You may be joining us for a little Sabbatical Reading. We are starting with the book Uncluttered by Courtney Ellis. There are still a couple copies in the church lobby if you want to pick one up! Here is the reading schedule!
June 15 Chapters 1-6
June 22 Chapters 7-11
June 30 Chapters 12- 14
I hope that you will join us. This book has already been an incredible start to the Sabbatical Journey. It took a couple crazy weeks of things falling apart to really get going, but then that’s why we take sabbaticals anyway. Right?
For 17 years I have been called to various places in ordained ministry. It is something I love more than almost anything. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But that doesn’t mean life is always perfect. That doesn’t mean work is always perfect. Far from it probably. Sabbatical is a time to intentionally stop and reflect. On life. On the church. On calling. On God.
So here I am a couple weeks into sabbatical, finding rest and retreating. Finally! We will talk more on sabbath and retreat in the book discussion, but I had forgotten, oh how I had forgotten how important retreating is. It took getting here to remind me of that. I was reading about the hesitancy to use the word retreat by current Christians. There is something funny about the word. A military unit retreats when it can fight no longer. When they need rest. When the wounded need to heal. An army retreats when they withdraw from enemy forces as a result of defeat. I get it when it is said like that retreat sounds like you have lost.
But in all honesty that is exactly what I have done. I have retreated, and in all honesty I should have done it sooner or more often. And really it is just that kind of retreat. It is a retreat from the enemy of time or saying yes of the pressures of being a mom or a great pastor. Three days into the seven a see it a little more clearly. It is me, waiving a white flag saying wait, stop, I retreat. I have lost, at least this battle. I have said yes one too many times. I have forgotten to take rest in moments I needed to. Life has become to crazy, too cluttered. I need to mend my wounded places. I need to regroup. I need to heal. I need to look at the bigger picture again. I need a little Sabbath.
But the problem is we live in a world or a society that has some how told us the retreating is a sign of defeat or weakness. It isn’t. And so it is time to stand up to all the things that get dumped on our plates. To say wait, I need a minute. When did we get out of the habit of retreating or taking Sabbath? What happened? Here I sit, next to the bay waters rushing in living into retreat. Stillness. Quiet. And I say it has been to long, and not just for me I suspect.
I hope you will join me on this Sabbath’s Journey and take a little time to retreat yourself. To read. To study Scripture. To renew. To mend. To be healed.
Peace
Rev. Heather