STORY:
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Imagine you're from Southern California, and you went for a hike in Mountains around Big Bear on an unusually warm February morning. Most people would have hiked in shoes, you know, like hiking boots, but you are a distinctly Southern Californian Southern Californian. Your job contract at the local co-op includes weekly time off to make sure you can dance in a fiery hula hoop at the Ocean Beach Farmer's Market where you purchase your locally farmed hand soap, so of course you are also adamantly opposed to shoes since they distance you from being truly grounded and connected with the earth.
And for this thought experiment's sake let's also just say you've asked your friends to call you Bilbo.
{hiking noises}
Your hike starts wonderfully. You're able to dig your toes into the dust and when your bare feet grip the rocks you can even sense Mother Earth's heartbeat in the magma below...
{heartbeat lub lub lub lub}
When you reach the summit of the first hill you look out on the horizon and see some clouds. They look like they could be storm clouds, but you've heard rumors that there's a wild gnome in the woods, and you'd like to see him, but he only appears when it's cloudy, so you take your chances and continue deeper into the woods.
{stormy windy noises}
Unfortunately for you, the rumor about the wild gnome is entirely untrue. It was actually started by a serial killer to lure tourists into the woods. Thankfully for you, the aforementioned serial killer lived during the 18th century and isn't around anymore, so your biggest issue is that the clouds on the horizon are indeed a storm, and so, because of, you know – circumstances – you find yourself barefoot in a raging blizzard.
Also unfortunately for you, even though your friends call you Bilbo, you do not have weather resistant hobbit feet. For the first few minutes you feel ok. It's cold but you'll survive. But soon you begin to feel a growing tingle in your soles that slowly spreads through your ankles and settles into your calves. (Knees and up you are okay since you made sure to wear your lederhosen). Then your feet go numb. You can't really move your toes anymore and you realize that you are in danger of developing a serious case of frostbite.
Now, fortunately for you the tall, bearded, elderly man wearing a gray overcoat and pointy hat that yelled "YOU SHALL NOT PASS"
at you at the trailhead decided to follow you up in case a storm blew in. Turns out he wasn't a Gandalf impersonator looking for tourist tip money, he's the park ranger and that was his raincoat and his dermatologist recommended wearing a total shade hat. He arrives with a pair of shoes and socks to, like Gandalf, rescue you from your profoundly bad idea.
... And this concludes a ridiculous intro to talking about how in our hectic and non-stop society what we call rest is more often than not a form of numbing.
We've all been physically numb before. Maybe you got caught out in the snow barefoot and your feet went numb. Or maybe it was the last time you went to the dentist and they injected novocaine before filling a cavity.
We end up numb due to overexposure to a stimulus. In the case of Bilbo stranded barefoot in the cold, it was an overexposure to the cold that caused his feet to go numb. At the dentist, the numbness is from an intentional (and medically approved) controlled overexposure to novocaine. In the first scenario, Bilbo's numb feet are an unintended reaction, whereas in the second scenario, your gums are numb after an intentional preventative measure.
It's worth distinguishing these two types of scenarios because intentionality and the lack thereof is important for how we live, and while keeping this difference in mind, it's also important to notice that both the reaction and the prevention function in the same manner; whether or not we intended to, once we get numb, it prevents us from feeling the pain and/or damage that is taking place.
And this is also true in our emotions. You may have also experienced an emotional numbness from an overexposure to something difficult or painful. Maybe you've been working in a downtown area for so long you're numb to the poverty you see. Maybe you're numb to violence and death from movies or from experiences you've had. Maybe you're numb to the hurt of the world and pain in the church.
Maybe you're numb to being numb.
Other times we choose to numb ourselves through some activity to avoid some sort of emotional discomfort or pain. Maybe it's drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, shopping, food, technology, sleep, distractions, or, more likely some folk cocktail of several of these.
What's interesting is that all of the things I just listed are also things that–at least on a shared cultural level–are understood to be "restful" leisure activities. And some of these are unarguably restful, like sleep. So we aren't saying that these activities can't be restful. We are saying we cant just assume they are. It takes discernment to know what is bringing genuine rest and what is just numbing us.
Real rest can bring about healing, numbing just masks the pain. And since we live in a culture that never stops we're almost pre-programmed to confuse resting and numbing, our ability to discern between them is crucial.
{music}
We, English speakers, think about time as a limited resource that we can turn into a commodity. So we spend time, waste time, and even save time. If we can easily spout off the phrase, "Time is money" without pause for thought, it makes sense that the way we think about valuing our time might be the same thing as idolizing efficiency.
With this in mind, our lives seem to be characterized by a constant vacillation between hyper-productivity and hyper-disengagement that leaves us (intentionally or not) numb and disconnected instead of well rested. Rather than knowing what it means to truly rest, we've absorbed a cultural anxiety that drives us to ignore our limits and keep up the illusion of always being "busy" and using our limited time "efficiently" until we reach the point where things just start shutting down. This is what idols do: they promise more life, but then just numb it.
In terms of short term costs, numbing is a much more efficient use of our time than resting since it enables us to continue to "do" more. When we're numb we can accomplish more, watch more, buy more, and do more. Keep on producing. Keep on walking on the rocks though the snow, not knowing we're bleeding and parts of us are turning necrotic.
Sometimes we find ourselves numb and confused as to how we got there. What started as a once in a while decision to take the edge off the stress has unconsciously become an evening ritual.
But other times it might be outright intentional. We absolutely know it's going to cost us an arm and leg to reach that goal, so we just swallow the novocaine and get the amputation over with.
But there are other ways. So in the conversation that follows, Julius, Kevin and I talk about how Benedict's Rule can help us imagine something different. And give practical guidance to help us experience a truer rest that fuels fuller life and work.
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DISCUSSION [Auto-Generated Transcript]
Julius: Well, welcome back to All Things everybody. What you don't know is we have just spent two minutes while rolling the tape, um, making jokey ways of how to get into this conversation.
Wilson: They were all so much better than I, how we're actually gonna, how we actually gone. And we just can't do it because it's distracting.
Julius: It is distracting. We really wish that we could get into it, but we're just going to get into it. Um, the last episode that we were talking about, I mean, this series where. Uh, taking a good look at, uh, Benedict's rule of life and the way that these Benedictine communities, um, have, and still do embody, um, like a way of life that we.
W we are inspired by and that we feel is very, um, integrated. And so the last episode we were talking about, um, Benedict's theology of study and work and how that is, um, interconnected with a life of prayer. And, um, and now that's connected with like the incarnation of Jesus, the kind of life that Jesus embodies.
Um, and so the kind of last element from that is, um, or I guess the. The natural next element after talking about work is, um, talking about rest as a practice. It's a practice that, that, um, in Christian circles, I think we talk a lot about Sabbath, especially as the church in America. I think that like we, um, coming from a very hyper productive.
Driven culture. Um, and kind of hearkening back to like, uh, in contrast to kind of some of the, maybe more robust and Christian definitions of work that we talked about in the last episode, I think that, um, we have a problem with knowing how to truly rest. And so just getting right into it. I think some of the distinctions that we started to highlight in the intro story is, um, the difference between the true kind of like.
Um, wholeness that comes from like a Sabbath rest, um, versus the kinds of things that we might call quote, unquote rest, but are really just like tactics of numbing and avoidance that actually leave us maybe feeling more tired because we haven't addressed the thing. And, um, w we believe we're convinced that like chasing down these practices of true rest.
Um, cultivate in us, um, a sense of what the monks called , which is like, um, uh, uh, I guess, a quality, a quality of life, a quality of being that is present, prepared and prayerful and how to cultivate that we need to practice, um, really, um, good ways of resting. And so what does that look like? Um, first of all, Can you flesh out what that looked like in the Benedictine communities so that we can kind of, um, once again, have our imagination expanded of what like true rest can look like in community
Kevin: St. Benedict was after simple Biance of weave. That's a thread that has been highlighted throughout this Benedictine series is just, let's take. The commandments of God and just live them out in everyday practical life. And w last episode, we talked about work, um, and how work and the Benedictines were taking seriously, their, their habits of work, which actually in the ancient Roman culture would have been quite counter-cultural since, uh, the elites do not work all the peasants and slaves and all those bottom people, they work, the elites do not work and the peasants.
Wilson: Don't not work…
Julius: It's not dissimilar from today.
Kevin: Exactly. And so, so work was counter-cultural. People intentionally do that. I think nowadays it's probably —
Wilson: fun fact. This is infringed culture. This is why it was very manly in like the 17 hundreds to wear like really frilly white stockings and stuff, because that showed you can, it's not going to get dirty.
Look, I can, I can walk around in this
Kevin: Yeah, work was counter-cultural for Benedict. And I think nowadays, like you said, Juul is Julius. Uh, the Sabbath is counter-cultural for our days. And so they took a rest, uh, work seriously, but they also took a rest. Seriously. They did not see themselves as we're doing this because it's our obligation and duty to just do work and hard work and hard labor all the time and just.
Fast 24 7 and beat our bodies and completely, you know, just to run ourselves dry. They actually, they required rest. And even it would be seen as sinful if you were to do any kind of work during rest time. And so one of the cool. Practices, they did a, it's not a chapter 48 in the rule is after the six hour, which is around noon.
So midday prayer. And after their meal Bennett, it says that the brothers may rest there on their beds in complete silence. Uh, essentially what he you saying is nap time. Love it. And so there's like a, an ancient story of like the Saint Benedict invent nap time, or the siesta siesta in the, in, at noon. And.
Yeah,
: calling it, we're
Kevin: calling it. I would say I would push this. I would say this. He definitely, uh, is, uh, codified and made it into a rule. That's tight. This is. Uh, to have that time. Um, but he says essentially after midday prayer in their meal, and essentially he gave, if a brother just did not want to take a nap, if you want to just read privately, then let them do so.
But without disturbing the others. Um, and so the essential thought behind this was in the middle of the day, let's rest, our bodies. So that the work in the afternoon, and even the evening, which included prayers with P uh, and praying the songs and going through the liturgy and also washing dishes, sweeping floors so that those activities can be done with our entire selves, our entire devotion.
And so rest is, is, was seen as a way of just rejuvenating the body, or like a way like to put as rest as renewal of just renewing ourselves. Um, and our hearts, our minds, souls and bodies. Um, and this is essentially what the nature of the Sabbath is. It's supposed to be life-giving, it's supposed to be a moment where we practicing God's presence is not supposed to be a time where we're numbing ourselves out or distracting ourselves, or just trying to, you know, escape this world through digital means trying to, you know,
Julius: Yeah. That's that, that's where my question was going to go. Like before it would Benedict say. Well, can we, before we
Wilson: take it there, I just point out like a marker Ford and why Benedict again. And again, rises to the top as, as a model or a mentor potential mentor example in, in finding healthy rhythms and structures is when you find a good one, you don't, you don't.
And when you find a good. Or a structure you don't long-term have to choose between the individual or the community or the person or the group, right? Because in the long run, if you act according to this structure, yes. It allows the person to come to prayer, to sing the Psalms with their whole being. But also think about it that, that cultivates a healthy community, because if you're going to be part of it, do you want to work with a group of a bunch, with a bunch of other tired, grumpy people before you write and think about how, how energy.
Well, like feeds, right? It can go negative. You get caught up in group think, but it can go super positive to where the, the cumulative energy and engagement of the group bright, like catches you up and raises you up to another level. And so if like, right it's so this is, this is long-term benefits, the person and the group and the work and the art and the culture of the whole community.
Julius: So, yeah. Tell us why
Wilson: the digital stuff doesn't.
Julius: Yeah, that's exactly it of just like. Um, in, I mean, there are a Benedictine community, so I wonder how they do. I mean, I just, I imagine this is how they do it, but like what do you do?
Wilson: Instagram usage at prince
Julius: of peace. I know we should ask them. Yeah. What is your current policy?
But like, yeah. I mean, those are always at like 15 minutes or something in the middle of the day, or was there a prescribed time? How long is this?
Kevin: I don't think Benedict.
Wilson: Wow. That ties into one of the great things about his rule is there were many things that in other previous monastic rules were very rigid.
That Benedict also had an instinct for where to leave. Like exact time periods or even dress, which is part of what allowed, you know, a Benedictine monastery to flourish, like in like really wet, cold. Yeah. What's now England and a very arid desert climate somewhere in the Eastern
Julius: Canadian tuxedo robes.
Kevin: But the rule is meant to be. Um, contextualized in whatever we're keeping it in
Julius: mind or the way that like the rule of Benedict is contextual. Exactly. Like we already were kind of joking about like, yeah. What is Instagram usage like at the prince of peace, Abby? Um, it seems like, um, maybe, maybe how I'm hearing it is.
Like rightly rigid, is that the two things that you can do are nap rest for your body or to read, right? Like where does, like, if I were, if I were a Benedictine monk, what would my Abbott have to say? If I was like, I'm going to scroll on Instagram or, you know, like why those two things and how like, um,
Kevin: What I hear in Abbott asking, cause there's always this play between the Abbott and the, in the, the monk of like a question and kind of like a response.
And so what I hear at Abbott, uh, inquiring about Instagram usage is tell me how that practice reminds you of God's presence, or tell me how that, that act or event or doing that. Delve deeper into the presence of God. Right. And that's what, essentially anything that's renews you are gives life to you. I mean, that's can be categorized as rest, you know?
And so like even just going out and, uh, looking at the beauty of creation. Looking at how the leaves change, color, looking at a frog in a pond, uh, looking at, or being reminded of the blessings that God has given you, your friends, the family, your local church, your, you know, health or et cetera, et cetera.
Like anything that produces moments of renewal, uh, delve deeper into God's presence than I think an Abba would say than do that. And so I, I would buy Instagram outearn. That would be an interesting one.
Wilson: And in that as the job of an Abbott, as a spiritual advisor is also discernment. And so I think would probe questions about why are you go, why are you going, what are you looking for there?
And. Like our language, totally obscures what we're actually looking for, because we say we're looking for a break from whatever the world from anxiety, from the things that are weighing on us and you don't get that there, you get more, you get, I mean, and this is again, just, there's been all sorts of stuff all over.
Yeah. If you haven't done this on your end listener, like watch the social dilemma on Netflix or read some of the, the studies that have been done about exactly what drives the algorithms that, that put whatever is in front of your face, in front of your face. In these, in these ads. Because what the algorithms are for is to actually increase anxiety.
Cause increasing fear and anxiety keeps you there because you keep looking for, and then every now and then, and they even tailor it. The, the, the rhythm, they have a very tailored to your scrolling, clicking, liking. They'll send you this much stuff that they know is going to make you anxious, and then they'll give you something.
That's a little, Jilt the positivity. And then that, that tricks your brain, like the mouse going to the, to the feeder to think, well, if I keep scrolling, then I'll find the positivity. If I keep scrolling, then I'll find the break and you're not going to find that it gives you more and more of like what the opposite of what you're going for.
Right. And, and honestly, it's in this case where this is actually happening, not. A hundred percent of the time that a hundred percent of the people open up Instagram it's idolatry. But I am saying it's probably idolatry more than we're aware of, because if we're going there looking for a genuine, what we're going for implicitly is with something bigger than me that can get me out of my head and out of my emotions and carry this.
Help me hold me in this tension and encourage me in this tension. What you're looking for is God. Transcendent. And so rest, genuine rest and prayerfulness will give you what you're looking for. Not, not the distraction, not the.
Julius: That's interesting. I think, um, what you bring up there with algorithms makes me think of. The concept of design, design instructors. Right. I, uh, a friend of mine is a product designer and I've talked to him about this where he's like, yeah, he's like, it's not necessarily as. It's not necessarily, always as much as like corporations are like actively trying to like corrupt the youth or whatever, but like the tell us to which these things are designed are more clicks and more time on the app.
Right. And so that is like built into design, built into the design as a certain ends. And that ends is like consumption. But, so I'm curious, you might, you may or may not have an answer to this, but what it makes me think of is I wa I wonder what the, um, The actual day of Sabbath, like Sabbath day looked like in, or looks like currently in the monasteries, because I think a lot about I'm struck by like how, um, speaking of like guidelines in.
