Lent season

I hope that this post is being viewed by a Rested Hope Center community! 

Our Rest sermon series is over, but the journey for many of us has just begun.  I’ve had so many encouraging conversations over the last six weeks about people trying to rest.  We’re experimenting, we’re failing, we’re succeeding, we’re resting! 

Today is the first day of lent (some of you will read this tomorrow, making yesterday the first day of lent!).  We want to encourage you to make rest a part of your Lenten celebration!  The tradition of Lent is to give up something until Easter.  We want to offer this option: give up busyness. 

Jesus ultimately has asked us to give up our lives (not just coffee, or chocolate, or meat or whatever…).  For us in the western world, this means giving up the idolatry of busyness.  There’s actually something freeing about the idea that giving ourselves up in this context can and should mean adopting a pattern of rest. 

Below are all of the “Invitations to Rest” which we posted during the Rest series.  We encourage you to grab one of them and use it for your Lenten celebration.  If you want to make up your own, we think that’s awesome too! 

We’re also offering an open invitation to anybody who has been experimenting with rest and would be willing to share about that.  Whether you’ve succeeded widely or failed miserably, we want to hear about it and believe that your story could be an encouragement to others.  Send us an email if you think you’d like to share!

Rest on.

Ian Longtin / ilongtin@hopecenter.cc

Lenten Rest Ideas:

• Start a weekly Sabbath practice for yourself.  Invite friends and family to participate. 
• Identify one thing that burns you out and choose a day of the week in which you do not do that thing. 
• Identify a form of entertainment/electronics that you are addicted to and choose a day of the week in which you don’t use that thing.  (Think cell phones, Facebook or Television).
• Get together with some friends and family for a meal and something fun (movies, board games, etc).  Consider making this a weekly tradition.
• Choose one day each week and do nothing.  Invite your friends and family to do nothing with you.  
• Choose one thing on your to-do list each week that is not absolutely necessary and replace it with something life giving.
• Think of one type of entertainment that you use regularly (T.V., Radio, Music, etc..) and prune that out for Lent.   
• Reflect on what makes you feel rested and rejuvenated. Possibly write down a list and make time to do them.
• Start small and make a plan that could take you beyond the Lenten season.
• Give yourself grace in this process.
• Only check Facebook on Sundays.     
• As many days as you can each week, find 5-10 minutes to just be with God. 
• Unplug your television and use that time to eat with a friend or family member, read a book or go for a walk.