A Monastic Summer
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It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. -St. Francis of Assisi A life unedited is a cluttered life. We pick up all kinds of things: relationships, priorities, obligations, joys, sorrows. We layer and layer until we feel overwhelmed, overburdened and underwater. This is not reason for alarm; but it is reason for attention. Over the decades, I've often found myself yearning for spaces of rest and reset, while knowing full well that the idea of a perfectly executed sabbatical or reset is often the enemy of simply taking spaces for a life edit. I've made it a habit over the past few years to take the summer as that time for a spiritual reset, and so I'm calling this space my "monastic summer." This is quite loose association with the tradition form of monasticism. A real monastic pursuit would involves separating completely from worldly things in order to pursue the spiritual life (think desert, convent, recluse....) I may not ever be suited for the full monastic life, but it doesn't mean I can't learn from what the monks have to teach us. Running recklessly into season after season without taking time to celebrate the good, mourn the sorrowful, realign vision and recommit to relationships is also not good. So I'm taking the next 8 weeks to quiet every single channel I can, simply to find the space for all the things that come when we choose to quiet our souls and simply walk with Jesus. What that looks like for me is to step away from everything outside of my core commitments to my work and to my family. I'll be deleting social media and news apps, quiet here on email, and taking a break from the podcast. My speaking calendar is booked for 2024, and my assistant will handle book orders and 2025 inquiries. I'll be simply allowing God to do his work while I honor what He's told us about work and rest. That's the extent of my commitments to the monastic summer, although I suspect that the removal of those distractions will allow space for more morning walks, summer reads, space to listen well, both to the Lord and to my loved ones. If you are reading this and long for space in your life, I encourage you to think about intentional space that you can use this summer, whether that's joining me on the Love Paced Race training, making space in the mornings to sit outside while the days are long, or taking a break from the noise that so deeply engulfs us--so much that we often don't know how long it's been since we listened to our souls. I'll be back after Aug 15 and look forward to sharing. Thank you for allowing me to walk with you in your spiritual life. I'll walk away now with Jesus and be back soon. |
Take Heart Ministries
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