Monday, April 29, 2013

Not So Fast


Not So Fast, by David Hochman

Steve West found this in Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine, April 2013 Issue.  The following was taken from an article called Not So Fast by David Hochman.  This is not from the perspective of Jewish/Christian Sabbath keeping, but it is right on track with our REST series!  

…we decided to put the brakes on everything for a while. For 30 days—a month I dubbed “Slowvember”—we would focus on doing things well rather than fast, on making human connections instead of electronic ones, and on getting more out of life by doing much, much less. In all our endeavors, the Hochman family would abide by the following S-L-O-W principles:

 S was for “Savor,” the idea being to truly appreciate the passing hours and minutes rather than just count them. Instead of freaking out when Sebastian splashed water all over the bathroom floor that first night, I imagined myself looking back on the scene 10 years in the future. It’s a trick social scientists call “reframing,” and it instantly made Sebastian’s drippy bubble-bath beard not just entertaining but heart-achingly poignant. 

L was “Listen to your inner clock.” In a world of fast talkers, fast drivers, and fast tempers, it’s essential to maintain your own ideal speed. Some moments demand quick action and thinking. Most don’t. When I caught my mind racing or my foot pushing too hard on the gas pedal, I slowed myself by silently reciting the alphabet backward. Ruth began taking a one-thing-at-a-time approach instead of making dinner and watching TV and talking on the phone and checking Sebastian’s homework at the same time. 

O—“Others before technology”—became my personal Mount Everest. No texting under the dinner table, no checking email at night or before breakfast, no TV when we could be talking, and, horror of horrors, no Facebook or Twitter, period. Those time sucks were draining more precious time than I cared to admit, and toggling between real-life tasks and silly updates was causing productivity losses economists refer to as “switching costs.” Many of us are losing, apparently. During May 2011, Americans spent a combined total of 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook alone, according to Nielsen. The key word here being “alone.”

W was the ultimate test of every activity and experience: “Will it matter a year from now?” This not only made me feel better about little annoyances (“Have a nice day, Mr. Telemarketer!”) and bigger ones, like when my hard drive crashed during week two, it also helped sharpen decision-making. My father suffers from Parkinson’s disease, a type of slowness he never would have elected. One day, when he pointed to a newspaper ad for a visiting Cirque du Soleil show and said, “It’d be nice to see this with you and Sebastian,” my quick reaction was, “Oh, boy, this is going to be complicated and expensive with an 8-year-old and a wheelchair in tow.” My slower, wiser conclusion as I picked up the phone to order tickets: “Of course this will matter a year from now.”

You can read the full article here.  http://www.spiritmag.com/features/article/not_so_fast/.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

RESTimony 2


My Experience (So Far) Practicing Rest: I want to grow closer to the Lord so I'm attempting to fast all forms of media as much as I can during Lent (except for stuff required by my work).  I want to rest my mind and create more space in my life for God.  
Hello.  My name is Daniel Curran and I'm an info-addict.  I'm always scanning the horizon for new information by ingesting newspapers, websites, social media feeds on my iPhone during the day and gleaning posts and clicking hyperlinks on my laptop at night. I love to track social movements and like to keep up with pop culture.  So when I relax I track with a wide variety of websites and watch a wide genre of movies and videos, …even some I'm not really very interested in just to "keep up with what's going on out there".


My experience with resting my mind by attempting to fast all forms of media (as much as I can) has been surprising.  It's been refreshing so far.  It took a conscience mental choice to do it.  No newspaper at breakfast (I've caught myself staring at partial-folded-headlines as I walk past it on my driveway).  No Twitter (I do wonder what's going on with all 350 "friends" I'm following, but not that much).  No Pandora online radio (I do miss music, so I cheated yesterday and listened to the entire new Mumford & Sons CD "Babel" that Margee bought me).  No clicking video links people send me (this has been freeing, like throwing away junk mail without opening it, no guilt).  And the hardest, no generating Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram posts.   I’m not even sending text messages with pictures myself, …out of respect for not generating traffic for others, and thus obligating myself to reply to their comments and retweets (I feel more productive in my office and throughout my day.  I'm aware of more "undone" things I have not attended to.  Mentally I'm focused more on what I'm doing currently and more focused on the next thing and not on something 3,000 miles away).  

After two weeks, I don't really miss my former binge-diet of media (I worry from time-to-time if I'm "falling behind", but not that much).  I'm feeling more engaged and more "in-the-moment' with the people and the matters at hand.  I'm not fasting on Sundays, so I treated myself this past Sunday to perusing Facebook and looked at a few news sites.   After an hour I felt lament because I realized I'd wasted an hour of my life that I would never get back).  I've discovered I can live without reading all the front sections of the daily Contra Costa Times at breakfast, without skimming my Twitter and Facebook feeds throughout the day, and without posting and skimming Instagram.  I'm realizing that I was ingesting all this random information that didn't have any coherence or meaning to my life, …I think the randomness and irrelevance of it all was affecting my  brain.  Plus, it was sapping a significant amount of my discretionary time (and work-time) and it sucked a certain amount of energy out of my brain.

I'm wrestling with the Lord even now and asking Him how he wants me to live in a world gone berserk with information.  What is His wise strategy for engaging media after Easter? I do need to keep up on things.  I consider myself called to be a life-long learner.  My work does demand a certain level of social media engagement.  Plus, I really love the creative aspects of generating social media content via status updates, tweets, and picture posts.  A few things that I think He's trying to get my attention with are: #1) Media is not "bad" (being out of control is), #2) I can control the media I ingest (I'm not a passive victim), #3) The Bible, great music, and literature are forms of media (I've been ingesting a lot of "junk food" and even some "toxins", …what I really need to consider is how the Lord wants me to change my diet and dining habits).

