This Sunday I referred to BJ Fogg and his Tiny Habits method. You can learn his method by working right now on 3 new habits when you sign up here for 5 days of FREE habit coaching. And yes, a human being is your coach. (A few years back you might have gotten me as your coach, too. LOL!)
A wonderful book on Sabbath rest is Marva Dawn's Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resisting, Embracing, Feasting. She draws on Scriptural sources as well as authors both Jewish and Christian to explore the riches of Sabbath practice. Years ago, this book inspired Christina and me to reshape some of our household and professional habits.
And here is one of them: retreat. When we were both college professors, we began marking the beginning of a new academic semester by taking a couple of days off for personal retreat. We would go separately, individually. If we could work it out, we would go to a retreat center. If not, we would even just book a room in a hotel for a night or two. These were times when we would consciously unplug from the world outside of us (to varying degrees, and yes, I confess, with varying degrees of success). But we would at least break the rhythm of daily life and seek intentional times of prayer, communion with God and rest. Alone. Sometimes we would fast, too. The idea was that we were embarking on something big--the semester ahead--which would demand a lot from us. So we seek to be re-centered in our relationship with Jesus so we could be at our best.
If you are looking for a good biblical example of this, look no further than Jesus. Who retreated to the wilderness with fasting for 40 days to begin his public ministry. And he routinely stole away for smaller times throughout his ministry (see Luke 5 and 6).
More recently, I took a lengthier retreat after the end of a particularly difficult season of ministry. It allowed me the time and space to be alone with God after a very stressful and demanding time. It really helped me process a lot of what I experienced. Even though it was January, I found it healing to be outside in the beauty of a retreat center in western Illinois, along the Mississippi bluffs.
So we cannot commend the practice to you enough!
We are also offering opportunities for us as a church to go on retreat together. Retreat does not have to be alone. It can be a wonderful time for us reconnect with the LORD corporately. For us, together, to listen more attentively to Him...and in so doing, we deepen our fellowship one with another.
Looking ahead, Christina will be leading our church's Advent retreat on Saturday, December 7th, 9AM-3PM. This will be a time to reflect more deeply on the meaning of Advent--on our expectant waiting upon Immanuel, God with us. The hope is, maybe we as a church can learn better how to patiently wait upon the LORD.
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