In my life, and likely in yours, we are not always aware of the burdens upon us. But we are aware that we want to escape them. What I wonder is whether this is us exhibiting a longing for Sabbath.
Is it built into our God-imaging nature, Christian or not? Even if we aren’t observing a formal Sabbath, is our need for it still evident when we are looking for a way to get away from our burdens?
I think it is.
The work of spiritual investment is taking what is not right to the one who can make it right. It’s not about bringing guilt and shame, but about being exposed before him, finding that place perfectly safe and perfectly good. And the comfort of knowing that he will not just smooth our egos or tell us it’s fine when it’s not fine. He sits with our soul and he guides, and he has hard conversations with us, and gives us his power to be healed.
We will explore how our obligations affect the time we are able to give to spiritual investment. If you feel like your time isn’t your own, there’s not enough time to do all the things you need to do, or that the idea of adding one more thing to your to-do list might just break you, this post is for you.
Regarding time and spiritual investment, let’s begin with expectations. We can have a lot of assumptions about what time spent in spiritual investment can look like. If you’ve grown up in a religious setting, you may have been taught that a proper period of time spent in spiritual investment consists of at least an hour devoutly sitting in a quiet corner, reading your Bible, and praying off of note cards for all the illnesses and traveling mercies of the ladies in your women’s bible study group. That is certainly one way to invest spiritually. But it is not the only way. And it may not even be the best way for you.
What’s been shaken up in your life? What has you off balance? To what degree? Are you still walking straight? Little wobbly? Clinging to the side rails? Hanging on for dear life? Completely disoriented without knowing which way is up?
When I’m trying to do it myself, it’s because I believe I “should”. Like I owe someone something.
I don’t. And you don’t. All that we owe has already been paid.
Restore our fortunes, Lord , like watercourses in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. Though one goes along…
We’ve made it to the final post in the Fear series! In this post, we’ll get into the practicals of how we live out the…
When I speak of being the master of our fear, I do not mean that we stifle the fear, pushing it down and pretending it’s not there. That’s unhealthy. I mean that we are the authority over it. We run it. It doesn’t run us. The fear is there, whether we like it or not. It’s what we do with it that makes the difference.
