Week Two: Pace
...slowing your speed of life so you can notice people with compassion and still have some time and energy to serve them.
Eugene Peterson asks, “How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am perpetual motion? How can I convincingly persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to constantly juggle my schedule to make everything fit into place?”—from “The Unbusy Pastor"
This week we will consider what this kind of slowed pace might mean in our own lives, families and communities.
Resources for further reflection:
Sacred Chaos by Tricia McCary Rhodes
This book focuses on practical ways that we can learn to meet God in our present lives, no matter how chaotic they feel to us. Rhodes teaches her readers how to be present to the presence of God and prayerful in the life they have right now.
“God Is in Our Moments” by Tammy Tkach: https://www.gci.org/articles/god-is-in-our-moments/
This article encourages us to slow down and notice God’s presence in individual moments in our lives. Slowing down and focusing on a particular moment can teach us to be fully present in our lives and to pay attention to God’s incremental work.
Godspeed: https://www.livegodspeed.org/watchgodspeed/
This is a brief documentary about one pastor’s journey to discover the slow work of God in his small Scottish parish. Father Matt Canlis begins his ministry with big ideas about how to change the world for the sake of the Gospel, but by walking his parish, he learns that God’s work is done in slowing down and spending time with people.
Activity: Spend one day—or even an afternoon or a couple of hours, whatever time you have—intentionally slowing yourself down so that you can notice the people and circumstances around you. We all fall into habits of multitasking--doing more than one thing at a time, like making phone calls while we drive, listening to podcasts while we cook dinner, or working while we eat lunch. As you are able, practice doing one thing at a time, and when you do so, ask God to make you more aware of your surroundings.
Listen to the accompanying sermon here.