Hiatus

Image Source: Aaron Burden

I have taken a hiatus from updating my blog for the past 5 weeks.

We have just had a mid-year break at the Seminary and upon some reflection, I decided that I would use this opportunity to have as much of a break as possible, not only from academic work and preaching, but also from writing my personal blog and basically doing anything productive at all.

Usually during my academic holidays, I would use the extra free time to work on fun projects that I would not usually have time for during the term, such as writing or recording new music, helping out at my home church, catching up on reading, writing new material, etc.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I was forced into a situation where I was unable to do any of the above "holiday work" that I had intended to. A couple of days after arriving in East London, our family received the tragic news of my gran's passing. 

I was devastated. 

I had no motivation to do anything. 

It felt like the climax of a storm that had been brewing over the past couple of months. 

I felt emotionally, physically and spiritually drained.

Fortunately we were able to be home for the funeral. Instead of trying to keep up with regular blog posts and writing half-hearted posts just to publish them during this difficult time, I made the decision to take a month off of writing and doing "busy work."

But rather than feeling lazy and unproductive during this time, I have found that I have come through this past month feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

During this break, my family was lucky enough to go away to Wilderness for a couple of days. As I walked and ran along the majestic beaches and through the magnificent forests in the garden route, I was reminded of the Greatness of The Creator God and how much bigger our God is than all of our problems and struggles that we often worry about so much. Sometimes it takes a period of stepping outside of our busy schedules to remember these important things.

This time of rest (even though forced upon me in a way) was a much-needed break, and reminded me of how important it is to intentionally take time out of our busy schedules to rest. Not to fill our rest times with other busy projects at every free moment, but earnestly and intentionally rest.

Often the busy-ness of our lives can disrupt our patterns of worship and abundant life. Times of rest help us get back in sync with the harmonies of God's Grace around us.

'Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."'

- Mark 6:31 (NIV)