On this past Sunday (just hours prior to unplugging from the local pastorate for a season of sabbatical that will excuse me from the pulpit and all church-related responsibility for 8 straight weeks) I shared aloud these words about giving up control and choosing solitude. The words are my personal remix of deep writings from Henri Nouwen. By the expression on many of the faces in the congregation, my vulnerable confession really resonated:
When I enter into solitude to be with God alone, I quickly discover how
dependent I am. Without the many distractions of my daily life, I can feel
anxious and tense. When nobody speaks to me, calls on me, or needs my help, I can start feeling like a nobody. Then I begin wondering whether I am useful,
valuable, and significant. My tendency is to leave this fearful solitude
quickly and get busy again to reassure myself that I am"somebody." But
that is a temptation, because what makes me somebody is not other people's
responses to me but God's eternal love for me.
To claim the truth of myself I have to cling to my God in solitude as the One who makes me who I am.
Grateful
Showing posts with label sabbatical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sabbatical. Show all posts
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Beautiful Light Music for The Weighted, Weary & Worn-Down
You probably know by now that my eight-week season of sabbatical begins tonight. Many people are curious about what I will be doing, etc. and believe me, it is so much more simple than you might first imagine. Anyway, I am touched that people are inquisitive and I like to share as many details as feasible with you -- my family and friends.
With that said, here is a link of some of the atmosphere music I will be listening to along my journey. I guess you could call it one of the soundtracks of my sabbatical season. It's a musical mix of inspiring and uplifting tunes -- about a 2-hour Play List.
I am not endorsing the music, just saying I really enjoy the simple compilation of instrumentals and just maybe it will lift your heart, especially if you are feeling weighted , weary, and worn-down.
Click here: Beautiful Light Music/Easy Smooth Inspirational/Play List: Relax Daily Ocean Breeze
Grateful
With that said, here is a link of some of the atmosphere music I will be listening to along my journey. I guess you could call it one of the soundtracks of my sabbatical season. It's a musical mix of inspiring and uplifting tunes -- about a 2-hour Play List.
I am not endorsing the music, just saying I really enjoy the simple compilation of instrumentals and just maybe it will lift your heart, especially if you are feeling weighted , weary, and worn-down.
Click here: Beautiful Light Music/Easy Smooth Inspirational/Play List: Relax Daily Ocean Breeze
Grateful
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
As My Season of Sabbatical Approaches...
As my season of sabbatical approaches, I am amazed at the speed of life. Soon, I will embark for multiple weeks of exhaling the busy and inhaling the beauty. I am anticipating -- and just to be honest -- a little bit anxious as well. While being a pastor is not really what gives me value to God, it is who and what He has called me to be. So, I guess you could say "sabbatical takes me away from my appointed post in life." It's always been a mystery to me that The Good Shepherd would ever in a million years call me, the son of a fisherman to feed His flock. Yes, it's a mystery, but a marvelous mystery, for sure. In other words, I like my post as a local pastor. With all of that said, I guess I am a little nervous about sabbatical. But it's a good nervous, because I know God will be magnified in my own life as other distractions are set aside for a while.
So, while I will not be taking time away from God's Presence, I will be vacating my role as Vision Pastor, at least geographically. After I preach a third message in a 3-week series on "Humility" this Sunday morning, my two younger pastor-brothers will join with our family of five for a time of togetherness on Sunday afternoon. Yes, the fourteen of us will spend time just loving on each other and no doubt they will somehow assist in helping me to begin unwinding for my time of rest, refreshment, and refocus.
I'm often asked: "What will you be doing on your sabbatical, Pastor Kerry?" Well, I truly believe for me as a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year, vigilant, local, shepherd what I really need to be doing more than anything else on my sabbatical is best understood in two words: "creative loafing." I know it sounds like I will actually be "doing nothing" and "doing nothing" doesn't get much acclaim in our world of being busy, however, while "being still and knowing that God is God," may seem like "doing nothing" to those who are propping up our present culture, it is still worthwhile for eternal souls. I have come to know that when it seems we are "doing nothing", our God is really "Doing Something!" Make that "GOD IS REALLY DOING SOMETHING BIG!"
It's Time, my friends!
In closing, a sabbatical for me is a chosen and a given season of once again trusting God totally to be God all by Himself! As my friend, Pastor Joseph wrote: "Trusting God is easy. He's so Trustworthy!"
While I'm unplugging from the pastorate and "doing nothing", my blog will still be my daily place of devotional focus for many days of my journey. So, I invite you take the journey with me if you'd like -- in Spirit of course. :-)
Grateful
So, while I will not be taking time away from God's Presence, I will be vacating my role as Vision Pastor, at least geographically. After I preach a third message in a 3-week series on "Humility" this Sunday morning, my two younger pastor-brothers will join with our family of five for a time of togetherness on Sunday afternoon. Yes, the fourteen of us will spend time just loving on each other and no doubt they will somehow assist in helping me to begin unwinding for my time of rest, refreshment, and refocus.
