BBC 3: Rest - Quotes

I am falling behind in my blogging. It's been a couple of busy weeks. I am realizing that when things get tight in time, blogging is one activity that generally suffers. And you know what? I think that is a good thing. After all, we are talking about rest and our need for it, especially in the context of a society that overloads us with options and opportunities and that we perpetually accommodate.

I think in the context of the third chapter of Robert Benson's (pictured to the left) A Good Life, it is his description and diagnosis of this challenge that I find particularly helpful - and convicting.

"One's work - whether it be one's livelihood or one's ministry or one's household responsibilities or one's schooling or education - always seems to demand more of one's time, not less. And our communities - be they our family, neighbors, coworkers, or faith community - generally will take as much of our time as we are willing to give up. Sometimes they will pay us more or applaud us more, and sometimes not. But they will always take more if we let them."

They key phrase there being, "...if we let them." At least as far as it goes for me. I love this about this chapter, Benson's understanding of the unique challenges of our age and how they impact our body and soul in time - but his unwillingness to let us be victims. We are responsible for ourselves. Describing his own experience of burnout he says,

"My church life and my community life and my work life were so full and rich and productive that I nearly died from it. And by my own hand. Other than the fact that I was tired and worn and sick at heart and depleted and lost and afraid, everything was just fine. And, of course, I had no one to blame but myself - even though I tried to pin the blame on some other folks."

We have to take responsibility for ourselves. Last week I was reading in the Bible and came across to different passages where the Apostle Paul describes the responsibility that he takes for himself as a result of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and God's grace. If you have a chance look at 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and Titus 2:11-12 (both translations are TNIV, but if you get a chance read the Titus passage in the NRSV - I couldn't find it online). Each describes in a different way the need for self-discipline and self-control - again empowered by the Holy Spirit and as a function of God's grace...but still as something that we are responsible for participating in.

I am finally beginning to realize that so often my/our unwillingness to take responsibility for the things we know we need to do is nothing short of laziness. There are some things that no one else can do for us, that we can only do for ourselves. Resting is one of those things. Our unwillingness to rest, to practice Sabbath, exposes the idols in our lives. Most often those idols take the shape of other people and the expectations we believe they have for us, our unwillingness to disappoint them, the way we place their opinions before God.

"We fidget because we know that in order to say yes to our need for silence and rest, we are going to have to say no to some other stuff. And none of us much want to say no, and not many of us have folks around us who are encouraging us to say no in order to say yes to the very important stuff. If we want to begin to make some clear steps in the direction of the silence and the solitude and the rest in which we shall be saved, we ourselves need to make those first steps."

Comments

[Heather]

Thank you for this linking of the biblical injunction to self-discipline to the need for self-care. I'd never thought of it this way before, and somehow it makes me feel less selfish to take time from ministry and family responsibilities to go to the gym, or sit and read a novel, or whatever.

[Eric Disney]

ok, ok, i really DID order the book--2 minutes ago after reading this post--i really do want to enter in this discussion, but will bite my tongue for now...

[Adam]

I think it's important to note the difference between resting and 'zoning out'. It's really easy to zone out, to simply leave this place and exist in another until a certain amount of time has passed. When zoning out (through tv, computers, games, alcohol, drugs, etc) it's like I'm trying to skip time. After leaving the time frame where I am needed I escape into something else until the next time frame where I am needed.

I see rest as really inhabiting the in between the times where we are 'needed'. That's a lot harder. It means owning what happened before and owning what will come next. Being responsible for all our time; the time we left, the time we will enter, and the actual time it is.

It seems strange that this is called rest.

[Clay Masters]

Good thoughts Tim. I was floored by Benson's description of time and attention as "the currencies of our age" where many people and organizations are "somewhere plotting right now to get as much of both as they can"(pg33). This depicts a rather dark alternative nature or side of so many things in our world at this time. People study the science of captivating us. In response to this, I feel I must position myself in a posture of awareness otherwise before I know it I feel a thousand miles from my center.

