Category Archives: Self-care

Daily Riches: Activism Depends on Contemplation (Jim Wallis) *

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Change Yourself First, Contemplation and Activism, Learning Your Proper Place, Self-care, Social Justice

“Contemplation prevents burnout. Action without reflection can easily become barren and even bitter. Without the space of self-examination and the capacity for rejuvenation, the danger of exhaustion and despair is too great. Contemplation confronts us with the questions of our identity and power. Who are we? To whom do we belong? Is there a power that is greater than ours? Drivenness must give way to peacefulness and anxiety to joy. Strategy grows into trust, success into obedience, planning into prayer.”  Jim Wallis

“When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.”  Galatians 1:16b, 17 NLT [Paul, the apostle, describing his response when God called him]

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you experienced the dangers from “exhaustion and despair” and “barrenness and bitterness” that can occur in ministry, politics, or just in the demands of everyday life?
  • Is your life or ministry characterized by drivenness? If so, think about what that might say about you – your motives – what you’re trusting.
  • Have you created spaces in your regular routine for “self-examination and … rejuvenation?” Can you make a plan now to do at least one thing differently even this day?

Abba, I relax in you, I bask in your love, and I trust you to do what only you can do in my life and world today.

__________

For More: The Soul of Politics by Jim Wallis

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: A Weariness of Soul (Christina Rossetti, Wendell Berry, Thomas Aquinas and Rainer Maria Rilke)

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness, Hurry Sickness, Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care

“O Lord, who art as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary land,

who beholds Your weak creatures
weary of labor,
weary of pleasure,
weary of hope deferred,
weary of self;
in Your abundant compassion, and unutterable tenderness,
bring us, I pray You, into Your rest. Amen.”
– Christina Rossetti

“The mind that comes to rest is tended
In ways that it cannot intend:
Is borne, preserved, and comprehended
By what it cannot comprehend.

Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. As it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it.”
– Wendell Berry

“Grant to me, above all things that can be desired, to rest in You, and in You to have my heart at peace. You are the true peace of the heart, You are its only rest; outside of You all things are hard and restless. In this very peace, that is, in You, the one Chiefest Eternal Good, I will sleep and rest. Amen.” – Thomas Aquinas

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.”  
Jesus in Matthew 11:28-29

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Are you  “weary of labor, weary of pleasure, weary of hope deferred, weary of self? Are you just profoundly weary in your very soul?
  • For you, is the life of faith like a well in you springing up, after refreshing you, to bless others – or are you simply gritting your teeth and “doing what has to be done?” (and asking God to bless)
  • Can you allow yourself to “die into that rest” that Jesus offers “and find the rest for your soul” that he promises? Can you “learn from” him how to rest? I know what this means I must do. What would it mean for you?

May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back. – Rainer Maria Rilke

__________

For More: This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012 by Wendell Berry

_________________________________________________

These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The Supernatural Impact of Practicing Sabbath (Peter Scazzero)

Posted on by under Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care

“Geri and I … marvel at the supernatural impact of inviting pastors, churches, and movements to slow down and engage the biblical truths of EHS. In particular, something breaks inside people when they are invited to practice Sabbath. The following are a few reasons I think this is true:

  • Sabbath Rest is a revelation. We don’t just talk about the miraculous on Sabbath. We experience it. This enables us to give it away the other six days.
  • The power of God comes through rest – to us and then to those we serve.
  • Sabbath rest is a restoration and a reordering of what is twisted in us. We allow ourselves to be loved. We allow ourselves to be human. We stop and allow ourselves to be healed by God.
  • Sabbath rest is resistance of the demonic powers. We prophetically disconnect from the powers and principalities of darkness on Sabbath. We declare we are not slaves in Egypt any longer being used by God to get his work done. We are sons and daughters who are loved simply for who we are.” Peter Scazzero

