Sabbath retreat-- taking time apart

What happens when you take time apart for your soul?

Your soul catches up with your body.  Your mind has time to rest, along with your body, heart, and soul.

This is another theme in my life, like grace, that has been a lifeline.  It has helped me live into who I am.  Sabbath rest is a gift of grace.  One that I don't always receive.  It's a gift I must be intentional about accepting, even scheduling, in order to have time and space to listen to the One Voice.

Yes, I make time at home for silence and solitude.  But there is something about making time for that time apart.  Whether it be a day, several days, or a week (or more).  Extended times to get away, to stop doing the routine, to listen to the One Voice and other voices that speak life.

Today is that day.

I had seen this retreat scheduled a while back and put it on my calendar. It meant rescheduling a hip doctor appointment to another day earlier in the week, but that turned out for the better anyway.

This retreat has been a super blessing today.  My soul is being refreshed.  I have been able to "be".  It is said that one needs to slow down in order to catch up.  That is what this day is for me.  I am slowing down in order to catch up.

Though I intend to have a weekly Sabbath rest on Fridays, it doesn't always happen.  Though I intend to take daily silence and solitude time, that doesn't always happen.

Today's gift of time apart has been super.

St. Paul's Episcopal is a beautiful space.  It's my first time here.  They have a wonderful prayer labyrinth that you can get to from the inside of the building.  I was able to do a prayer walk there during our morning session of silence and solitude.

As I began, I noticed a large section of bird poop on the path.

 Isn't that just like life?  We often have to walk through a path of poop (or your word of choice) to get to where we are going.  Whether the stuff was there by someone else's making or even our own stuff, stuff is often on the path.  We might can walk around it.  Or we might just have to go right through it.  But it doesn't have to stop us.  In fact, in the right circumstances (such as soil), manure makes things grow.

Jesus often took time apart to be by himself, to pray, to be with the Father.

"Being" is a crucial part of our ministry, no matter if we are lay people or clergy.  We can't run on empty.  Silence allows us to listen, to get away from all the other voices and demands.

This morning's Scripture was from Mark 4:35-39.  Mark is my favorite of the Gospel writings.  That was a good passage to contemplate today.  The next to last question from the lectio reading this morning was 'what is the name of the storm that Jesus wants to speak to you today?'  As I reflected on that and was honest with myself, I had to say "arthritic pain".

Arthritic pain has become a storm in my life.  It isn't quite a tsunami at this point, but it is a storm.  Yesterday at the foot doctor, I was relieved to learn that my stress fracture has healed.  However, I had gone because I am still having pain in the foot.  The pain is arthritic pain.  Take the pain in the foot, add to it the pain in the right and left hip, and a left hand that no longer does all it can do.... and arthritis has begun working on me physically and otherwise.

When I went through my three years of frozen shoulders and anemia, it was a battle of physical and other.  Here I am again with some challenges.  Listening to one's body in order to best deal with what is going on physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually is a spiritual discipline.

For me to articulate that arthritic pain is a storm that is brewing in my life, well, that's important.  For me to accept Jesus' invitation to come and rest with him during the storm... that is equally important.  God has this.  God has me.  It's about trust and knowing that God truly does have me.

Making time to be apart, to listen, to be.... these days and moments remind me that Jesus does have me, that I am not carrying these burdens on my own.... or, at least, that I am not meant to nor do I have to.

May my heart continue to open up wider with trust rather than effort.

May I continue to lay down my burdens and allow my soul to be rested by the One who created me and is continuing to work in and through me.

There have been some great prayers and poems shared today:  "Fire" by Judy Brown, "Prayer to Welcome the Sabbath" by (I'm not sure), and a rather lengthy but powerful prayer shared at the beginning to our afternoon quiet time.

Judy Brown's poem "Fire":

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.

So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.

A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn

can find its way.

We went to the 12:05pm Eucharist at St. Paul and that was a blessing.

Part of my day apart today has been wandering around the building and enjoying the beauty of the art and architecture.

Another part of my day apart has been fellowship with folks, including 3 fellow colleagues in my conference.

Another part of my day has been allowing my soul to catch up with my body.

It has been good to relax, to listen, to allow God into my heart, mind, and soul.  It has been good to commune.

This evening I teach a class on the Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition and am blessed to teach on Holy Communion.  I look forward to the privilege of having communion twice in one day.

Peace and blessings on your journey.  May there be some rest and time apart to listen.

Debra

P.S.  Here are some pictures from my time at St. Paul's today: