The Unforced Rhythms of Grace.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

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This week’s news of another Lockdown was a blow to an already weary Nation. When will all this end? Where will all this end?

Today’s figure of over a 1000 deaths and 60,000 new cases recorded is deeply disturbing!

Where can we turn for comfort and joy?

Jesus asks us a really important question - “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?”

Jesus offers us a really vital solution - Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

To the burdens and problems of life, Jesus offers us not a quick fix but an unhurried development of a relationship with him.

We discover rest, when we STOP doing the things which burden us and tire and wear us out and START working on finding time for and spending time with Jesus! - Come to me. Get away with me.

This is the way to “recover your life.”

How does He do it? - By modelling lifestyle - I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.

Why should we do this? Because these are “the unforced rhythms of grace.”

And this is attractive because He “won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you” so He says, “Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - “An easy life isn’t an option; an easy yoke is.”

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I have been reading and listening on Audio book a work called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world” by John Mark Comer. Its a great book and very challenging read.

John Mark Comer was a Megachurch Pastor who literally burned out and quit.

He came to a point in his life when he realised that the way he was living, always being in a hurry, was not healthy. He decided he didn’t want to live that way any longer and so chose to do something about it. This book is a result of the changes he made.

“At this point in my life, I’m just trying to not miss the goodness of each day, and bring my best self to it...“Slow down. Simplify my life around the practices of Jesus. Live from a center of abiding.”

In his book, he passes on things he has learned from spending time alone with Jesus.

Part 1 - Describes ‘The Problem’.

Jesus wants to grow love, joy and peace in our lives and that all three are incompatible with hurry.

Dallas Willard once called hurry “the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.”

We live in a world in a hurry and hurry robs us of time to relax and enjoy life. We get more done but we get less time with God. “Hurry is violence on the soul.”

Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. Why? Because “both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.”

We may be gaining the world but are losing our souls. Living without a sense of God’s presence; out attention taken up with such things as our phones and our to-do lists - “Our time is our life, and our attention is the doorway to our hearts.”

“Ultimately, nothing in this life, apart from God, can satisfy our desires. Tragically, we continue to chase after our desires ad infinitum. The result? A chronic state of restlessness or, worse, angst, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, depression—all of which lead to a life of hurry, a life of busyness, overload, shopping, materialism, careerism, a life of more…which in turn makes us even more restless. And the cycle spirals out of control.”

God is present but because our attention is taken up with other things, we are not aware of him.

And this is not good for us because as Comer says, “the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to. That bodes well for those apprentices of Jesus who give the bulk of their attention to him and to all that is good, beautiful, and true in his world. But not for those who give their attention to the 24-7 news cycle of outrage and anxiety and emotion-charged drama or the nonstop feed of celebrity gossip, titillation, and cultural drivel...we become what we give our attention to, for better or worse.”

Part 2 - Identifies ‘The Solution’.

The solution to our over-busy lives is not more time. If we had more time, we would just end up filling it up with more - “the solution to an overbusy life is not more time but to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters.”

Jesus needed time in the quiet place and so do we. When busy in ministry, with everyone coming to Jesus for healing and ministry, Jesus said: “While it was still night, way before dawn, he got up and went out to a secluded spot and prayed. Simon and those with him went looking for him. They found him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you.” Jesus said, “Let’s go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. This is why I’ve come.” (Mark 1:35-38)

Jesus is showing us here how it is possible for us to live in today’s fast-paced world as Jesus’ apprentices. He explains if we were to model our lives on Jesus, we would recover our souls.

Part 3 - outlines the “APPLICATION.”

Comer looks at Four Practices, habits, or disciplines for unhurrying Your Life. What he refers to as “the soul-habits of Jesus.”

(i). Silence and Solitude.

While it was still night, way before dawn, he got up and went out to a secluded spot and prayed.(Mark 1:35):

An away from it all, secluded spot is a place of silence where the soul can “be still” in the presence of God.

Silence is both external and internal - its important that it is both, the soul is at ease and at peace “I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a child at rest, on its mother’s knee”(Psa 131:2)

Solitude is alone time with God and with our soul - its the wilderness; desert experience but you don;t need to find a desert to do this - its your ALONE PLACE to be with God. Find such a place, for at least a few minutes every day!

Its a place to give attention to God and “Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

Noise and busyness is everywhere and God is found in stillness and quietness - Psa 46:10; 1 Ki 19:12.

(ii). Sabbath

In our 7 days a week Society we have lost the collective rhythm of work and rest! God however created a Sabbath - one day a week to be different, to rest and relax in God.

Modern society is just too busy - Studies show that once humans go beyond 55 hours a week they become unproductive even if they work a 70 hour week.

A study of Seventh Day Adventists showed that they were among the happiest and longest living people groups in the US, living on average 10 years longer that their peers because they were religious about keeping the Sabbath! The Sabbath is life-giving!

Hebrews 4 talks about a “rest” for the people of God not found just in having day off! Neither Moses, nor Joshua could give that rest merely by insisting that people had a day off. The sabbath rest is for hearing the voice of God - “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (4:7). so the writer says: “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.”(Heb 4:10).

Sabbath is more than just a day - its a way of BEING in the world. Restfulness; contentment; trust; relaxation; soul-food; God’s presence!

What can I do for 24 hours a week that will give me a deep, soul-resting time with God?

“People who keep Sabbath, live all 7 days differently” (Bruggermann).

Sabbath allows us to re calibrate our relationship with God - “That’s why Sabbath is an expression of faith. Faith that there is a Creator and he’s good. We are his creation. This is his world. We live under his roof, drink his water, eat his food, breathe his oxygen. So on the Sabbath, we don’t just take a day off from work; we take a day off from toil. We give him all our fear and anxiety and stress and worry. We let go. We stop ruling and subduing, and we just be. We “remember” our place in the universe. So that we never forget . . . There is a God, and I’m not him.” ― John Mark Comer, Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human.

(iii). Simplicity

In this section, Comer shares a number of principles for practising simplicity. For me the BIG MESSAGE here is - “You. Can’t. Do. It. All.” - So don’t try.

I also thought: “You. Don’t. Need. It. All” - Don’t be seduced into thinking you do. More stuff does not equal more happiness!

So he advises when you can give and share and even borrow - “learn to enjoy things without needing to own them.”

Oh and live within your means!

And learn to enjoy things that are free! - All around you is a beautiful creation. Don’t let materialism rob you of the simple joy of the things all around us!

“it’s wise to regularly deny ourselves from getting what we want, whether through a practice as intense as fasting or as minor as picking the longest checkout line. That way when somebody else denies us from getting what we want, we don’t respond with anger. We’re already acclimated. We don’t have to get our way to be happy.”

“In everything love simplicity”(Francis DeSales).

(iv). Slowing

Comer writes if we can slow down our body and mind, we can slow down our life and our souls too to a pace to taste and see that the Lord is good.

He gives some examples of how to practice the spiritual discipline of slowing. (20 in fact!)

Every day staff like driving within the speed limit and choosing to travel in the slow lane just to learn to enjoy what is around you; observe the scenery; take time to sing; think; pray; setting off the get there early; choosing the longest line in the Supermarket checkout; giving yourself a technology break, limiting phone use; emails; messages etc.

To become more mindful, take pleasure in slowing down your life by allowing moments of inefficiency.

“The end isn’t silence and solitude; it’s to come back to God and our true selves. It isn’t Sabbath; it’s a restful, grateful life of ease, appreciation, wonder, and worship. It isn’t simplicity: it’s freedom and focus on what matters most. It isn’t even slowing; it’s to be present, to God, to people, to the moment.”