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March 19 - March 25, 2020
You can focus on the fact that fear came knocking, or you can focus on the fact that I always make a way of escape.
As long as there is darkness in this world, we’ll be tempted to disengage or give in to anxiety and fear. But over and over, Scripture tells us not to fear. As Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
because God knew that as long as fear lives in our hearts, we’d live crippled lives. We would shortchange the plans and purposes destined for us from the womb.
These rhythms aren’t complicated—Rest, Restore, Connect, and Create—and
“on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 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.”1
Rest precedes blessing. We don’t have to run to earn rest; we run fueled by a posture of rest.
Every day I ask myself questions such as, Where is God leading me? What new people has he placed in my path? What new commitment is he asking me to make?
When we rest long enough to take inventory, when we ask God to cultivate our heart, talents, and passions according to the purpose he planned before our days began,3 we’ll find new horizons opening up, horizons beyond all we could ask or imagine.4
In that season, without me realizing it, social media became the master. I became the slave.
Quiet,
You cannot heal what is hidden, but when you confess something out loud, you bring it into the light, where it can be healed. The power of guilt and shame has no hold on you any longer, because secrets lose power when they exit the dark.
But Sabbath—both on a particular day of the week and on a planned, multi-day basis—can allow us the space we need to understand our lives are not rooted in work, productivity, or acquisition. Our worth is found in the God who loves us, who created rest for our good.
“Is this rest freeing me from the typical anxieties of our bustling world?”
Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together.”
Perfect friendship is the friendship of those who are alike in virtue, for these individuals wish well to each other in all circumstances and thus these friendships are good in themselves.
The primary impulse of hospitality is to create a safe and welcoming place where a stranger can be converted into a friend.
“Crying does not only mentally cleanse us, it can cleanse our body, too. Tears produced by stress help the body get rid of chemicals that raise cortisol, the stress hormone.”
His love motivates her respect; her respect motivates his love. —EMERSON EGGERICHS
