of your wings….

What is a Sabbatical?

 

At its basic core, a sabbatical is a season of prolonged rest.

“We’re putting the words of Psalm 23 to the test. “The Lord is my shepherd,” we say with David. “I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.”Ahh! There it is! He restores my soul. This soul restoration comes as we submit to the Lord as our Shepherd, lying down and being still in his presence.”- Soul Sheppharding

“Spending time away resting in God’s lovingkindness — “relaxing and rejoicing in the presence of the risen Christ.”

It means stepping away compltely from your work/ministry setting, to just BE.

“Those in Full time ministry need to be taken out of the circulation for a sufficiently long enough time to re-vision and re-structure their lives in communion with Jesus and his kingdom.”

“Of course, people in other jobs work extremely hard and have great stress too. But if doctors, attorneys, police officers, CPA’s, or teachers get divorced they usually don’t lose their jobs! If their spiritual life grows stale probably no one worries about it. If they struggle with pornography, alcohol abuse, marital issues, infertility or other emotional problems it’s usually no problem for their work life, or if it gets in the way then once they get help they can go right back to work.”

All “quotations areas” are taken from Soul Shepherding

As an accountant assistant, I was able to get my work done, no matter how my heart was doing. It didn’t matter if I was grieving infertility that day, I could go sit in my cubicle and type numbers into a spread sheet. If I hadn’t spent time with the Lord in a week, it did not interfere with my ability to crunch numbers. When I landscaped, I could cut grass just as easily if I had a big arguement with my room mate right beforehand, that left me fuming.

But when your job/task every day is leading people closer to Jesus our spiritual, mental, emotional, physical health affects our ability or inability to do so. I can’t go into meeting someone after having unresolved conflict with my spouse and anger lingering in my heart without it affecting that meeting.  When grief cuts me deeply for 5yrs and wears me thin, I question Gods goodness and at times it feels impossible to tell others how Good and trustworthy He is, when I’m doubting it. It stunts my desire to tell people about Jesus, because I’m aware that I’m currently not believing what I’m hoping they will.

If you find yourself in full time ministry (pastor, full time missionionary,etc), are you filling every moment of your life with DOING’s? Being depleted? Or is your heart close to Jesus, walking in step with him and out of that overflow-you love,serve, help-those he shows you.

How close is your heart to the one you are doing things for?