As you read this take a moment to notice your breathing. Take a breath in and hold it for a moment. Let it out and rest a moment again. Now repeat the cycle. Notice that there is this basic rhythm that sustains life. In and then out. At times we’re very conscious of this rhythm, particularly when it gets disrupted. At other times we hardly notice that it is happening. There is a rhythm of breathing in and out that makes our daily lives a possibility. In a very similar way there is a rhythm of in and out that make our Christian lives a possibility.
Living a Christian life requires a continual rhythm of moving in an out. It’s a rhythm that we must attend to or else, just as with breathing, we will no longer truly be living a Christian life and may even find ourselves on life support.
In a Christian life there must always be times where we move inward. By this I mean that we must have places and times where we attend to our own personal spirituality. Times where we attend to our relationships with other Christians. Places where we do the work of self-examination and personal growth. These times and places take a variety of forms: personal prayer and Bible study, worship, fellowship meals, small groups, pastoral care by the pastor or other lay leaders, sharing our struggle with a fellow Christian, praying for each other and many other things are all movements inward. They are ways of gaining strength, finding support in difficult times, building hope for the future, and listening carefully for the call of God in our lives.
But just as only breathing in cannot support life, so too only attending to the inward motions of faith will not lead us to experiencing true Christian life.
example of ethics and justice, and many other things are all ways of reaching out into the world.
necessary oxygen for life, so too only pushing out into the world leaves us without the necessary fuel to sustain this witness to the world.
being conscious of it. However, when we reflect on our lives we might also find that we may be only experiencing one side of this rhythm and we need to attend to what is lacking.
This newsletter article is coming out at the beginning of a new year, a time which is often ripe for looking to the future. As I think about the coming year for our life together as a congregation I think that it is worth being attentive to and intentional about the rhythm of our Christian lives.
relationship with in the community? What impact am I making through my job? One critical question is to ask, specifically, how are we reaching out into this world both as individual Christians and as a community of believers?
believers? Where do I go for comfort and support and who is it that I am comforting and supporting? The other critical question is, how are we caring for each other, building our relationship with Jesus, and forming meaningful relationships both as individual Christians and as a community of believers?
As we look to 2017, let us attend well to the rhythm of our Christian lives. Lets breathe in the Spirit of God deeply so that we might go out into the world boldly. May this rhythm bring us into the life that is truly life.