Bottom line: The reason I elected to fast media in the first place is because when I began Lent, I asked the Lord what he wanted me to give up for Him so I could draw closer to his heart as I prepared for Easter, …immediately He whispered "media in all forms as much as you can".  I recognized His whisper.  I was humbled He spoke to me.  I was sad because I knew I had been over indulging.  I was humbled because He convicted me of how consumed I've become by media and how preoccupied I've become with all these things that don't matter (to me).  

Back to the Basics:  Maybe that's why I love working in my garden in the early mornings so much.  Maybe that's why I'm enjoying my slow reading through the book of Daniel.  Maybe that's why I smile at myself now as I strain to catch the tune of a car radio whizzing by or linger longer to read the back of a magazine sticking out of our mailbox.  Maybe that's why I've been getting up earlier to enjoy just me and God working and walking in the cool of the day in my front yard.  For my Lord wants me to draw close to Him as He whispers to me about how to prepare my heart for Easter, …far, far away from all the media voices of the world.  

-Daniel Curran | Worships at 9:00am Service | Martinez Resident

Thursday, February 21, 2013

RESTimony 1


“Now Sabbath gives me space to not take on any of the negative feelings about being underemployed and other thoughts that try to chip away at my identity in Christ.”

God is not found in the soul by adding anything
but by subtracting. -Meister Eckbart
I also just wanted to share how Sabbath helps me with my identity in Christ.  Back when I had a full time demanding job of teaching high school I was able to really disconnect from my titles and just rest in the fact that God loves me for who he made me to be and not all I can  accomplish. When I was going through the process of knowing I would be laid off at the end of the year Sabbath gave me a place to rest and not think of what is next.  Now Sabbath gives me space to not take on any of the negative feelings about being underemployed and other thoughts that try to chip away at my identity in Christ.  And I know that I should be living like this daily but sometimes if I'm not focused on abiding it creeps in.  Sabbath allows me to get back on track and hopefully helps me to keep my identity in Christ central.

-anonymous testimony


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

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.


Monday, February 4, 2013

Resting on Vacation?

Ian Longtin and Kathryn Valdez talking about the difficulties of resting on vacation.


Thanks to you two for sharing!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Hear from Avery

Paul Scholz interviews Avery Sullivan to get a college student's perspective on rest.


To catch up on sermons from Hope Center go to www.hopecenter.cc or click here

Thanks for sharing Avery!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Day of Rest

Last Sunday I shared an example of what not to do, a squandered opportunity to carve out Sabbath rest and to abide with God as we've been teaching this month.  Lying awake early on that Friday morning (my day off), I heard God's Spirit invite me in a soft but excited voice, "Come, spend some time with me!"  It sounded like a great idea, but I couldn't pull myself out of bed.

This past Monday, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I heard another small voice inviting me to spend time with him, but this time it was my 4-year-old son, Micah.  My wife had to go to work, and my 2-year-old's preschool was open.  So it was just Micah and me, for a whole day.  What I had initially thought would be an exhausting, even trying day with my beautiful but often-defiant boy, quickly turned into a Sabbath do-over.

After we dropped Ethan off at his preschool, Micah asked, "Can we go to the park and play with 'copter toys?"  (A 'copter toy, by the way, is a cheap but cool little toy you catapult high into the air and watch/chase as it spins to the ground.)  After I hesitated for just a moment--it was still chilly that morning--I accepted Micah's invitation.  We headed to the park, where we played for a couple of hours, and I found myself thanking God for my kids, my family, his creation. 

I was going to take Micah home for lunch, but I decided to make it a proper "celebration" of Sabbath and go--where else?--to In-N-Out.  After lunch and nap time, Micah asked if we could go Geocaching.  Again, I hesitated briefly, but then I eagerly accepted the invitation and off we went.  We found two of the three caches we were looking for, and Micah came away with some fun little trinkets.  I thank God for that rich time spent with Micah and, ultimately, with Him.

What made the difference between last Monday being just a day off, or a holiday, or a full day of parenting, was that I accepted the invitation this time.  On the surface the invitation was coming from my son, but by accepting and, more importantly, dedicating my time and my being to that invitation, I realized it was really from God.  I'm reminded of Simon Peter's reinstatement and reconciliation with Christ over breakfast by the lake in John 21.  When Jesus invited the disciples to breakfast, they didn't hesitate; they accepted.  Jesus asked Peter three times to affirm his love for him (likely inviting Peter to take back his three denials before the crucifixion).  Then Jesus re-offers his original lakeside invitation to discipleship, "Come, follow me!" 

Though I will reassure myself that my early-morning denial of the Spirit's invitation was not as serious as Peter's triple dis, I was reminded of his grace and that the invitation is always there to come and follow him.  When we accept the invitation to Sabbath rest, we will experience all of the goodness of his creation, his gifts of relationship and pleasure, and a time to just hang out with him, even if only for breakfast (or In-N-Out).  He's waiting; we only need to show up.



Invitation to Rest:
  • 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.
Dinner Table Discussion:

1. What invitations did you have to rest, abide, or enjoy God's creation or re-creation today or on your Sabbath? Did you accept, and how did that go?

2. What invitations compete with invitations to rest in your day, week, life? Are there some you need to decline more often?

Jordan Reed / jreed@hopecenter.cc