Creating margin within our hectic schedules is challenging. But if we want to get out of the current of the cutlure, we must have the courage to live differently from those around us. To disappoint people by not being available. To find the fortitude to turn off our phones. To resist the to-do list staring us in the face.
I experienced many of these challenges this past weekend. When trying to turn off my phone, I realized the only way to log my daughter’s permit driving hours was through the app. I had to make a deposit for a mission trip over the phone. I needed directions to someplace new…. Google Maps. Granted, I could have gone old-school with all of those, manually entering information later. But I caved for the convenience.
It takes effort, discomfort, and planning to really guard your calendar and resist technology to truly slow down. I’d rate myself a 4 out of 10 this past weekend, but I still learned a lot.
I’m also realizing how getting rid of external distractions is just one step, opening up the world of internal distractions. I can be resting in a chair, yet fighting internal chaos.
It’s a battle. But a battle worth fighting. It takes time to learn how to find the internal “quiet.”
I was reminded of an excerpt by Henri Nouwen in Devotional Classics. He is addressing solitude, but the concept applies to any form of Sabbath rhythm as well.
Once we have committed ourselves to spending time in solitude, we develop an attentiveness to God’s voice in us. In the beginning, during the first days, weeks, or even months, we may have the feeling that we are simply wasting our time. Time in solitude may at first seem little more than a time in which we are bombarded by thousands of thoughts and feelings that emerge from hidden
areas of our minds.
One of the early Christian writers describes the first stage of solitary prayer as the experience of a man who, after years of living with open doors, suddenly decides to shut them. The visitors who used to come and enter his home start pounding on his doors, wondering why they are not allowed to enter. Only when they realize that they are not welcome do they gradually stop coming.
Slowing down my external world is a challenge. Slowing down my mind is even more difficult. Living within a Sabbath Rhythm will take time.
If you gave Sabbath a try, how was it? What did you notice? Share it with others.