Reordering
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
There are seasons when exhaustion is inevitable:
a new baby,
a hurricaned house,
a dying loved one,
a sleep disorder.
In times like these, we order life to the degree that it lets us, we sleep when the opportunity presents itself, and with bloodshot eyes we pray for grace and energy to do what must be done.
In other seasons, exhaustion is self-inflicted. The fruit of self-control has rotted and we find ourselves in an “intolerable scramble of panting feverishness.”*
One of the gifts of my sabbatical a few months ago was perspective. Work stopped but life, of course, did not: kids needed taxiing, bills needed paying, hedges needed trimming. But the pace of life slowed. The posture of my soul unclenched. I slept better. And my prayer was to carry some of the pace and posture and sleep habits of my sabbatical back into life-with-work.
By God’s grace, that was true for a while. But, you know… entropy. Life drifts toward disorder. One day you stay late at the office, then the next, then you’re up at ten at night finishing paperwork for the kids that you could’ve done an hour ago instead of watching the show and — against your better judgment — you check the news, just a peek, to scratch that itch that flares up during election season and you go to bed a little irritable and wake up with heavy eyes and a heavy heart and think, God, this isn’t the path of abundant life, is it?
And in the quiet God answers and says, I’m here. Don’t try to reconfigure your disorder through life hacks and a strong resolve. Come on back to connection with Me. I’ll teach you when to go to bed. I’ll nudge you when you are over-committing. I’ll invite you into practices of life. I’ll help you make margin so you can be present instead of perturbed. “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
That’s what I want. I suspect it’s what you want, too: To keep company with Jesus and with him recognize our limitations, listen to our bodies, listen to his Body — because there are seasons to work strenuously, but we may need our brothers and sisters to help us discern between stubborn self-determination and holy obedience. So, Father, order our lives in the way of Jesus as we yield to your Spirit who is alive and at work in us. Amen.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
Author and teacher Jan Johnson joins Nate on the Life with God podcast to talk about Jesus’ parables. The kingdom parables are the topic of a new book (created from Dallas Willard’s teaching archives) and a companion workbook by Jan.
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2.
Jan Johnson invites us to reflect on what it means to “keep watch,” like the wise ones in Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Women.
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3.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard…” From The Scandal of the Kingdom, read Dallas Willard’s teaching on the Parable of the Vineyard Workers.
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4.
How do we respond to Jesus’ invitation to step into the kingdom of God? Read Ruth Haley Barton’s essay “Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation.”
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5.
Rearranging physical routines like eating and sleeping can be an indirect way to support our openness and eagerness to be with God. Read “Wide Awake to God’s Presence” by Brother Lawrence, the 17th century author of the classic Christian text, The Practice of the Presence of God.
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6.
As you set your clocks back this weekend and enjoy an extra hour of rest, consider resetting your overall pace of life. Ponder this question from Rich Villodas: What if there were a rhythm of life that could instead enable us to deeply connect with God, a lifestyle not dominated by hurry and exhaustion but by margin and joy?
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“The number one enemy of Christian spiritual formation today is exhaustion.”
– James Bryan Smith
The Good and Beautiful God
(source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
Orchard of the Wise Virgins
Maurice Denis 1893
(source)
The serenity of the scene is almost otherworldly — but on second glance, this little orchard of watchfulness could represent a day’s normal activities.
Can we carry the steady, calm, readiness of the wise young women in Jesus’ parable into all the moments of our daily lives?
In solitude and togetherness?
In work and in repose?
In our lying down and our rising up?
A “Bedtime Shema” from the Talmud is a prayer for entrusting our spirits to God’s keeping while we sleep, and setting our sights on rising ready to love and serve the Lord our God in all we do.
TO PONDER
How might tending to your physical need for rest help you maintain “alert readiness” to God’s presence and purposes in your waking hours?