Do you ever walk into a situation while asking yourself in bewilderment, "How exactly did I get myself into this?" I kind of felt that way this weekend. At first.
On Friday night, I found myself in a retreat center in Youngstown, Ohio, preparing to spend 24 hours with a few dozen people who serve in prayer-related ministries at a Pittsburgh church I've never attended. I'd been invited to the 24-hour retreat on Thursday night by a friend of mine from Trinity. I'd already said no to a bunch of other get-togethers on Friday night, but against my better judgment (or at least, against the Homework Nazi yelling inside my head), I said yes to this one.
So, there I was. I sat down in a room with a bunch of pleasant-looking folks, wondering what the retreat theme was. Then the speaker stood, and I found out: It was about keeping the Sabbath.
That's when all the pieces fell into place, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I felt like God had just let me in on the joke.
For months, I've been sensing God pushing me toward incorporating more listening, silence, and rest into my life. Roughly a week ago, my spiritual director strongly suggested that I work to observe the Sabbath while I'm in school (and I agreed).
The retreat was both refreshing and helpful, being designed to help ministers understand Sabbath through studying it in scripture and through living it for 24 hours.
So that's how, without knowing it, I ended up exactly where I needed to be on Friday night. Thanks be to God.
3 Thanksgivings:
* For the birth this weekend of my fellow junior Fred's new daughter
* For Sarah's dramatic improvement in health since last week
* That we belong to the Lord of the Sabbath.
3 Prayers (selected this week from prayers for Ember Days in the Book of Common Prayer, pages 205-206):
* For those to be ordained
* For the choice of fit persons for the ministry
* For all Christians in their vocation
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