Resting in the Roost

Read these two great passages in Psalm:

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.  (Psalm 116:7)

 Unless the LORD builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the LORD protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good.  It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones. (Psalm 127:1-2 NLT)

Today's question informs us that the Hebrew word used for "rest" in Psalm 116 is manoah, which means resting place.  The root word conveys the image of a roost or a place to land.  Like birds, souls need a place to roost and rest in safety.  Which image bests describes your soul right now --a bird in constant flight with no place to land or a bird safely resting on a roost? Why?

Hindsight is 20/20

Today's question is a pretty cool exercise.  Think of a commitment you made that you later regretted making.  Maybe it's an ongoing commitment for something like volunteer work, or maybe it was just a one time event.  Imagine that this is a commitment you haven't made yet.  Briefly describe the commitment and then use the three questions below to evaluate the commitment:

• Is this right or wrong?  (Yes or no, and why?)
• Will I enjoy this?
• Is this wise in light of my desire to stay grounded in what matters most to me and God?

Then to follow up, think about these questions:

• Would your responses to each of the above questions lead you to make a different decision? Or would it have been the same? Why?
• When you think about your existing commitments, which (if any) wouldn't pass the third question above?
• What prevents you from stepping down from these commitments?

For me, the thing I think of happened back in college my senior year.  Going into that year, I had committed to being the producer for our on campus TV station.  This made sense for me as that is what my major was: broadcast journalism.  So career-wise, it made sense. It seemed right at the time.  I also thought I'd enjoy it.  However, once I got into it, I realized that it was a lot of hours that I wasn't prepared for.  I had already been involved in dance team, my sorority, student senate, and a variety of other activities.  I just didn't have the time to commit to the job. Based on this reality, I would say that it wasn't wise of me to commit to.  I was only adding to my full schedule, pushing out time for God and adding in more things that ultimately ended up just creating more stress for me.

I finally ended up talking it over with a good friend, and stepped down from the commitment.  This ended up being the right decision for me.  I had to weigh how much was enough for advancing my career, while also balancing other activities and time.  I decided that my job at the local TV station would be the better item on my resume for my career path, and that my other commitments outside of that were more important.  After I stepped down, I felt a huge sense of relief. 

Alone time

If you aren't reading the 'in between' questions in our Weird study right now, you totally should.  I've been trying to pick out just a few to blog about, but they're all REALLY good this week.  I would encourage you to take some time and read through them :-)

For today, it's on to question #2:

Jesus was often in high demand, but he never allowed those demands to control him.  In fact, he typically took time out from his work to rest and pray.  (Read Mark 6:30-32).  Based on these passages, answer the following:

• What do you notice about when Jesus chose to rest?
• How did Jesus choose to rest? What conditions were essential?
• How did Jesus' decisions related to rest acknowledge his human limitations and dependence on God?
• Are you able to choose times of intentional rest in the midst of your schedule, or do you take only the rest you can get when your schedule allows?
• Overall, would you say your decisions about when and how to rest acknowledge or defy your human limitations?  Affirm or deny your dependence on God?

Pick one of the bullets above and comment on it.  For me,  I'll talk about the first two and the example Jesus provides us about resting.  What I notice about this passage is a couple of things: a) He rested after completing a task.  He didn't quit in the middle of teaching a crowd of people, but did so after they were done. b) He rested when his body was physically in need of rest.  They didn't even have time to eat.  Instead of pushing on, He made his disciples rest as well as himself.  c) resting involved being quiet and alone.  I don't know about you, but I only have a few times during the day where it's quiet and I'm alone.  But I think this is an important thing to try and do if you really want rest. Good rest.  Rejuvenating rest.

I love how practical the Bible can be for us.   I can immediately apply the steps that Jesus took to rest to my life.

But no rest for right now - I think the baby just woke up from her nap.  See ya!

Pace of life

The first question for the 'between-sessions personal study' is pretty easy and straightforward.  Refer to your participant's guides and answer the five sub-questions of question #1.  Don't worry - they're mostly all multiple choice, and I promise it'll take you less than five minutes.

Done?  Okay.  Based on your responses, how would you describe the impact your pace of life has on you - physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually?  Pick one of these to discuss on the comments on this blog.

