“a prayer of surrender..when we finally pray a prayer born in the dark we are at the place where we have no control……this is where life begins”

I am never ceased to be amazed by your insight..or God’s sovereignty. I surrendered one year ago…and now, I am going to be married to a wonderful, God loving man! Who’da thought! SAVE THE DATE: SUNDAY, JULY 14th at 3 pm at the Mt. Si Golf Course. Without YOU, I am calling the whole deal off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you. (seriously)

I am truly praying for our church families who are in “that dark place” right now. ONLY GOD can ease their pain and give them peace. (But, thank God for YOU AND MARTY) but, take care of yourself, too. Love you….:)

When you have healthy rhythms you are better able to respond to what God is asking you to do in any given moment for the following reasons:

1. You are centered enough to actually see and hear His voice and the movement of His Spirit.
2. You have margin that allows you to involve yourself in something that comes up unexpectedly.
3. You get to serve out of a sense of divine invitation, not guilt or shame.
4. Your emotionally healthy and physically healthy enough to bring creativity and insight to something that a burnt-out mind will never think of.

Perhaps the most important factor is that you need to look to Jesus as your model…would you agree that He was very effective? Very Missional? Very engaged in the work of the Gospel?

Now look at the rhythms he practiced which sustained him through pressure, stress, attack, ministry and all the other circumstances of life.

He said no to many things including healing sometimes…
He withdrew and prayed in silence and solitude consistently…
He delayed to enjoy people and relax with them…
He stayed engaged in spiritual conversations and synagog attendance…
He “only did what the Father told Him to do.”

If Jesus needed to practice a lifestyle that had a healthy sense of pace, we would be arrogant to think we can do it better…or perhaps we have bought into our cultural idea that more is better, fast is better, busy is better etc rather than a biblical lifestyle that notes that life has dark valleys and quiet meadows, not either or…and that while we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death…He will lead us to the quiet place where our soul is restored in the midst of the storms of life…

I have a hard time reconciling this idea of balance with the idea of laboring hard for the kingdom. I understand the need to slow our pace down with regard to things that are non-kingdom issues, such as money or work. However, it seems as if the propensity in our culture, especially “Christian culture”, is that we busy our lives with trivial things and yet we are lazy when it comes to serving God. I guess I always saw it through a 2 COR 1:6 idea that affliction is a comfort. There is a C.H. Spurgeon quote “It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed”, I have always read this as a call to exhaust ourselves for Christ.. Even David in the 23rd Psalm seems to be saying that he is comforted by God in the midst of strife, not that God takes away the strife; “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me”, he still is walking through the valley, right? Should we not be given over to death for Jesus’ sake? Maybe you can help me see where I am misunderstanding and how theses two ideas are not mutually exclusive, but I’m having a hard time with it.

Nathan