Presence of God
Dear Partners,
In these past several months since returning from my sabbatical, I’ve often reflected on what a special gift from God that time was. It was a rich time of rest, reflection, study, and renewal. Did everything go as I had planned? No, but God was in the unexpected aspects of my sabbatical as well.
Have you taken a sabbatical in the past seven years (or maybe it’s been longer)? If not, I encourage you to pray and ask God to show you what he wants for you in this. TAP encourages all Partners (and staff) to take a sabbatical after every seven years of service. If you don’t have a current version of the TAP Partners Manual, click here to access it and for your information the section on sabbatical is 4.8. Is it convenient to schedule/take a sabbatical? Generally, no, but just like weekly sabbath keeping, sabbaticals are important if we want to be spiritually and emotionally healthy cross-cultural servants. Sabbatical is a time to step away from our work/ministry (which in itself is an affirmation that what God has called us to do really doesn’t depend on us). It is a time to enjoy rest, experience God in fresh ways, and enjoy God’s good gifts. Every one of you is doing important ministry, and I expect many of you would respond to the idea of taking a three-month sabbatical along these lines, “Great idea, but not possible!” But, maybe just maybe, our God who is “able to do immeasurably more that we can ever hope or imagine” could open a way for that to happen, if you’re willing to give him a chance?
One focus of my sabbatical was spiritual formation, and one spiritual practice I re-engaged with was the practice of the presence of God. I expect many of you have read the little book by Brother Lawerence The Practice of the Presence of God at some point in your life (if you haven’t, I encourage you to read it!). It had been over 30 years since I first read this book, and I’m thankful God led me to do that. Learning again from Brother Lawrence’s experience has helped me enter a deeper awareness of God’s presence and be more attentive to God’s activity in my life (I’ve still got a lot to learn for sure!). As one person has observed regarding Brother Lawrence, “He showed us how, at any moment and in any circumstance, the soul that seeks God may find Him, and practice the presence of God” (p. 10). One of my favorite quotes from the book is:
And I [Brother Lawrence] make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, which often causes me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them and prevent their appearance to others (p. 36).
I love that description – “an habitual, silent and secret conversation of the soul with God.” I long for that to be my experience on a more continual basis. I also love that his experience of God’s presence resulted in “joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly” and that these joys were so great that he felt the need to manage them so that he didn’t freak out those around him (that’s my interpretation of what he was saying at least)! Sabbatical gave me an extended space to explore and work on habits like practicing the presence of God; space that I don’t find very often in my regular routine.
Another spiritual formation teacher I learned from (via her books) during my sabbatical was Adele Calhoun. I found her book The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook to be really helpful, and I liked her section on practicing the presence of God where she notes “…it is important to remember that practicing the presence is more about personal relationship than strategy. Practicing the presence of Christ is simply a way we love him and stay connected to him throughout the day.” As we all know, the more we stay connected to Jesus throughout the day, the more we experience of his love and grace, the more we minister out of the overflow, the more fruitful we will be for God’s glory. Sabbatical gives us another opportunity to create space for God to move in our lives in fresh ways.
I’ll conclude with this … if you’re interested in exploring what a sabbatical might look like for you, I encourage you to spend time in prayer about it, then read over the sabbatical section in the TAP manual, and then reach out to Teri (now that she’s back in the HR Director role) and see how God leads. As we know, he really is the God “who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ever hope or imagine” and that includes restoring and renewing his children.
In Christ,
Andrew
Executive Director