During our Sabbatical, Martin and I are hoping to go camping every four weeks' or so. Around 6 weeks ago we were at Ambury Park, and a few weeks after that it was our church camp. Last week we were off again, this time to a new-to-us regional park called Waitawa. All the extra exercise I've been doing during the Sabbatical has really improved my fitness, and it felt realistic to try for a campsite 35km away from the nearest train station :-)
This whole Sabbatical has been more difficult than I expected. One key thing it's shown me is how small my capacity is. After removing literally everything from my life that felt like work and that seemed in any sense optional, I freed up really very little time at all. Because, after essentials like eating and showering and dressing are done, 7 hours per day (my current capacity) doesn't stretch to a lot else.
We're working through Luke's account of the life of Jesus at the moment, and yesterday we read Luke 12:22-31.
It comes in the middle of a bunch of teaching: before it there's a warning against hypocrisy, a bit where Jesus is telling his followers they need to step up and acknowledge that they follow Jesus (even when that's dangerous) and a bit where he tells them not to store up supplies for the future as they don't know how much future they have anyway. After it there are several bits about being ready for when Jesus returns. And in the middle is this section, where Jesus seems to be saying "don't worry [even?] about the basic stuff you need to survive: seek my Kingdom and I'll take care of what you need."
Then today I read through Acts 24-26. Paul, the first missionary, has been arrested for causing a disturbance. He's examined by various Roman authorities and is pretty co-operative with all of that, but in 26:28-29 we see this:
Agrippa [the king] said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?” Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.”
After two years in prison, under threat of execution, Paul's key number one concern is unchanged. He wants everyone he comes in contact with to become a Christian.
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Is that what "seeking first the Kingdom" means? Having a razor-sharp focus on evangelism?
During the remainder of our Sabbatical Martin and I are hoping to go camping for a week each month, so last Sunday after church we headed off to Ambury Park. My fitness has definitely improved: the first time we went there it took me 1h13; this time was 58 min cycling time, although a little more than that as we stopped near the park to buy mandarins from a family fundraising for their son's rugby boots. Quite a treat to have extra fruit when camping - heavy things are always at a premium!
There was hardly anyone in the campsite so we put our tent a bit closer to the amenities area than usual - and right next to a stunning wee glade that stayed remarkably dry when it rained.
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On the whole we had fantastic weather, but it was a bit wet on Sunday when we were getting there (and on Friday on the way home, too). We were using our old tent, which isn't wonderfully waterproof, hence the tarp over the top for extra protection. The photo above is from Monday morning, and you can see all our wet stuff drying on a long line at the right!
We've been away for most of April, one way and another. We had two weeks' with Martin's parents in Whangārei, followed by 10 days at home then a week in Taupō and Napier.
Here are a few highlights from Whangārei...
Kamo fizzy spring
Quite some time back I wrote about 'care-casting': explicitly giving God things I'm worried about, using a process I heard described by Gordon Smith, himself inspired by 1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."
That text is part of a bigger passage in the letter the apostle Peter wrote to Christians who were being persecuted in modern-day Turkey. I've had this whole section up on my browser for the past week or so:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.
I'm currently dealing with two things I'm finding really hard. Both of them are things that I feel God has led us into; one is something I thought would be easy but has been quite hard (which I've been really frustrated by), the other is proving as hugely difficult as expected and is something I'd love to give up on. It's all been making me pretty anxious and making it hard to sleep.
So, nearly two weeks ago when I was taking a reflective Sabbath day, I realised I needed to be a bit more deliberate about 'care-casting'. I wrote out these two main things that I was anxious about, detailing what I was worried about and what I was finding hard, as well as two smaller things that were also bothering me that day.
The chap who'd talked about doing this drew his idea from two texts: the one from 1 Peter above, and Philippians 4:4-7. The 1 Peter one particularly resonated with me - in particular how it linked not being anxious to disciplining yourself, and how it said that discipline was needed because the devil is trying to devour you. I realised I'd been giving in to anxiety and was allowing that to devour me and steal my peace and my joy. I needed to ask God for the strength to not do that, and to be disciplined in that area. I've come back to that prayer a lot over the past two weeks and have been so much more at peace as a result.
I was also struck by the bit where it says: "Resist him... for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering."
I realised I was suffering because I was doing things I thought God wanted me to do. And that is something that happens to lots of Christians - indeed, it's something we should expect will happen to all of us, at least some of the time. And that's led me to pray for other Christians in similar situations. That's proved a surprisingly helpful way to deal with my anxieties - turning them into prayers for others.
So I've kept that text up on my computer the past wee while and I keep seeing more in it. Yesterday I noticed how it starts with 'humble yourself', and that was helpful in thinking about what I expect in life and what I feel I deserve - and how much pain can come from those expectations/thoughts.
Also, yesterday and today it's been so helpful reflecting on the Easter story. In particular, how Jesus went through terrible things at the hands of the people he loved - because that was what God the Father had called him to do, and because that was what loving people looked like for him at that time. And so, as I walk the path I think God the Father has called me to, I can look at how Jesus went through such vastly bigger difficulties on his path and how that was so worthwhile, and that also helps me to stick to the programme :-)
At the end of February Martin gave up his job with a view to taking six months off as a Sabbatical. This is something we started saving for a while back, after we were struck by the idea of the Sabbatical year in the Leviticus 25 in the Bible:
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