For me, going through this exercise might be a little skewed.  Transitioning from working full time, to then part time, to then staying home full time with Ellie - I feel like I have a surplus of time right now.  I'd say I'm in the 'honeymoon phase' of stay-at-hom-mom-dom right now.  Don't get me wrong - it's not like I'm sitting at home eating bonbons all day.  I stay plenty busy keeping up with Ellie and keeping our house in order, but compared to doing it all while also working...presently, I'm feeling fairly well balanced. 

For this question, I'll discuss how my pace of life has impacted me relationally.  More specifically, my relationship with Ron.  A lot has changed in the last month.  We no longer drive together to work, so we don't have that 30-60 minutes of talking with just the two of us.  But on the other hand, we have more time in the evening as Ron isn't coaching soccer right now.  But, there are many times that Ron will be home from work, and once Ellie's gone to bed, I'll busy myself by doing housework.  My reason?  Because if I do it now while Ellie's sleeping, I won't have to do it tomorrow when she's awake and I can spend more time with her.  This is good for my relationship with Ellie, but where does that leave my relationship with Ron? With every choice I make about how I spend my time, there's an opportunity cost involved.  I'm trying to do a better job of balancing this so that I can spend time with BOTH my husband and my daughter.

The narrow gate

Today's question is question #3 from the Weird personal study time for this week. 

The broad route is often the normal route, the one most people follow. But Jesus taught that the broad route won't lead us to the life he wants us to have:

"Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14)."

The metaphor of broad and narrow gates implies that there are some things that won't fit through a narrow gate.  What might you have to let go of in order to pass through the small gate or walk the narrow road that leads to life?

 Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Charting our "normal"

The first question of the "Between Sessions Personal Study" is:

Use the following chart to briefly assess what constitutes "normal" in your life right now..  For each area of life, consider attitudes as well as behaviors.  How do you typically think, feel and act in this area?  Areas include:

• Pace of Life (flexibility, scheduling, levels of fatigue or rest)

•  Personal Finances (earning, giving, saving, spending, debt)

• Relationships (family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors)

• Marriage/Dating/Sexuality (intimacy, connection, affirmation, communication, commitment, integrity)

•  Spiritual Life (desire for God, practice of spiritual disciplines - prayer, solitude, journaling, etc. - growth in love of God and others

•  Other

I'll start with one of ours by talking about personal finances.  We're starting a new normal by living on one income, so it will be an adjustment.  I've got a set budget, though somewhat loose.  We still tithe 10% to the church, and also support our friends' ministry in Africa.  Debt for us includes our mortgage and my student loans.  I'm hopeful that while reducing our income, we'll still be able to save the same amount each month we always have, and make adjustments elsewhere.   On two incomes, we were able to save about 1/3 of our take home pay.  Now with one income, it'd be a little less than half.  Do you suppose this is "normal" for our culture?  I like to think we're ahead of the curve in this area :-)  On the other hand, doesn't having a mortgage and students loans seem completely normal to our society?  Wouldn't it be weird and so awesome if we didn't have those debts! 

Pick one of the areas you've reflected on and would be willing to share in the comments below. 

Weird

After our discussion in January about spiritual goals and resolutions, it was clear to us that we needed a study that would invigorate our relationships with Jesus.  And help us get out of our "normal" routines.  We heard people say they wanted to pray more, pray more intentionally, not be afraid to tell their story, be committed, and spend more time in the Word.

So, we found a Weird study.  Literally, it's called Weird: because normal isn't working.  It's by the same author who wrote The Christian Atheist, which I also think would be a cool study to do sometime.  But for now, we're going to focus on being weird.  The study's six sessions include these topics:

1. The God Kind of Weird
2. It's Time to Be Weird
3. Weird That Money Can't Buy
4. Pleasing God Is Weird
5. Weird Makes You Truly Sexy
6. The Weirdest Blessing Possible

We pray that this study will uniquely apply to each of you, and at the end of it all, you will be changed.

We look forward to starting this study with you all on February 12th at our house.  (For a full schedule, visit our google calendar, or I've added a widget to this blog on the right sidebar :-)