Sabbatical moments, like we have been exploring, are creative efforts to interrupt the stressful pace of ministry and allowing you to step back and breathe. When God had completed six days of creation, we are told that God ceased work. God stepped back and took a breath. God’s evaluation of creation is that it was very good.
Sometimes we can get so mired down in the details of our efforts that we neglect to step back and gain perspective on our work. The Hebrew uses the same word for breath and spirit. Consider work as breathing out your spirit into your ministry. If you neglect to pause occasionally and breathe in, you will soon run out of breath.
Because you have been called to this ministry, God’s spirit is breathed into it. Whether it is an hour or a day, it is important that occasionally you step back and breathe in God’s spirit. An exercise that can help that is to take some time to recognize where God is working in your ministry and in your church. That doesn’t mean that everything is going well. God’s spirit is often most active in the difficult moments in life. Take a half-hour and seek to identify seven statements that describe where God may be working in your life at this time. Then try to make seven statements seeking to describe where God may be working in your church. With that before you, take time in prayer to sense how God may be blending the two lists together.
Be open to the working of God’s spirit even in the most difficult of times. When you can sense that, you will gain strength for the journey.
