Click the picture below to read: “Becoming Pastoral”
Last week I also had the opportunity to sit down with a few people and hear their stories. It’s an honour to be invited to walk alongside you, and I don’t take the role lightly! It’s also been very encouraging to see how many of you are growing and able to articulate how you see God at work in your faith and your life. As a pastor, that’s a great comfort… it shows me that you’re learning to be attentive to the ways God moves—recognizing the nuance and beauty with which He weaves our life stories together. It’s my prayer for all of us that we continue to learn how to pay attention. Often this means slowing down. In this day and age we’ve become experts at filling our time, at staying busy, at always being connected. Sometimes we can even adopt a strange sort of guilt when it comes to taking time for ourselves, for rest. That’s not quite right! It’s also the reason I don’t carry a cell phone.
But part of maturing in our faith means cutting through that busyness (even busyness for God or for ministry) and finding rest and learning to listen to God’s voice in stillness. My hope is, at some point, to teach on spiritual disciplines: one of which is solitude.
So let’s be faithful to the good work, that God calls us to…but let’s not become so consumed that we are incapable of also taking the time for stillness and rest.
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
I appreciate how well you communicate through your writings Nikolas. Thank you for sharing. I love those verses from "The Message".
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