Contradictions
Contradictions drive me nutty! This has been especially true for me as of late. I’m working on putting together a sermon series and the overall theme for the church. The theme for the summer series is “Sabbath.” The contradiction and the irony is that I’m working hard to put together this Sabbath series.
It’s ironic because the definition of Sabbath is: “any special day of prayer or rest resembling the Sabbath.”
Working in a church it is easy to become frustrated with the slow pace of change in the larger Church as well as in my own denomination and congregation. I find myself struggling with how slow most progress comes about and becoming anxious. In the mean time I am planning a series which focuses on taking time to slow down, shut off the noise in our lives, and to spend time listening to one another and to our God.
Life is often this way. On one hand we are all in need of slowing our lives down and giving up our addiction to busyness and chasing our tails. On the other hand when we need to make changes in our lives we cry foul and say, “slow down!” I guess we tend to be generally off balance because we need to find the center in our lives.
That’s what we are going to be doing at Bryn Mawr starting this summer with the Sabbath series. We’re going to be working on slowing ourselves down, taking deep breaths, and recentering ourselves in order to hear what it is that God is saying to us. So that our souls can be fed by the Spirit of God.
Our world is crazy busy and a great many things are constantly vying for our attention, but it is possible to slow down in order to learn to listen or the still small things in the world. Ironically only then will the much needed growth and change come in our lives and in our church.
