There is renewed interest in spiritual exercises these days. There is interest in prayer and fasting, meditation and lectio divina. All of these have their precedents in Scripture by precept and by example. But the most neglected of all spiritual pursuits seems to be spiritual rest. Life is compared to a battle, or a race, or a journey. One of the most needful things is simply rest.
Some people worry that rest equates to laziness. But sometimes that suspicion of rest is a mask for an unwillingness to rest, to let down our guard. The comments I hear sometimes make me wonder: do people feel guilty for enjoying a moment of quiet rest? Are we so surrounded by hyper-achievers who are constantly overscheduled that we consider it not only normal but right? Do we think of rest as a sign of weakness, or lack of ambition, or lack of dedication?
My favorite part of Psalm 23 is where the Good Shepherd makes the sheep lie down in green pastures by still waters, and in doing this he restores their souls. So I think that if we want to restore our souls, then the spiritual "exercise" most needful is to rest.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
After a week of wading through chaos and fury at the office, I spent yesterday in the calm and stillness of the countryside, and within moments I could tangibly feel it doing my soul good. Redemption is all about 'entering the rest' of the true sabbath - Jesus Christ - a dawn awaiting the whole of creation. We should have an earnest expectation to truly enter such a joy.
You make yesterday sound very, very nice. :)
Congrats on the day.
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
I've read various posts and learn, but I also have read the 'horror' stuff and the fav's of Weekend Fisher and don't get it. What a mix of "sweet and bitter" waters from one cistern. What about King David's promise to "set no wicked thing before my eyes." Psalm 103 because it is displeasing to the Lord and unhealthy for the one looking and taking in the wickedness (i.e. Nightmare on Elmstreet, Harry Potter). Thanks for the wisdom/knowledge blogs and for your honesty of your enjoyment of taking in wickedness. The only problem with the enjoyment of taking in wickedness is that it weakens one's character and sends a message to many that your blog may be unsafe and even tainted with wrong information. I won't be visiting again and I won't recommend your site just because of that very reason. I believe I speak for many others. This may be why your blog conversations have dwindled.
Take care :)
Hi "What"
I have to say I'm not sure how your comment related to my post, or whether it was intended to relate.
It sounds as if you looked at a few of my posts under the category of "horror", maybe my favorite movies too. While I'm on board with setting no wicked things before our eyes, I'd be interested in hearing you connect the dots on how that applies to, say, Nightmare on Elm Street. I've never seen it as "wicked" just a good scare, if you're in the mood for such.
Though I know we Lutherans have a very different take on things than some others. E.g. one of our ladies' Bible studies has been studying Song of Solomon lately. :)
& In case I don't see you around the blog again: all of God's blessing to you and your earnest commitment to stay pure and faithful. See you upstairs in a few decades, if nothing else.
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
Whilst I'm not what could be defined as a fan of the horror genre myself, there certainly seems to be valid moments when this conveys something of what is true. One case where I personally found this particularly apt was the vivid 'horror' which defined the anti-theistic group devised by C S Lewis in the final part of his Cosmic Trilogy, 'That Hideous Strength'. Certainly, Christians are involved in this discussion:
http://bibchr.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-horror-as-genre-redeemable_26.html
and some Christians, such as Scott Derrickson, work in the field, so whilst we must be conscious of not trumpeting wickedness, there are considerations here that do hold weight with regards to perhaps 'shocking' people with regards to certain realities - Night's movie, 'The Happening', and the film 'The Reaping' immediately come to mind.
Thank you, Howard, that was an interesting conversation thread in the link.
I'm a little mystified by people who think the horror genre in particular is a problem genre. If they mean "Freddie v. Jason" I can kind of see their point, or "Saw" or something like that, where I'm not sure there's much point beyond the sheer gruesomeness of it.
But the horror genre in general beyond things like that -- I like Poe's horror stories, for example. It's often all about the fear of death, and bad guy du jour is just a personification of our fears as the hero works through things like "Can you really run or hide from death? Or will it always find you? Is there such a thing as a locked door that death can't get through?" So I think the horror genre actually touches on a side of humanity that needs exploring. As such, it doesn't necessarily need to be "redeemed" in the sense that people mean when they talk about horror.
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
The genre certainly raises issues that we find difficult to face, and often says a great deal about the human condition. I am an avid fan of Science Fiction, and enjoyed seeing the movie, Surrogates, this week, which looks at how we seek to deal with (or not deal with) the areas of loss and grief (I've written about it on my own blog). I think any field - even soaps - which can bring the human condition to the fore, honestly and meaningfully, have value - we have an imperative to speak about what is true.
Post a Comment