Allie saw this on Facebook this morning and made sure to read it loud enough for me to hear… we laugh because it’s true! It really is amazing the things we have put off because of our over-scheduled lives. One of the silver linings of this “Shelter in place” season that we are in is that we now have a chance to step back from our schedule and take inventory of our schedule.
Author Steven Covy rightly observed, “We achieve inner peace when our schedule is aligned with our values.”
This means the peace we are looking for is found not in completing everything on our schedule but by deleting the things that don’t fit with our values.
What does this mean for us?
Simply put, as followers of Jesus, our highest value is to become like Jesus, and we all have schedules that have gotten in the way of this value. But today, we are quarantined in our homes, and I want to invite you to join me in using this time as an opportunity to survey our schedules and align it with our values. There is a tool that was developed in Christian monastic communities called “Rule of Life”. This isn’t new, in fact, the idea of creating a rule of life is centuries old. But today this practice is resurfacing in the Church, and disciples of Jesus are using it to unhurry their lives so we can better follow the practices of Jesus. I am doing this with the help of a workbook called “The rule of life workbook”.
I’ll post a link to the workbook here.
If you choose to download the PDF and go through it also, I would love to hear about your journey. However you choose to engage this season, receive it as a gift, and let it be an opportunity to reset your daily patterns so you can do the things that truly bring you the fullness of life that Jesus offers.
-Erich
Who do you think you are? How you see yourself will affect how you live… and how you relate to others… and how you engage in every other aspect of your life. God speaks to us about this clearly and compellingly in the book of Ephesians. We’ll walk through this book, strengthening our identity (alive in Christ) and focusing our purpose (living in the world) - and doing so all together.
Focusing on the meals Jesus shared with people during his life and ministry!
This message is brought to you by Erich Grunder, the Student Ministries Pastor here at SunHills Church.
What good is it if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? These words, from the book of James, call us to live out our faith. That is the focus of our summer series – ‘work it out’.