This post reminds me of one of the key reasons I believe I was drawn to Jacob's Well, which is the availability of a Sunday evening service. Going to church on Sunday evening allows me to more fully rest on the Sabbath and to do what Brennan Manning says about the Sabbath. He says the Sabbath is great for rest, relaxation, worship and love-making. What? Yep. Not a perfect quotation, but I will see if I can find it later. I believe it is in Abba's Child.

[Tim Keel]

Hey Heather - you're welcome. We all need encouragement to live a good life, don't we?

I think about what Paul was saying in the 1 Corinthians 9 passage I quote there, particularly verse 27: "No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." It may sound harsh, but I don't think what Paul was really trying to get across was intended to be harsh - just radically realistic. l think he is saying there is a danger in not integrating into our lives the messages we proclaim. Saying something is not the same as living it.

We tend to think about discipline as covering only those things that someone, somewhere told us were important (for some spiritual purpose), but that otherwise would be distasteful to us. We have it backwards I think. Discipline is not just an ought. It's an opportunity to be intentional about that which we need most deeply in ours body, mind, and spirit. Discipline is not just protection from but also commitment to. There are so many wonderful things God calls us "to." Sabbath is one. Self-care is part of a good life. And it requires discipline.

Ahem, I'll climb down off the soap-box now.

[Tim Keel]

Alright, Eric. I guess I'll believe you this time. ;-)

[Tim Keel]

I really like your thoughts, Adam. Thanks for sharing them. There is certainly a difference between rest and zoning out. In my experience zoning out leaves me as or more tired than I was when I began to zone out. Whereas rest has several "re" effects: it's re-new-ing, re-creative, re-storative. I am made anew.

I don't currently have access to it but your thoughts on time reminded me some of Abraham Heschel's thoughts in his amazing book, "The Sabbath." One of his main ideas is that six days of the week we occupy the things of space. He describes the sabbath as holiness in time, a way of viewing ourselves in reality that relinquishes the physical things that we serve in space in order to be present to God in a sanctuary of time. Anyway, it's a very rough summary, but his ideas are wonderfully challenging and worth soaking in.

[Tim Keel]

It is rather nefarious sounding isn't it, Clay? But true, too, I think.

I appreciate your description of the value of the Sunday night gathering. I remember when we started several of families struggled with JW having worship only on Sunday night. But over time, we all began to discover the value of it as we woke slowly, ate meals together in the morning as a family, had a leisurely afternoon together, and then came together with others to worship as the culmination of a day and a week, as well as the launching point for a new seven days.

When we added the first morning gathering, I remember a few families saying that they were not going to migrate to the morning, as we assumed most families with kids would. The reason is that they had discovered precisely what you are describing. As a pastor, that really excited me. One thing we hadn't counted on was the fact that the kids had developed a community among themselves as real and authentic as our own. When most of the kids ended up in the morning gatherings, it was only a matter of time before the rest wanted to join them. Makes sense, but I miss the sense that you describe and it reminds me to invite people to again view Sunday through this lens.

[Eric Disney]

I'm so glad I ran into you at church Sun. and you told me that you had read 4 other books by Robert Benson--that afternoon I went to Barnes & Noble and picked up his newest, "The Echo Within". I'm trying to pace myself with this one because I kind of raced through "A Good Life". I'm finding it achingly beautiful and rich in spite of it's sparseness--maybe BECAUSE of it. Thanks for the introduction to some great and thoughtful content.

[Tim]

Yes, that was a good conversation, Eric. I am glad you picked up "The Echo Within." I am going to do a brief review of it when we have finished "A Good Life." I like your description: "achingly beautiful and rich in spite of it's sparseness - maybe because of it." Yes. The whole thing is good, but I have marked a few of the chapters to go back to and ruminate on because I heard God saying something to me through them. And the Merton epigraphs for each chapter? Wonderful.