Time Away...

I have matriculated into vacation time after a busy week spent on mission trip. This process of busyness to vacation is one that takes a bit of practice - one has to live into it. I can't go from "full on" to "full off" instantly (though my wife says that I can make the transition fairly rapidly). I need some wind down time in order to begin to operate at a pace that is more relaxed. When I finally reach that more sane operating pace, I find myself at peace.

Peaceful living is healthy living. Operating in a non-stressed manner allows me to more fully appreciate the world around me. I have time to savor the passage of time, to feel what a full hour feels like when I'm engaged in nothing but breathing and observing and being. What a wonderful healing process that is! I'm surrounded by living water and the natural world. Hearing birds, watching the ebb and flow of the tides, just sitting and being, all return me to a place of unity. It is from this unified place that I can then move out into the world again, refreshed and renewed.

All of the major spiritual literature talks of these times of finding space. For it is when we are alone with ourselves and our thoughts that we can encounter the God that is inside us. True healing and wholeness comes through that encounter and we are called to that relationship again and again. Jesus went off to reconnect with God and to rejuvenate his "spiritual battery". So we are called to do the same.

This week my prayer for each of you is to find space (or create it) so that you can be in relationship with the Creator. Discover for yourself the healing power of space.

Peace,
Dan