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
Jesus – there’s no one like him. His unique life can shape our lives.
Join us as we walk through Luke’s account of Jesus’s life. We’ll focus around five key themes from his life and teaching, which shape our lives.
Gospel: How do we really experience the power of his good news in our lives?
Prayer: How can we cultivate our conversational relationship with God?
Love: Getting to the heart of our relationships.
Money: What we do with it and what that does in us.
Joy: How can we have sincere and secure joy in an unstable world?
Join us on Sunday mornings at 9am and 10:45am, as these important themes from Jesus shape our lives.
“The first thing Jesus’ question urges us to do is to listen to our own hearts… to pay close attention to our innermost yearnings and longings. Yet we often avoid embarking on this inward quest. We make excuses: we don’t have the time or we are too busy or we can’t trust our hearts or it’s a waste of time or we don’t know how to go about it or it’s too painful or it’s too sentimental or we think our reasoning offers a better guide to life… the list goes on and on. Whatever excuse you and I may use, the result is always the same. We miss the opportunity to look into the deeper places of our hearts. The consequences are very sad. I know this from my own experience and from listening for over thirty years to the inner longings of people’s lives. When we are deaf to the cry of our own hearts, we cheat ourselves. We rob ourselves of living a life that is marked by depth and wonder and passion. We miss out on experiencing beautiful, intimate relationships with each other and with God. Instead we find ourselves living superficially – busy but going nowhere of any significance. Little wonder that, even in the midst of our outwardly successful and affluent lives, we sometimes hear ourselves saying, ‘I still haven’t found what I am looking for.’ Will you allow Jesus’ question, ‘What are you looking for?’ to lead you deeper into your heart?”. – Trevor Hudson, “Questions God Asks Us”
…Where are you?
…What do you want?
…Why are you angry?
These questions come from God as he meets us… right where we are. Engaging God in these questions takes honesty and courage and leads us into real transformation in his love and grace. We invite you to join us as we begin this series on Sunday, September 16th!
Music by: www.bensound.com
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.