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (N.B. “even“)
Mark 2:28,29

Moving From Head to Heart

  • What Scazzero doesn’t mention, is how difficult it is convincing pastors to embrace a weekly sabbath rhythm – and people in the pews find it just as foreign and tough. How do you feel about setting aside a day each week for Sabbath practices – stopping, resting, delighting and contemplating?
  • Have you moved “from the head to the heart” on this one? Does your behavior match your convictions?
  • The only way any of us will ever know whether “Sabbath rest” delivers like Scazzero says is by trying it. Are you willing to make a plan to experiment – scheduling a Sabbath day into your calendar, for perhaps the next month or so?
  • If you’re already keeping a weekly Sabbath day, how many of the benefits Scazzero mentions have you experienced?

Abba, even on my Sabbath I find ways to work, or strive – intent on “accomplishing something!” Help me to really stop, rest, delight and contemplate.

__________

For More: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

_________________________________________________

“Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: “Detachment” and Loving Well (Donald McCullough)

Posted on by under Change Yourself First, Detachment and Attachment, Loving Well, Self-care

“Love flourishes only in freedom. Relationships based on the illusions born of insecurities inevitably will become coercive, and nothing destroys love faster then coercion. How could it be otherwise? Love is a gift, one that cannot be given under compulsion or taken by force. Love cannot happen if others are treated as mere extensions of ourselves as slaves of our needs and desires. Only through detachment–the separation of ourselves from others and others from ourselves–can we find the freedom that makes room for the mutual attentiveness and mutual honoring and mutual delight and mutual serving that are the foursquare foundation of authentic love.” Donald McCullough

“I have loved you
even as the Father has loved me.
Remain in my love.
… Love each other in the same way
I have loved you.”
John 15:9,12

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Does such “detachment” from others seem like a good and proper thing, or a selfish, misguided thing? Are you able to give someone freedom to solve their own problem – or not? to fail – or not? What does your answer say about you?
  • Have you even had someone try to control you or manipulate you “for your own good?” Did you feel loved?
  • Is your love ever coercive or manipulative – really about some need of yours? If so, can you put your finger on what that need of yours might be?
  • God loves you greatly, but allows you to make lots of mistakes, and often, to suffer the consequences. He respects your freedom, and waits for you to choose to love him. All this could be otherwise. Do you think it’s good the way it is? Why or why not?

Abba, help me to love others, not because of some need of my own, but for their good. Help me to love enough to release control of those I love, even when sometimes it means watching them struggle and fail. Even when I think I have the answer. Even when I think they can’t do without me.

__________

For More: The Consolations of Imperfection by Donald McCullough

_________________________________________________

My goal in sharing these ‘daily riches” is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words of less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it. I appreciate your interest! –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Sabbath and the Trance of Overwork (Wayne Muller and Thomas Merton)

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness, Hurry Sickness, Loving Well, Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care

“Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop. We do not stop when we are finished. We do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this stack of messages, or get out this report that is due tomorrow. We stop because it is time to stop…. Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished. … In the trance of overwork, we take everything for granted. We consume things, people, and information. We do not have time to savor this life, nor to care deeply and gently for ourselves, our loved ones, or our world; rather with increasingly dizzying haste, we use them all up, and throw them away.” Wayne Muller

“Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity
when activity is not demanded of me.” Thomas Merton

And [Jesus] said to them,
 “Come away by yourselves
to a secluded place
and rest a while.”
Mark 6:31

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Is the “trance of overwork” preventing you from having “time to savor this life?” Is your urgency necessary or “artificial?”
  • Is your life characterized by a “dizzying haste?” Do you have the time to care “deeply and gently” for yourself and your loved ones?
  • Is your “time to stop” only when you’re “finished?” If so, what does that say about you?

Abba, teach me to stop and rest – to learn to care deeply and gently for myself – and then out of that place, to care deeply and gently for others and our world.

__________

For More: Sabbath by Wayne Muller

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)