Sabbath: Enter Rest

Spiritual disciplines can be difficult to put into play in a busy life.  The most difficult ones for me involve resting.  Can anyone else relate?

Do you live in workout clothes because it's easier to sprint from one demand to the next in spandex?  Does your weekly meal plan include a run through Del Taco because it is impossible to carve out 30 minutes to make dinner?  (Can anyone actually make dinner in 30?  If so - call me!)  Are your next 5 weekends already booked?  

Sabbath rest is hard.  In his book "Unity of the Bible," Fuller discusses the odd chapter and divisions in the Bible.  Genesis 1 ends after the 6th day of creation, as if the creation of man is the climax of the story.  Certainly we would like to think of it that way.  However, he argues, a better chapter division would be after Genesis 2:3:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Becoming A Mother in LA - Bethany Dirksen

We moved to LA when I was 5 months pregnant with our first child.  Although we were quickly becoming seasoned veterans at moving, this transition combined the nerves of my impending motherhood was daunting.  The only course of action we knew to take was: FIND A CHURCH…and stat.

We moved into a little one bedroom on Franklin Street and saw that two blocks up and one blocks down was a little community church.  It was in what seemed to be a warehouse, but we weren’t going to hold that against them, yet.  We went without looking at the website, researching other churches nearby, or even giving it a second thought.  It was nice.  The people talked to us, the music wasn’t like a pop concert, and they even did communion regularly.  We said to each other, “That’ll do,” and searched no further.  Westside Christian Fellowship had officially become our LA church home.

Introducing...

We just finished our church's women's retreat over Mother's Day weekend and it was a BLAST.  Some of you weren't there, and you were certainly missed.  Those of us who made it enjoyed 26 hours of meaningful conversation, began new friendships, deepened old ones and relished working out our faith together.

Then the retreat ended and we scurried back to our hoods, called our moms and dove into another busy week.  All of us thinking:
That was amazing.
I needed that!
The quiet.
The conversation.
The women.
The focus.
Can't wait to do it again...in a year or two...it depends...what's on the calendar?  Oh, ok.  I have a free weekend in 2023.  Let's plan on that.  Sound good?

No!