Spiritually Healthy Vacation or Mini Sabatical

GOAL: RESERVOIR LIVING for a LIFETIME of FLOURISHING

{Notes on Emotionally Healthy Leadership podcast.}

 

Daily Rhythms: thrice daily pauses to contemplate on God and experience His presence, serving to replenish your soul throughout each day.

Sabbath: a weekly 24 hour period in which our thoughts dwell on God and His ways, refreshing our souls and filling our emotional reservoirs. Stop, rest, and delight yourself in the LORD. The Sabbath is a GIFT to you. It breaks the addiction of producing and perfectionism and battles the powers and principalities that fight to break us.

Sabbatical: 2-4 month period every 7-8 years; a longer time to stop, rest, contemplate and to refresh the soul.

Vacations: a mini-sabbatical (2-4 weeks in a row) that are not meant to carry the full weight of your refreshment. If you are not taking a weekly Sabbath or regular Sabbaticals, then vacations will not suffice to refresh you.

 

Compensation Times: shorter times of to rest and recover before we head right back into the fray. These help in heavy work seasons.

Day Alone with God: a monthly time of refreshment to fill yourself to overflowing.

VACATIONS

 

Before Vacation: 

Take steps to disconnect from your work and social media. Communicate with the appropriate people. Set up away messages. Firm up your boundaries against any producing or work. Plan for activities that will bring you delight, joy.

During Vacation: 

1. STOP. EVERYTHING.  No 'producing'. Just rest in being utterly loved. Give yourself permission to be FREE from 'finishing' the undone. Trust God to take care of everything while you are not working.

2. REST. Rest the soil of your soul. Realize you are not God and let go of it all. Rest from paid and unpaid work, from any sort of producing. Release 'accomplishment' and embrace that Jesus loves you without your doing anything. Forego any 'multi-tasking'. Make no big decisions. No "have to's" or "should's." Learn to rest in what God has done for you so that you do not have to earn His relationship with you.

3. DELIGHT. Structure time to delight in the miracle of life, in God and His blessings. Cultivating 'aha' moments. Move only in what brings JOY. (God is a playful being.)

4. CONTEMPLATE. See the Invisible God in the visible all around me. The sacremental nature of life. Taste our eternal Sabbath rest.

Returning to Life from Vacation:

For 1-2 days, take the day to be alone with Jesus before returning to work.

Try to process whatever God showed you on your time off.

Receiving these rhythmic gifts of rest result in a life of flourishing.

Not my goodness

"The first link between my soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my standing but my failing, not my riches but my need."

Charles Spurgeon

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

by Walter Chalmers Smith


Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish --- but naught changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all praise we would render; O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

Fleeing from You

by Ruth Bell Graham


Fleeing from You,
nothing he sees
of Your preceding
as he flees.

Choosing his own path
how could he know
Your hand directs
where he shall go.

Thinking he's free,
'free at last,'
unaware that Your hand
holds him fast.

Poor prodigal!
seeking a 'where' from
'whence,'
how does one escape
Omnipotence?

Waiting for darkness
to hide in night,
not knowing, with You
dark is as light.

(Based on Ps. 139:7-12 in light of Luke 15)

In Evil Long I Took Delight

by John Newton


In evil long I took delight
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath
Can I forget that look:
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
It plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!

A second look He gave, which said,
'I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid:
I die, that thou might live.

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit is now filled,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I killed.

Proverbs are not necessarily Promises

Excerpt from Carol Barnier's Engaging Today's Prodigal: clear thinking, new approaches, and reasons for hope:


"Proverbs are sayings that in general are true, but are not intended to be promises.

The beautiful verses in Proverbs are directions on how we should live our lives. They incorporate into their instruction truths about the nature of God and the nature of mankind. Proverbs are sayings that in general are accurate and full of wisdom, straight from God, but are not intended to be promises or formulas or an invitation to insert a coin into a vending-machine God who will pop out your selection.

I believe Scripture is inspired, which means God's stamp of approval is on all of the Canon, including the book of Proverbs. However, as we have seen, there is a difference in proverbs that describe and those that prescribe."



In other words, be careful how you apply Scripture. Make sure you know to whom it is written and for what purpose it is written before you appropriate it to be a life-base for you.

LISTEN, LORD

by Ruth Bell Graham


Listen, Lord,
a mother's praying
low and quiet:
listen, please.
Listen what her tears
are saying,
see her heart
upon its knees;
lift the load
from her bowed shoulders
till she sees
and understands,
You, Who hold
the worlds together,
hold her problems
in Your hands.