I took a\u00a0\u00a09 month\u00a0sabbatical\u00a0from church. I didn’t go to any other church. I worshipped in other ways. I am refreshed. There is hope and anticipation for the next steps!<\/p>\n
This is a reflection on the experience, abbreviated for the purpose of this blog. I will begin with the call I received. No, not a phone call. It was a beckoning, an urging telling me that I needed to get out of the confines of church. I have served in numerous ways in the congregation. Our family life revolved around the church calendar. You can say that I was a very active church member. Yet I found I was no longer connecting with the Holy as I went though the motions. I found myself driving to church and wondering why.<\/p>\n
It was about this time that I got the first nudge. Step outside. What? The thought bothered me. What was I thinking? I have been “in church” my whole life. Unlike so many, I never left during my late teens or early adult life. I drew life from my time at church. Then I went to a conference for my ministry, Spiritual Direction . Here were persons from all walks of life gathered to share how they connect with God. I was moved to tears with the way God acts in different people, in different ways. It was an even more profound understanding of God’s movement in the world.<\/p>\n
That was when I got the second nudge. Step out of the confines of the building and meet me in the world. Now , I don’t believe that God lives in the church building but I got the sense that the Spirit was trying to move me to something more.<\/p>\n
I sat with that a while and got the third nudge, more of a command, come to me! So I listened and told my church I would be taking some time away to find out what the Spirit had to say.<\/p>\n
I spent the first few weeks feeling guilty for not being in church. Then, I found God in the singing birds outside my door. I felt that Holy presence as I shoveled snow, as I sat with my husband eating a meal. I knew it was Okay, it felt like sacred time. I found the sacred time baking with my daughter to be a source of light and life. I was worshipping. I spent time in meditation and did some mission work, and painted and wrote.<\/p>\n
In this time I learned some things about myself.
\n* I acknowledged and rejoiced in my Catholic roots. That is where God formed me. I’ve even found some of the traditional prayers to be helpful.
\n* I realized that the desire to be in church should not be out of duty but out of love. I lost that for a bit and the duty piece took over.
\n* I found that I am connected to God through the other people in my life and in random contact with strangers.
\n* I am connected to God through the earth. I am part of the whole of creation and that is why I must love.
\n* Love is the way to counter hate. I can’t solve the problems of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, but I can love. Love individuals, love peoples, love the earth, and care for all in my limited way with my gifts.
\n* When I look for God, I am found. When I turn to God I find that I become aware of the constance of that presence.
\n* I know more will be revealed in God’s time.<\/p>\n
And so I went back to church, renewed and able to serve joyfully again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I took a\u00a0\u00a09 month\u00a0sabbatical\u00a0from church. I didn’t go to any other church. I worshipped in other ways. I am refreshed. There is hope and anticipation for the next steps! This is a reflection on the experience, abbreviated for the purpose of this blog. I will begin with the call I received. No, not a phone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,155,156,154,157],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-hope","tag-listening","tag-nudges","tag-sabbatical","tag-searching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3d89p-4K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}