In the scriptures is particularly like in the old Testament, how much like detail there is into the work that goes into preparing for the day of Sabbath, that there is like an inextricable relationship between work and preparation and rest. And how like that is a design that is oriented to kind of like form a people who could have the discernment to know, like, is this rest, um, Or is this like numbing?
Um, so I guess like just spring boarding off of that, like, um, what does that make you think of and like how, um, Let's flesh out. Yeah. What, what practices that has looked like for y'all and what practices that could look like for y'all to, um, experience this rest. Um, for those of us who aren't in like a strictly monastic community like this, um, what are the moments that you've experienced to rest that isn't numbing and what did it take to get.
Wilson: So you, you pointed out nothing is right to name it. The algorithms are the structures that shape, they structure your Instagram experience or your Facebook experience. And, and they are very they're anti monastery. There are structures that lead a way toward the Telus that you pointed to. Right? And it, it, there may not be some in like conscious nefarious motive to corrupt, but when that is the conscious and highly.
Like highly sophisticated in that it's seeking then the corruption and the anxiety is the by-product. Yeah. Um, and so the, the thing that leads to experiencing rest does this is you, you touched on it. It's. Interrelated integrated larger structure of life. Yeah, I was really, I was really torn for a while when we were laying out this series, like, do we do what we did the last episode and show the connection between study and work or do we do work and rest as one episode because, and we had to make a choice for the structures of a biweekly podcast and time constraints and everything.
We should understand that. What, what structured the monastery for a healthy Sabbath and punctuated like moments throughout the day of rest is deeply tied to good work. Like one of the things I had to learn to get to that place where I felt like I could experience Sabbath rest or to even be even out of, you know, we can drop the religious word for a second to just experience rest.
I had to learn a lot about work. Um, and the, in hindsight, the way I can articulate it now is I used to feel like stressed out overwhelmed. And so I would need a break. And what I'm actually doing is just retreating. Right? So in college, you know, I would look at, oh, in the next two weeks I have what that's unreasonable.
That's just ridiculous amounts of work. And so I would spend two days watching movies. Totally. Um, and then it's just too much. Right. And that I did not, at the end of those two days, feel rested at all. I felt more anxious, more tired and more resentful of my situations. And I started getting, I started getting bitter and I started blaming whoever my profs or my girlfriend that wanted time.
And like any, and it's still, it's still carries on when I look at whatever family finances or Shamal workload or whatever it is. And I start to feel overwhelmed. There's a part of me that wants to retreat and I've, I've even been conditioned to call that I've been, I'm tempted to call that rest or self care and see it's actually not.
That, um, because when you, when you hide from or run from the thing that you cannot run from, that gives it greater and greater power to weigh on you, and you may not be actively engaged in working on the problem. But the problem is, is it's got its claws in you now and is affecting your emotions is affecting your interstate.
And, and like, you're, even though it's in the back of your mind, it's weighing heavy on every single part of you. But to name that and to carry out a healthy stroke, this is like the structure of work to dedicate these hours to go. Like, I even still, I can sometimes flip it in my head and use like nice Christian language.
Like, oh God, I don't want to take it out of your hands by engaging. And sometimes you're like, no, no, no. Like this is go time afraid. You've discerned. And now it's time for you to get out there and do your work. I realize you're not going to conquer this on your own. You've done what you can do now. Rest, if I have genuinely given what I could give to it, my rest is a thousand times more re rejuvenating and I can, instead of having it sitting there in the back of my mind, weighing on every part of my being, I can genuinely set it aside for a time.
Take a good nap or get a good night's rest or take a whole day off and enjoy my kids. But if I haven't like engaged in the work, then the rest doesn't. And so some of the more concrete things is a healthy patterns of work and rest built into the monastery, or also like the day before the Sabbath, what are the preparations?
Like? We cook a little bit differently. We prepare the spaces a little bit differently to be ready so that tomorrow it's not like, you know, dang it we're hungry, but Chick-fil-A is closed. What did we do?
Kevin: I have probably something just like super ordinary. I don't know. That's all we want.
Kevin: It's just like, I mean, that's the point? Isn't it? That the monasteries are. Not extra ordinary, but like super .
