So I’m telling you this, and I insist on it in the Lord: you shouldn’t live your life like the Gentiles anymore. They base their lives on pointless thinking – Ephesians 4:17

Rebekah may be only recently retired (Aug 1), but I have already noticed one distinct change in terms of orientation, and that is urgency. For the past 40 years everything she wanted to do (gardening, home projects, visiting museums and battlefields, arts & crafts, visiting the grandchildren) had to be completed in a somewhat hurried time frame so she could return her focus to The Church. Now, with that constant gravitational pull set aside, she can pace herself, and begin to see beyond the limitations of a few stolen hours.

It’s kind of liberating, and at the same time a challenge because there is a new rhythm to find and a new cadence to establish.

This weekend she started a huge project in the garage (loosely called a “garage” because it has housed a vehicle maybe twice in eight years and for a total of maybe 36 hours). But instead of busting her back trying to get three days of work crammed into three hours, it’s looking more like three days work stretched out over two weeks.

Same in the garden. Now she can stop before her back seizes rather than because she is immobilized with pain.

the ground beneath our feet:

But one element of our life together is an easy pattern to maintain, and that is the focus of worship on Sunday mornings. There is no scheduling challenge when going to church is simply what we do. I have never understood the uncertainty of “should we go to church this week or do _______?” We go to church for worship every week, not because God is “a top priority,” or “very important to us,” but because God is the very ground beneath our feet.

So our new rhythm, however this all works out, is still anchored in this truth, and will play out in the context of our ongoing walk with God

Happy Sunday! Don’t miss out on going to worship – DEREK