Where is there breathing space in your life?

Written by on February 11, 2022

Between last week’s wonderful vacation getaway with my wife in Jamaica and this week’s prepping for VP3’s upcoming Life Rhythms: What Matters Most? webinar conversation, I am finding myself aware yet again of the need to pay attention to the rhythms of my life.  

Amidst all the stuff of life—demands and tasks, relationships and expectations, intentions and decisions, etc—I need perspective. And for me, it is often very simple images that cause me to think or re-think where I find myself, where we find ourselves. This poem “Fire” has consistently provided me, and many others, a window into our pace, our work, our relationships, and our attentiveness in life. 

I would encourage you to simply allow this poem, as you read it aloud 2 or 3 times, to stir your thoughts…What jumps out? What does this poem have to do with your life?

Fire

What makes a fire burn

is space between the logs,

a breathing space.

Too much of a good thing,

too many logs

packed in too tight

can douse the flames

almost as surely

as a pail of water.

 

So building fires

requires attention

to the spaces in between,

as much as to the wood.

 

When we are able to build

open spaces

in the same way

we have learned

to pile on logs,

then we come to see how

it is fuel, and the absence of fuel

together,  that make fire possible.

 

We only need to lay a log

lightly from time to time.

A fire

grows

simply because the space is there,

with openings

in which the flame

that knows just how it wants to burn

can find its way.

–Judy Brown

Where is there breathing space in your life, your family’s life, in the life of your church community? Or are you uncritically just piling log after log after log onto the fire?

The dominant rhythms of our culture can so often squeeze out those things we consider to be most important. We can easily fall into patterns of life and work and relationship and even worship, that are out of alignment with who we are and what God is calling us to be and do in the world. 

If you currently need a space and place to invite perspective on the rhythm of your life, then join Pam Edwards and me this Wednesday (12-1:30p CT) for our webinar Life Rhythms: What Matters Most? where we will dive deeper into this topic with our special guests Dave and Beth Booram, co-founders of Fall Creek Abbey and authors of When Faith Becomes Sight: Opening Your Eyes to God’s Presence All Around You (InterVarsity Press, 2019).

Our What Matters Most series, and this VP3 educational event, in particular, will explore in practical ways the underlying mindsets and decisions and practices you can implement to cultivate a rhythm of life you hear God inviting you toward.  What does matter most?

Register Now For This Free VP3 Webinar



Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *





Cart

View cart


Search