Posts Tagged ‘Sabbath’
Irregular Intentionality: Making Sense Of Our Busy Lives
Blogging has been tough for me for a while. In truth, for nearly a year. Even though I had a break which was meant to help, on reflection I didn’t use that break as effectively as the one I had in 2014.
The recurrence of this issue though, has shown this problem was far deeper.
And I have absolutely no doubt what the real problem is.
It’s an issue with time management. An issue which many of us struggle with, and has become a major issue for me. I’m simply not creating enough space in my life to cultivate the habits, like free-writing, which help me find my voice & inspiration.
And I need to do something about it, or I’m not going to achieve what I’m capable of. Because if we don’t manage our time effectively, we won’t realise our full potential – in any area of life.
Read MoreWhat Is Calling? – A Podcast Series
Calling. It’s a word more and more of us are thinking about, and using in our day to day lives.
Calling speaks to our desire for purpose and meaning. It causes us to ponder what we really wish to do with our lives. It whispers to us in our imaginations, and makes us wonder whether our life might just be about something bigger than ourselves.
Calling and vocation can, however, be easily misunderstood.
So every day on my podcast this week, I’m going to be unpacking this subject, and these a bit more.
You see, many often talk about calling in terms of one calling for life. These
Read MoreHow Will You Be Transformed in 2016? #OneWord365
Each year is a season. Each year, we undergo a process of transformation, of some kind. We’re never the same person departing the year as we were walking in. Whether we’re intentional or not about this process, transformation always happens. For good, or for ill.
Ironically, the word transformation was one I chose for my ‘OneWord365’ for 2015 (I’m going to talk more about One Word 365 and how it’s impacted my life, and how it can impact yours, in the podcast on Wednesday.
There’s no doubt my life as a whole, and especially my perception of life, faith, spirituality, and creativity, has transformed in 2015. And as happened in previous years, the word I chose has become true in many more ways than I could have foreseen.
But what I’ve learned is we are always in a process of transformation. Whether we like it or not. The choice we have is not whether we’re going to be transformed, but how.
Read MoreSeasons & Burnout: 3 Reasons To Take A Break
Someone once said there is a time for everything in life. A time to live, a time to die. A time to work, and a time for rest.
Life is lived in seasons. And this is reflected in the life cycle of the world we all live in.
We see it through the year, from the death, cold and snow of winter to the greenery, light and life of summer. We were designed to live in seasons.
And in life, when a season comes to an end, we lament, we grieve, but then we take what we learned, and move into the next.
Right now, in my life and work, I sense a season ending. And it’s time to lay it down and begin again.
Intertwined with the concept of seasons, is the idea of work and rest. And rest is equally important as work. Whatever culture might say, being busy is not something to be proud of.
Read More2 Secrets To Curing Writers Block (& Finding Your Voice)
Over the years I’ve been asked by many people what my answer is to writers block, or feeling dry creatively, or when you’re stuck as a writer.
Because we’ve all been there haven’t we? Sitting at home with literally nothing to say, no motivation to write, feeling totally empty and dry, like we’ll never write another word ever again.
Sound familiar?
Well the best way to answer this question is share my own story.
I’ve struggled with this more than once in my life. And there were two things I did each time to free myself from the shackles of writers block.
Read MoreWhy I’ll Never Blog Out Of Duty
Last year I took three months off from public blogging. Back then, my attitude, my motivation, my focus was all way off. Ambition was consuming me, an obsession with stats and success. Today I’m considering taking another break from public blogging. But this time, my motivation is very different. In my last post I mentioned…
Read MoreFerris Bueller, FOMO & The Truth Of Breathing
A fortnight back I attended a 2 day teaching with Rob Bell on all sorts of subjects. I’ll be blogging about it in more detail soon.
One of the issues he raised was a topic Brenda McGraw touched on last week – burnout, rest. And today I want to talk about another aspect of this – taking care of ourselves.
So naturally, there’s only one person I thought to turn to first.
I’m talking of course, about Ferris Bueller. He once said this:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”
A well known quote. And as we’ll see, Ferris nails it completely
Read MoreHow To Overcome Burnout (Guest Post by Brenda McGraw)
I’ve been taking a little break from blogging, but I’ll be back next week. Meanwhile, today I have another guest post for you all. I’m delighted to host my friend Brenda McGraw on this site.
Brenda is a author & speaker from South Carolina, a heart attack & cancer survivor who now helps people find joy beyond the complexities of modern life.
Today she’s sharing on an interesting perspective on an important subject – how we handle the burnout many of us today experience. I’ll be blogging around this topic soon myself. So, over to Brenda:
How do you handle burnout? When life just gets to be overwhelming and is coming at you faster than you can keep up with it, what happens? Do you shut down purposely? Or are you the one who keeps pushing yourself until you get sick and have to shut down?
Are we listening to our bodies when they are yelling at us that they are “stressed out,” or are we avoiding the signs of stress or burnout?
Read MoreTogether At The Table: A Glimmer Of Heaven
It’s been a privilege these last few weeks sharing this series on LGBT and faith. I’ve shared my story, we’ve heard stories from a gay Christian and bisexual Christian, and I’ve shared some resources to help you on your journey. And after this series is over I’m going to continue advocating for this issue, on social media and occasionally here.
But I want to finish on a positive note, with a story of hope.
You see it’s been a long time since I’ve been truly hopeful about the church, and the Christian faith. I often stand back from both of these and see such brokenness, such fear.
I’ve seen fear controlling much of the Christian faith and Christian church. This fear we all have of the unknown, the unseen, the mysterious. Circumstances and forces outside our control. And it’s perfectly human to feel this way – most of us do. I do, much of the time.
This I see most of all in relation to the issue of sexuality and faith. So much fear. But I also see a lot of hope too.
Read MoreWhy Big Dreams Require Small Expectations
I began my writing journey with huge dreams. I dreamt of having a big publishing contract, selling millions of books, being an international speaker and thought-leader. It was all daydream stuff, and I never really believed it. But it was nice to dream it.
Then when I found Tribe Writers, I saw finally a practical, realistic way of getting there. And the course was phenomenal – I still to this day recommend it to people (in fact, there’s a new class beginning soon – you can find out more & sign up here or below the post).
But the problem was, it caused me to set impossible expectations of myself.
I set my expectations at the big level of my dreams, and when I didn’t reach those immediately, I felt like a failure. I wanted to give up.
And through the process I learned one crucial lesson:
Dreams are different from expectations. And we need both.
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