I'm often asked: "What will you be doing on your sabbatical, Pastor Kerry?" Well, I truly believe for me as a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year, vigilant, local, shepherd what I really need to be doing more than anything else on my sabbatical is best understood in two words: "creative loafing." I know it sounds like I will actually be "doing nothing" and "doing nothing" doesn't get much acclaim in our world of being busy, however, while "being still and knowing that God is God," may seem like "doing nothing" to those who are propping up our present culture, it is still worthwhile for eternal souls. I have come to know that when it seems we are "doing nothing", our God is really "Doing Something!" Make that "GOD IS REALLY DOING SOMETHING BIG!"
It's Time, my friends!
In closing, a sabbatical for me is a chosen and a given season of once again trusting God totally to be God all by Himself! As my friend, Pastor Joseph wrote: "Trusting God is easy. He's so Trustworthy!"
While I'm unplugging from the pastorate and "doing nothing", my blog will still be my daily place of devotional focus for many days of my journey. So, I invite you take the journey with me if you'd like -- in Spirit of course. :-)
Grateful
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Take Time to Remember & To Be Revived
I have learned one thing for sure in my forty-nine years: Unless we take to time to remember where we came from, we won't know where we're going, and we won't know who we are when we get there.
As I remember these words today, I am in a season of soul-sabbatical. Being the son of an Atlantic Coast fisherman, I have purposely planned seasons within my sabbatical season to return to and from my sandy-and-salty roots. Yes, indeed. If you were to take a look at my sabbatical calendar you would notice immediately that the skeleton of my schedule is actually held together by numerous back-and-forth journeys to and from the Atlantic Ocean. I just returned from a three-day season there. The first three days of my sabbatical were spent alongside the East Coast seashore. During this time, I wrote words akin to these in my daily journaling:
I never feel more alive than when I am standing alongside The Graveyard of the Atlantic. It is here that I remember where I came from and seemingly the location from which my Lord has so often sent me back to my present calling having been revived for the future.
I covet your prayers as I have been given this sacred season by my Faithful God and His generous local church -- a time-out-time-frame to be remembering and to be revived. Please pray for me along these three lines:
(1) That I will wholly recover from the past.
(2) That I will wholeheartedly celebrate in the present.
(3) That I will holy envision for the future.
And all In the Name of Jesus, of course.
This passage from Lamentations 3:17-26 (NLT) somehow contains the mystery of what I am trying to communicate when I say: Take time to remember and to be revived:
(17) Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. (18) I cry out, "My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!" (19) The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. (20) I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. (21) Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: (22) The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. (23) Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day. (24) I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!" (25) The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for Him and seek him. (26) So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.
IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful
As I remember these words today, I am in a season of soul-sabbatical. Being the son of an Atlantic Coast fisherman, I have purposely planned seasons within my sabbatical season to return to and from my sandy-and-salty roots. Yes, indeed. If you were to take a look at my sabbatical calendar you would notice immediately that the skeleton of my schedule is actually held together by numerous back-and-forth journeys to and from the Atlantic Ocean. I just returned from a three-day season there. The first three days of my sabbatical were spent alongside the East Coast seashore. During this time, I wrote words akin to these in my daily journaling:
I never feel more alive than when I am standing alongside The Graveyard of the Atlantic. It is here that I remember where I came from and seemingly the location from which my Lord has so often sent me back to my present calling having been revived for the future.
I covet your prayers as I have been given this sacred season by my Faithful God and His generous local church -- a time-out-time-frame to be remembering and to be revived. Please pray for me along these three lines:
(1) That I will wholly recover from the past.
(2) That I will wholeheartedly celebrate in the present.
(3) That I will holy envision for the future.
And all In the Name of Jesus, of course.
This passage from Lamentations 3:17-26 (NLT) somehow contains the mystery of what I am trying to communicate when I say: Take time to remember and to be revived:
(17) Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. (18) I cry out, "My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!" (19) The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. (20) I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. (21) Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: (22) The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. (23) Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day. (24) I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!" (25) The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for Him and seek him. (26) So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.
IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Why Rest Awhile?
In a poem by Mrs. Chas. Cowman, these words hint at one wonderful reason why workers in the Lord's harvest, should take time for sabbath rest?
To cease awhile from all the joy of service,
To find a deeper joy with Him to share.
And Jesus said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. -- Mark 6:31-32 (NKJV)
IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful
To cease awhile from all the joy of service,
To find a deeper joy with Him to share.
And Jesus said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. -- Mark 6:31-32 (NKJV)
IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