Wilson: Well, it's ordinary it's yeah. It's not extra soup bro. Ordinary. It's just ordinary reworked. Re-imagined re-imagined ordinary.
Kevin: Yeah. And so when I think of rest or Sabbath, uh, for my wife and I, I think of, uh, a plane. Or like games and there's obviously you can take it out to the extreme. Like there are some games, like definitely stress me more than her, but there's, there's, uh, the notion of play of just, um, uh, I think, I mean, I think children and kids know how to rest it way better than adults because when we're children, like we see the world in such a.
Ah, in splendor and beauty and they're just like, everything is just like, wow, look at that tree. Like, why isn't it purple.
And all the S all the ordinary things are just like, wow, it's green. Why is it green? Yeah. And even just like playing and just, uh, going outside. And literally, you ha you were playing, I don't know, on dirt or grass. And that's like a form of just having life enjoying. And so for me, I find that, uh, If I were to be asked the question, how have you taken Sabbath?
Or when's the last time you took Sabbath? I will look like, look at my, my week. I was like, okay, well, when was I actually just let loose, let go have fun. Play ancestry with my wife. Or like, when do we have friends over and engage in like this, you know, fun time of laughter. And those are the moments for me that are like, Ultimately life-giving and I find myself afterwards, like, wow, I spend time with people.
Um, it was not agenda driven or had business aside. And so that was, I guess, when I think of.
Julius: That's beautiful. I, um, it makes me think of I'm tempted to link. I probably will. Honestly, I wrote a blog post on this, um, on shamaz website, like a couple of years ago, we're talking about that exact thing of like the, um, the relationship between work and play in that sense of like that play is, um, it's.
It's delight. It's delighting in something, it's doing something it's engaging with the world. It's a, for me it's often creating, but just for the sake of creating that this isn't for, like this doesn't have to be shared or anything. This is just simply like, um, It's delight and that's, I mean, that's where I've experienced a lot of arrests these days.
I've been really excited about like, I've, I've set up like my pedal board and my guitar and amp. So it's easy, like to it's easy access. Yes. But the past couple of nights, I've actually like when I'll, when I'll get home, that's the first thing I'll do is like I'll plug in and I'll literally just play for like an hour and that stuff, like, I haven't recorded anything for.
Like, they're not necessarily songs, but it's pure just like delight in the instrument and delight and like a whoa, like this is, um, I'm participating in something beautiful. And like, it's, it's a different kind of like, certainly it can spawn ideas and like, there are things that come out of it and there's like an interplay, an interplay between play and work and like where that.
There can I, ideas can come from that where then I kind of like, can whittle it down and that's the work part. And then like, it takes work to kind of share it into something, but like, I feel like, yeah, that there is an aspect of, um, freedom delight, wonder and humility that comes with like, trying to make space for those, for those moments of play of like childlike play, which is like, um, I don't know, just like a.
It's a freeing way to engage with.
Wilson: And consistently doing this again, a theme that I do not want to be missed. And so I don't want to pass up a opportunity to restate. Can I guess like in a song when they is, this is the time to bring it, bring back in the main theme. Is consistently doing this makes you a certain kind of person that there's, there's a reason why, when we really start to talk about this, we also find ourselves talking about work and find ourselves talking about the end prayer and finding ourselves, talking about these other areas that are like key to a healthy life.
And that's, again, the integration learning, learning to rest and play regularly. It does something to you. And it does something that expands your capacities. It expands your perception for goodness and beauty and truth. And so it makes you a better kind of worker, not in like the hyper modern puts you in a factory and make you a better worker kind of stuff.
Isn't just strictly more productive, richer. And when, when we say better worker, the kind of soul that the work you do better reflects the glory and the goodness and the care of God, which is. All of the things around it. And so it will flow into and enrich your prayer life, which will enrich your work, which will make you able.
And especially when you work like full on, when it's time to, you will rest better, which will enrich your prayer life, which you right. And in and out of each other. Because again, it's, it's a life brought together in the kingdom of God. And these are, these are the structures. And what Benedict lays down in the rule is.
