Rhythms of Life

Os Guiness, in his book The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, encourages the reader to follow Jesus' model of living out the faith in a secular world. He states,

"For Jesus, spirituality is plainly not a life of contemplation divorced from a life of action. There is nothing in Jesus' life of either the super-spiritual...or the the all-too-secular.... There is only a rhythm of engagement and withdrawal, work and rest, dispensing and recharging, crowds and solitude, in the midst of one of the shortest, busiest public lives ever lived."

As leaders, if we're to stay refreshed, recharged, and relevent, we would do well to listen to Guiness and follow Jesus' example. And this year, I plan to model his rhythms of engagement and withdrawel; work and rest. I will allow for rhythms of life.

As I write this, our Bible studies have come to the end of our academic year. I no longer have to teach weekly. This summer, instead of filling my time off full of travel, additional work deadlines, and vacations-from-which-I-need-a-vacation-upon-my-return, I'm planning for rest. Real rest (not just escapist recreation).

My soul needs a cycle of rest just about now. I can sense my weariness. I need to withdraw from engagement for a time so God can restore my soul.

And so I will. I'll do what Jesus did in Mark 6:45-47; I'll dismiss the crowds, I'll pause from my ministry, and make time for solitude.

How about you? In what part of the life rhythm do you find yourself these days. Don't forget about cycles of rest. Jesus needed them; we do, too.

'Til next time,
Joan