Discussion Notes: Chapters 6-10

• Intermission:
  • Gospels are biographies and we can learn from them
  • Spritual Disciplines (“practies of Jesus”) – how we follow Jesus
    • Bible Reading
    • Prayer
    • Sabbath
  • Disciplne: any activity that enables me to eventually do something that I cannot yet do.
  • Jesus doesn’t command us to do any of His practices, He just does them and says “follow me”.
• Part 3: 4 Practices to Unhurry Your Life
  • Boredom doesn’t exist anymore
    • We have access to everything but lost opportunitiies to pray or be aware.
    • Is it really necessary to check the news, watch a video, or do something else at this moment? When are we ever alone wewith our thoughts?
    • We’re losing our abiilty to be present – it’s an epidemic of distraction
    • The noise of the modern world drowns out God. We are disctracting ourselves into spiritual obivion.
  • Silence and Solitude
    • Jesus was led into the widerness becausde it was a place of strength.
    • Jesus frequently went to His quiet place to pray. It was His source of strength. His quiest place was His top priority.
    • Jesus frequently stayed up all night praying since it was the only time He could have time alone with His father – it was more important than sleep.
    • THe busier and more in demand Jesus became, the more He withdrew to His quiest places to pray – this is the opposite of what we usually do.
    • If Jesus needed time in a quiet place why wouldn’t we?
    • Why do we always need the radio on or podcasts/music? Are we using external noise to drown out internal noise? Some of us are trapped in the unhealthy patterns of our own minds.
    • Silence is silencing external and internal noise.
    • Solitude is enagegment, isolation is escape
    • Solituide is setting aside time to feed, water, and nuture your sould.
    • Silence & Solitude are the most important – we must set aside for our relationship with God
    • Take an hour a day to enjoy God.
    • Be careful not to priritize the urgent over the important.
    • When we spend time in silence and solitude with God our failures fail to take us over
  • Sabbath
    • “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we learn that ultimately in this world there is no finished symphony” – Karl Rahner, 20th century Catholic theologian
    • Desire is infiite but we are finaite – result is restlessness. We liove with chronically unsatisifed desires.
      • the “God-shaped hole”problem
      • We are made to live with God – nothing less will ever satisfy us
      • “Öur heart is restless until it rests in You”
      • “Twin Gods os accumulation and accomplishment”
      • Social media exasperates the issue (meme: apple in a mirror with a bite taken out of it)
    • Sabbath is the mitigation – it means “to stop”
      • Most marketing focuses on rest or Sabbath – take a day of your week to slow down and breathe
    • Work hard to rest well
    • “People who keep the Sabbath live all seven days differently”
    • The Sabbath was made for man, man wasn’t made for the Sabbath.
    • When God created the earth the 7th day was His Sabbath.
    • “if you go against the grain of the universe you get splinters”
    • “The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath is the best day of our lives. A full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week”

Intentions for Silence/solitude and Sabbath:

• Lawrence: intentionally talk to God more. Ask others to pray to ask God to reveal things to him. Will also go to church once a month. If Joy’s not going he’ll go with Angela.
• Kelly: will spend more time daily with himself and God in silence with no distractions.
• Joy: be intentional about the Sabbath. Set boundaries to not do things.
• Angie: interested in Shabbat (to stop). Stop and take time to slow down and see what. God has for her in that moment on a daily basis and take joy in it.
• Kim: spend more time to intentionally honor the Sabbath by stopping her activities and enjoying the silence and solitude on a weekly basis.
• John: stop constantly listening to music and podcasts so much to spend more time in silence, enjoy the silence and spend more time praying in that silence. Prioritize my Bible studies to be the first thing I do when I get out of bed.  Try to spend more time with an analog Bible than doing everything on my phone.