So Bre Boyce (see pic) and I went out on Friday afternoon last week for coffee and had a great talk.Covered everything from 24-7 Mission Teams (she was on a team based out of the London City Boiler Room this summer, but the team was unexpectedly cancelled so she is a bit bummed), her forthcoming trip to the UK to visit friends, working at Costco, how to build deep community with people, school in Calgary this fall, and working from rest ...
Yes, I typed that correctly:
Working from Rest.
I know that you usually hear the phrase, "Resting from Work". However, after hearing some teaching on the subject by a guy named Mike Breen this spring in Toronto (at the Unite in Worship conference) I am rethinking the order and changing the order.Mike highlighted the Creation Story in Genesis and shared that God created humanity and then rested following that (something I think we would all agree with).
But then he pointed out that humanity was created and the first thing they did was rest. Before any work had been done. This was what would become the sabbath - the day of rest.
So back to the converstation I had with Bre ... and the question, "What if we have it all wrong and should be working out of our day of rest which is planned and strategic to renew and refresh us and seen as the first day of the week rather than the last (something we are working toward)?"What if we treated the sabbath rest as the first day ... the beginning ... the place we work from? How would that change things? What if we planned our rest and then worked around it and out of it?
11 comments:
can you tell me when the jr high is going to do that diet coke and mentos experiment?!
hey bre ... great question ... i'm not sure, but when i know you'll know!!!
interested on reading some thoughts on our friday conversation on your blog in the near future ...
::dan::
I thought Sunday was the first day of the week?
Daryl,
Hey man!!
Sabbath is Sunday and it is the first day of the week on the calendars on our walls(at least in the Christian Church tradition), but is it the first day in our *minds* is the question I am asking ...
What the last paragraph of my blog entry on this says is, "What if we *treated* the sabbath rest as the first day?" Most of us, I think, connect (and treat) Saturday and Sunday as the days of rest following the work week that proceeded it.
I know that a lot of this is just "which came first, the chicken or the egg" stuff, but in this case I believe that the answer actually really matters - chickens and eggs really don't (do they ....)
::dan::
FYI ...
Bre (find her link in the blog entry connected with these comments) posted her response on her own blog in the form of an action plan!!
One of the problems with blogs is that they are "all talk and no walk" too many times ... she's actually wrestling with the implications of this rest/work stuff in the real world ... well done Bre!!!
::dan::
D, last night I gave a guy in our home Abraham Joshua Heschel's "The Sabbath" - it would be a great read during this time.
Hey Dan,
That's a tough question... I think I'm a little different then most and I do try to work from rest... I sleep a lot, take my Sunday's and try to always be at 100%
I find this allows me to engage situations with a far more active refreshed mind. I also feel I have a relatively clear mind without lot's of clutter, ie. I'm not scrambling to remember things, I put things on my mind to rest, etc...
That's all.
~D
B/c my weekends are often really busy Mon. is my day of rest...and then my week starts. It was interesting reading your post and the wole time thinking that that was exactly what life is like at this point in time.
Thanks everyone for your feedback, wisdom, and book recommendations.
Watch for another post this week to mature the idea a bit more ...
::dan::
You should move to Spain we still have a great rythm for sleep in the afternoon (siesta 2-5pm) and most shops shut on Sunday, early on it was for religious reasons but now it's about family, the beach and chilling. Also nearly all the shops shut between 1.30 and 5.30pm so we have had to change our mindset from the open all hours mentality to the planning it thing. France is the same except not so much siesta. I found it hard to rest when my church community met on a Sunday now all we do on Sundays is eat together swim and pray. I personally think consumerism has a lot to answer for, sabbath has to be part of the rythm of our lives. If we wait for it to happen it never will we need to be intentional in rest. Great post Dan
YESSS!!!!
Brian's invitation wins!
::dan::
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