Uh, pattern, right? The thing that you laid down next to your patterns to just see is this integrating, pulling us together into a life of communal flourishing.
: Love
Julius: that. Yeah. I love that. Um, I guess as the wrap-up thought is I've always been moved by how, um, the Sabbath was introduced to the people of Israel, um, after their Exodus from Egypt, that this is a people who were formed in like for, for generations where there exists.
Was to Liz for the profit of, of Egypt of like laying down bricks. It was labor and toil and the Sabbath was this counter-cultural practice to like, so that in their bodies, they know that like you're not in Egypt anymore. Like Pharaoh is not your God. Pharaoh does not control your time. The per like the story that you're a part of is the God that creates and rests and delights.
I think that's the kind of rest that I experienced when I play guitar is like a life is bigger than just what I'm able to produce
Wilson: and that learning that this God is with. Like I w I was just in a conversation where somebody was kinda kinda hard on the people, because they're out in the wilderness, God gives the manna and God says, gathered on this day, gather enough for two days, because there won't be any tomorrow.
Don't go out together tomorrow. Yeah. But then on the Sabbath, people still went out and gathered and they're like, look how stupid and disobedient it's like, well, yeah, but you have to understand why it's trauma. Like they're terrified. They are scared because they, they. I mean, yeah, they're out of Egypt and out of that enslavement, but now they're in the wilderness and exactly what the practice of Sabbath is.
Teaching them is you can rest, you don't have to be afraid because I am with you and I'm holding you. I'll still feed you. You can still eat.
Kevin: Yes. But there's still life, even though you're not working for it, we're looking for the money we're going for the bucks working for security. It, I mean, to tie in, uh, Jesus to this, I mean, that was the, uh, one of the few places.
I think there's probably multiple where Jesus gets like legitimately angry and upset. It's in the gospel of mark where, uh, there's a man with a withered hand. Um, You guys a question, should I heal this man? And it's a Sabbath and people didn't know how to answer him. And he's like, and just say, Jesus grew angry that this practice of life giving day, this, this day where you set aside where, uh, you don't have to work for life, life has given to you as a gift.
And you can remember that. And there's a man who has a lifeless hand, um, and he asked the question, should I bestow life on this hand? Jews didn't get it at that point, but that is precisely the point. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. And so he gave life to the man with the withered hand.
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MEDITATION
[PAD AND MELODY SWELL AND FADE THROUGHOUT]
Pain, our body's alarm system, lets us know that something is wrong. We can't heal from whatever is causing the pain by numbing it, by hitting snooze on the alarm over and over again. Healing and restoration aren't nurtured by morphine but rather with consistent and real rest.
Now, being honest with yourself, what are your go to fixes for numbing whatever pain and discomfort you feel? Social media? Other's approval? Working longer hours? Shopping? Sex? Drugs?
pause for reflection
In those instances where we find ourselves choosing to numb ourselves, what's the root cause of the pain and discomfort we're looking to alleviate?
Pause for reflection
With that hurt in mind, we want to help you imagine what restoration and healing in your life might look like by engaging your pain in Statio.
Statio is a way of life that is characterized by being present, prepared, and prayerful. As a practice, it's something that we both aim for and participate in. It rejects our non-stop culture of multitasking and values moments of prayerful preparation in the present.
Statio helps create margins and rhythms for healthy and real rest, as opposed to numbing. But to be able to live in alignment with Statio requires a certain kind of ordering. It requires a lot of saying no. Genuine opportunities for rest come as a gift, but even as a gift we might still have to put some effort into being able to receive them well.
What are some things you tend to say yes to because of your hurt? What are the demands that you need to say no to? Who's insisting that those are worthwhile pursuits? Someone else or yourself?
pause for reflection
Where in your life does your own desire need to be told no in order to be able to embrace a way of life that is present, prepared, and prayerful?
pause for reflection
In our culture that is constantly on the go, and finds identity and value in that, it takes faith to say no, to embrace some inefficiency, and pause. It also means finding the courage to say yes to moments of facing your pain head on. And this is why Statio helps cultivate hope in us; to even desire Statio takes faith that facing your hurt will be worth it because there is a way of life that is more abundantly full of Life.
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