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Tag Archives: Hurry

Fast for Lent: Receive the Gift of Sabbath

At New Life Fellowship Church we have launched a church-wide initiative to keep Sabbath during the seven weeks of Lent. We asked people to choose  a 24 hour period –either from Saturday night, 6 p.m.,to Sunday night, 6 p.m., or from Friday night, 6 p.m., to Saturday night, 6 p.m. We also asked them to mark the beginning and end of their Sabbath by lighting a candle.  To listen to the sermon and see further resources , go to www.newlifefellowship.org.  One larger goal of Sabbath, I believe, is that the qualities of biblical Sabbath (STOP, REST, DELIGHT, CONTEMPLATE) infuse our other six days. John Freeman’s book, The Tyranny of E-Mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox has been a gift to me these last few months as I seek creative ways to eliminate hurry and multitasking from my daily routine. The following are the suggestions that I found most helpful that I am adding to my “fast” this Lent: 1. Don’t Send.  E-mail only . Read more.

Rule of Life NLF Part 2 (with commentary)

This is the second of four sections on the Rule of Life I have been developing for New Life Fellowship Church in Queens. We have only just begun to pilot it.   My concern is to keep us faithful to our charism, that is, our unique grace and calling. I think we are in great need for fresh, creative ways of understanding who we are as God’s people and His call on our lives.  I know I need this personally. What amazes me is that every week has more to do in it than available time. I don’t know how I ever lived without that 24 hour Sabbath each week!!  In a conversation with Basil Pennington that I had with him before he died (he was a Trappist monk for 55 years and prolific author), he shared with me how he longed for greater time with God, more contemplation now that he had just “retired.” And that was from a monk having 7-8 Daily Offices. Read more.

Driving in the Right Lane and Spirituality

I have finally identified one of the core issues to my walk with Jesus Christ – driving in the right lane. Try it for a week. Okay, a day. Then try driving in the right lane and do nothing else but drive. No radio, phone calls, tapes, etc. It is a Sabbath activity for me and has been for some time. It is exhilarating. But I have not not been able to integrate this into my work week. Why? It is deep, I suspect. Very deep. Ruthlessly eliminating hurry (Dallas Willard’s famous phrase to John Ortberg) captures what, I believe, is one of our critical issues as followers of Christ in our culture. In New York City we are famous for finishing people’s sentences, speeding to red lights, fighting for a seat on a subway or bus, and “attitude.” Traveling around North America, however, has shown me that we don’t have a patent on the problem. Multitasking, continuous partial attention, and trying to. Read more.