When was the last time you sat still? No really. Try and think about it. Just...still.

No distractions; Just you, your mind, your soul, with nothing to do except to BE there.

Sounds…boring, right?

We often find ourselves in the trenches of life and tend to stay there, trying to simply get through another day; unable to look forward in our walk with God. But what if we did?

Have you forgotten what God has done in your life in the last few years? Where has God shown up for you that maybe you’ve lost sight of?

Following Jesus is difficult. Life can be hard and spiritual growth rarely comes easy. So, how do we keep moving forward in our pursuit of God?

If you haven’t read part one of An Invitation to Rest then click here.

Chances are that when you read this you will be well into your Christmas preparations or maybe it’s that window of time between Christmas and New Years that seems to slip by all too quickly. Whichever is the case we wanted to invite you to rest with us as we look back in gratitude and embrace hope for the coming year.

Friends, we all have two choices we can make this Holiday season. We can buy into the cultural madness that comes this time of year; or we can take the opportunity to fill our souls with more of God and His love and move at his pace…

For years we viewed sabbath as an unattainable practice meant for those who seemed to have the perfect set of circumstances in life to be able to do it. Looking back now we can’t imagine our lives without it!

Do I really want what Jesus wants? It would seem straightforward. He is God and knows best; so I should ask him what he thinks about the big decisions. Then, whatever he says, I should do it. No questions asked. Nothing to discuss. Obedience. He’s God and I’m clearly not. I should surrender my agenda to Him. Right?

It was all I could do, in the midst of the pain, to flip through those pages and read passages that assured me God had not left me. They were my reminder of His character; his very nature.

In our culture, Listening means that we give attention to a sound. But in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for listen is shema.

Shema has a double meaning: to hear and take action. Listen and obey. In Hebrew, this word does not differentiate between hearing, listening, or obeying. It assumes all three should happen when God speaks. Crazy, right?

It wasn’t until my life fell apart in my early 30’s that I realized I had missed the entire point of the Bible.

After experiencing a reading of Matthew 11:28-30 in The Message, I became captivated by the paraphrased translation. It was like hearing the word of God for the very first time. The words were so beautiful and provided context to what had been hard to understand.

Prayer has a lot more to do with surrender than we think

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

For the first time since canceling all of our plans and telling everyone how bummed we were, I sat still. I started to accept where I was at the moment and asked God what He wanted to do with it. After a few deep breaths my soul started to settle, which allowed my mind to clear and gave my heart space to process. Slowly, I began to experience peace, clarity and grace.

Discipline and unhurried… if we can get these two right then something powerful happens. Our relationship with Jesus begins to move with us throughout the day and helps us develop an effortless connection with Him. And out of that connection we get what we are looking for; life to the fullest.

Our team is going on a two week extended break. No email or meetings. No social media. Goodbye Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams! No conversations about how we can help move this mission forward. We are going to lay down the efforts of this year, rest in God’s goodness, and allow him to fill our souls. You might be asking, how are we going to do that? Great question!

I think our lives are a lot like a river. Most of the time we operate well within its banks, flowing at a steady pace with an almost predictable and healthy rhythm. Life feels good and we are thriving. However, there are times when we find ourselves at flood stage; when we’ve allowed too much into our lives and we can no longer keep within our banks and under control. The pace picks up until there is nowhere to go...we overflow with chaos and, sometimes, destruction. It’s only until the storm settles and the water retreats that we can return to the rhythm at which we were intended to live and flow.

I have a new friend who is great at asking insightful questions. In fact, he’s so good that each time I get to hang out with him I wonder what he’ll ask me next.

We got the kids together a few weeks ago. As we watched them play, our conversation once again began with a great question.

“Tim, what do you do when you fail big?”

(Nothing like diving right in with a big question! LOL.)

I answered, “I sit in it.”

The world is asking me to operate like a supercomputer - to process all of the information thrown at me in real time, quickly evaluate and consistently make great decisions. Worse yet - the internet assumes that my brain is adapting to the speed at which technology now operates and that I can keep up. And for the most part my brain can… or so it seems.

But I’m discovering that my soul cannot. My soul is not a supercomputer. This tension is creating some combination of anxiety and holy discontent within me and I can no longer ignore it.

“Am I tired?” Check.

“Am I worn out?” Check.

“Am I burned out on religion?” Double Check.

I read on...“Come to me, get away with me, and you’ll recover your life. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” I lost it. These words hit me in a deep way. I can remember sitting and talking with Jesus about how I needed his “rhythm of grace” not my rhythm of busyness and anxiety and frustration. My way was literally killing me from the inside out.

As the rain pounded we eventually shifted to playing corn hole and washers in the garage. It wasn’t our plan but the guys were having fun. As I was getting beat at corn hole, I could feel my blood pressure rising. Partly because I hate losing; partly because something bigger was going on inside me. I decided to let someone else play and I went outside and watched the rain. As I watched, I shook my head and said “really?”. I was royally ticked. We have been planning this Refresh for almost a year. We have prayed over these guys, fasted for them and have had countless hours planning this experience. In my mind I was thinking “and you can’t stop the rain for a day?”

Then, in that still small voice, Jesus said to me, “am I not in the rain?”

Silence.