So I spent almost two weeks alone at a cabin in northern Minnesota. The alone-time was good, a great part of my sabbatical — praying, Bible-reading, just hanging out — good time. But man, I’ll tell you this… I missed my family. So when I got this video hello from my girls…pretty cool… I WAS NOT FORGOTTEN!:)

After I watched it a couple of times…the thought came to mind…I wonder if this is how God feels when we finally come back and say hello, tell Him that we miss Him. I know that God is the most joyful being in the whole universe, all the time. But He is also the Father, and it brings dad joy when His kids come to Him. And we don’t even have to send a video!

I have heard this message in multiple ways over the course of the last week. I heard it in a talk given by Jon Ortberg on the spiritual life of leaders, then I heard it again in an interview with Dallas Willard on the spiritual disciplines. It came through loud and clear when I was reading the story of Elijah in I Kings — especially chapter 19. It was unmistakably clear in a book by Eugene Peterson, called The Jesus Way. And while I was reading the stories of David in 2nd Samuel I heard the message every time it said of David, so David inquired of the Lord. Simply put the message is this: At the heart of the Jesus way is a relationship with God and we cannot develop that relationship without adequate amounts of time with God — disconnected from the noise of life and connected to God — silence and solitude.

So for about 2 and 1/2 days that’s what I sought. I won’t say that I had any divine revelations or mile marker relational God-moments. But I will say that there was something incredibly satisfying to my soul. It was good.

So did I hear anything from God?

Here is the word that kept coming back to me. Gratitude.

Imagine this… Read more…

I know it’s probably not a word, but it is what I’m doing. It started with five days, with my wife, at a spiritual retreat in Wisconsin. (This was long before the Favre controversy so Wisconsin was still at rest — by the way, I hope he goes to the Vikings.) An organization called the Pastor’s Retreat Network, offers five day spiritual retreats at a variety of places around the country, and it’s all free! It was an incredibly way to start a sabbatical, great place on a lake, a time of prayer in the prayer chapel,reading, and hanging out with Lynn.

While I was there I read a book by Mark Buchanan, “The Rest of God.” It’s all about the concept of practicing a sabbath lifestyle. If you haven’t read the book, it’s a good read with lots of ponder material, especially if you are struggling with “hurry.” I’m still chewing on some of his sabbath thoughts and I can’t quote the whole book in this post, but let me share this one thought that was helpful.

How do we practice Sabbath? How do we do it? It’s more than time management… Read more…