Dream Awakener

This is month one of Sabbatical, the month devoted to rest, being refreshed and getting emotionally recharged. One of the most recommended readings on learning to rest is by Wayne Muller and is called Sabbath: Find Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives.  He starts his book off saying:

“In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.  All life requires a rhythm of rest.  There is the rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for sleep.  There is rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning.  There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter.  There is a tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea.  In our bodies, the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the exhale and the inhale.”

“We have lost this essential rhythm. Our culture invariably supposed that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something – anything – is better than doing nothing.  Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these every growing expectations, we do not rest.  Because we do not rest, we lose our way.  We miss the compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that would give us succor.  We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom.  We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest.  And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.” – Wayne Muller (p. 1)

During the first couple of days of my Sabbatical, I’ve been able to rest and recharge by kayaking, hiking, stand up paddling and surfing.  My friend Jason Lee was kind enough to host me here in Hawaii my first week.  He has been a great host, for we have been able to do these things together.  Here are a couple of pictures from the first couple of days.  I hope this post encourages you to take some rest once a week.  For Sabbath was made for people, people were not made for Sabbath.  After 20+ years of ministry, it is also good to have a season of rest.  Probably every seven years people should take an extended Sabbath.

I did some stand up paddle boarding down the Hanalei River, and into the bay.  A place with amazing beauty on the North Shore of Kauai.

Princeville, HI

I stayed in Princeville, HI with my friend Jason Lee.  Beautiful neighborhoods.