40 Day Follow Up

As part of my Masters project, I've taken survey responses from many of you in the first stages of this experiment. I've put together a follow up survey. It would be a big help to me if you will follow the link below and fill it out. Like the first survey, this is anonymous other than the closing personal info you contribute. Thanks for joining me in this journey!

40 Day Sabbath Experiment Follow Up Survey

Sabbath Sparks

I've contemplated the meaning and necessity of sabbath for quite some time. It wasn't until last year that I became convincted enough to move into action about it. In the next few entries, I will begin sharing the personal stories that led me to sabbath action - Sabbath Mission. I will begin with an article I wrote for our church newsletter a few months ago. This gives you a general idea of the experience I had with some closing questions you are welcome to respond to in the comments or facebook group. In my next few entries, I'll write more about the experience as well as more explicitely about its connection to sabbath mission.

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“The desert is a dangerous place. Nobody goes there unless they really have to…” These are the words that begin countless Godly Play stories. These stories share the history of God’s people, where they came from, where they went, and most importantly how God met them wherever they were, guided them, protected them, and gave them a home. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the wilderness played a critical role in these stories of lost, wandering, and lonely people. It was through the wilderness that God spoke; whether through a burning bush or by the words of an angel near a rushing river. It is in the wilderness that these people of God shed their past and entered into a new way of life, fully reliant on the one true God.

Most of us have, literally or metaphorically, had wilderness experiences in our lives. We have felt lost and lonely. We have felt the drive to go out, away from everything we know, to begin again with a new start, a new perspective. The gift of keeping these wilderness experiences metaphorical is that no matter the depth of emotion you may feel, the rest is relatively controllable. You can distract yourself with food, conversation, and the stuff of life. But when you step over that boundary by actually, physically putting yourself in the wilderness, you have chosen another layer of vulnerability. You no longer have the safety of distraction, comfort of your bed, or control over surroundings. You are lost, alone, and in even greater likelihood than before, physical danger. Wild animals roam. Weather is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Bugs are everywhere. Dirt is everywhere. It’s a different world than the one we usually construct for ourselves. Yet, we are created for, and even by, this very same wilderness.

This last July, I brought a small but courageous group of five on a wilderness excursion, rightly called: The Journey: Personal Transformation in the Wilderness. This rite of passage was developed by Pastor Joel Martyn for anyone 14 years old through adulthood. This experience is a three-fold process. The first stage is Severance. In this stage, participants reflect on where they have come from, what has brought them to the experience, and what they will need to sever themselves from in order to fully immerse themselves in the wilderness. Using the story of Jesus being led out into the wilderness after his baptism, we discussed and reflected on what it was we had to leave behind and what we brought with us to the experience. We were given time to sit alone and write out a list of all of those things. These lists ushered us into the second stage, Threshold, as we threw them into a low fire - a sign of our readiness to let go. From this point, after watching our paper turn to ash, we were led one-by-one to areas where we would spend the next two days and two nights in solitary with only water, prayer, and the Bible to sustain us.

This period of time was so intensely personal; it has been hard for me to find words to fully express what happened. I can say that I experienced what I had only previously read, straight from mystics of our religious history - The Word of God kept me full. In this time, the word “faith” took on a new meaning to me. Through the wilderness, God nourished my faith. Through the ups and downs, the points where I thought I reached my emotional and physical limits, the Spirit pushed me through, refining me with a new inner strength. At the end of this Threshold stage, when I found myself reaching a new limit of exhaustion and loneliness, I finally heard the call to return to camp. I said goodbye to this new, sacred space I had inhabited for the past 48 + hours, and trudged back down to camp.

We assembled back where we began, around the fire. After some discussion, we were invited into the third stage of our experience, Incorporation. When we felt ready, we stepped one-by-one over a line of fire where we were blessed in the name of the Trinity, into our new life. And finally, we feasted together. Fresh food filled our bellies. The joy of fellowship filled our hearts. We were new people, grounded in a new personal and spiritual strength, with no rush to be anywhere except right where we were, with each other.

No matter how different the wilderness experience may be for each individual; whether you join the next group on The Journey, or not, I know with a clarity I did not have before that it is in the wilderness places that God will find you. You will not be alone. You will be changed. Without wilderness experiences we lose sight of ourselves, we lose connection to the earth and each other, we forget our Creator, or God, who pulls us from the ashes of our past and repurposes us for a greater future.

When have you been called, or even forced, into a wilderness experience? How did God meet you there?

If you do not feel that you have experienced the wilderness, what is keeping you from taking the steps necessary to enter the journey? From what do you need to sever yourself in order to immerse yourself in the journey God is calling you to enter?

If you are feeling lost in the wilderness now, what are the limits you have reached? How has the Spirit pulled you through, even when you couldn’t yourself? What do you need in order to cross the fire into incorporation?

Silent Space

One of the hardest things for me to wrap words around is silence. How can I possibly write about this? Yet, silence is integral to sabbath. While we may not be able to give an entire to day sabbath rest, we can choose perspective, as most of this blog has been about. We can also choose silence. We can turn off the noise of opinions and words, meaningless sounds that we must filter through every day.

In a world of too many words, silence affects people who are no longer affected by sound. Plenty of us who are defended against sound have no defense against silence. Some of us love it and some of us flee it. That is because silence can mean anything. 

- Barbara Brown Taylor, When God is Silent

In the space of silence we face...anything. Funny that it is in the space of silence, in nothingness, we practice what it really means to listen. Maybe it is in silence that we can finally hear the word of God for which we've been searching.

People talk about God as being that one thing that fills the void in your heart, that one thing missing in your life. But what if God is that void? What if, instead of filling a void, God creates space. It's not just more time we need, it's space in an overcrowded life. What if God is the quiet emptiness we actually need? What if, instead of fearing the space and silence, we faced it and let ourselves flounder there for a bit, acknowledging the scariness of it all, the unknown of it all? What, in that formless void of space, will God create within us?

Take some time to muse on this today. In what ways do you need internal and external silence? In what ways do you need to practice listening? 

Where do you need space? Where is there already a void? (A relationship? A missed opportunity? A disappointment or unfulfilled desire? A frustration, confusion, or overwhelming emotion?...) How is God be calling you to enter that space? What message/story/voice is it calling you to listen to?

WANT MORE?

Does absolute quiet exist? Is there a place we could go to seek it out? The quest for silence spaces has inspired George Foy. Read about what he's learned here.

It's easy for those of us who hear to assume everyone wants to, including people born deaf. Check out this article about why some deaf people do and don't want hearing restored.

Curious about taking a vow of silence or silent retreat? Check out one woman's experience here.