What Do I Know About Living Now?

What Do I Know About Living Now?

What Do I Know?: Part 3
November 16, 2025

Psalm 92:12-14, Phillipians 3:7-16

These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.  But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ  and be found in him.

- Philippians 3:7-9a

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I Will Not Die an Unlived Life
by: Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

In our constant efforts to avoid death and ignore our human limits, we can easily fall into another trap: not actually living.

It sounds absurd.  Of course we’re living.  We’re breathing, aren’t we? 

And yet our lives are so often marked by fear… fear of losing what we have, fear of what we will never attain, fear of failure, fear of the unknown… the list of fears is endless, but at the end of the day, we are afraid to fully live.

To truly embrace the beauty of this life means risk, vulnerability, loosening our heart.  It means planting and nurturing seeds that may never bloom and investing in a future for others that we may never see. 

To fully live means slowing down to see what so many cannot see, to find beauty, joy, and meaning in the little things.  A fellow Substack writer puts it beautifully in her description of walking her dog.  She writes:    

I could choose to hear the cars and trucks fuming by below me, or, I could choose to listen to the birdsongs drifting through the trees beside me.

It is more work to choose the birds. They, even en mass, are quieter than the traffic, and more dispersed, so it is more challenging both to block out the traffic noise and to let in the sounds of nature. But it is doable, and so much more worthwhile.

While listening to the traffic, I feel slow, unproductive and like I, too, should be rushing somewhere. While listening to the birds, I feel relaxed, connected and purposeful.

How are you living this one wild and precious life?  

How is God inviting you to be more present in each moment?

What Do I Know About Limits?

What Do I Know About Limits?

What Do I Know?: Part 2
November 9, 2025

Psalm 103:6-19, Psalm 90:10-17, Matthew 11:28-30

The days of a human life are like grass: they bloom like a wildflower; but when the wind blows through it, it’s gone; even the ground where it stood doesn’t remember it.  But the Lord’s faithful love is from forever ago to forever from now for those who honor him.

~ Psalm 103:15-16

 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me — watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 ~ Matthew 11:28-30

note: no sermon for this week - we did our quarterly “Breakfast Church” and had table conversations around the topic of living within our limitations and finding rest in God.

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One of the greatest lies our culture has taught us is that we should live without limits.  In almost every field, success is defined by pushing the boundaries: bigger, faster, stronger, better, without end.  The people who tell us this are like Pharoah in Egypt, profiting off our constant striving.  Slowing down is not good for the engine of capitalism.

This constant push for more has led to a legitimate health crisis called “hurry sickness,” and it is literally killing us mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Using the checklist below, see how many symptoms of hurry sickness you have, but do not feel guilty or shamed.  If you struggle with hurry sickness, it’s not your fault.  The truth is that this is how most of us are conditioned to feel.

□       Irritability (especially at little things)

□       Hypersensitivity

□       Restlessness (difficultly relaxing)

□       Workaholism / non-stop activity

□       Emotional numbness

□       Out of order priorities

□       Lack of care for your body

□       Escapist behaviors (overeating, social media, binging, etc.

□       Slipping of your spiritual practices

□       Isolation

Jesus realizes the people are tired and worn out.  Even their religious practice has become a drain rather than a source of renewal and life.  And he responds by inviting us to live differently, to learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

Even Jesus acknowledged his limits.  He regularly got away for time alone when the crowds pressed in and demanded more.  If even Jesus had to honor his own limitations, how much more do we? 

The path of simplicity and being fully present with God, ourselves, and others begins by getting rid of clutter, both external and internal.  Clutter is anything that does not add value to your life, anything that does not spark joy. 

• Where is God inviting you to acknowledge and honor your limits this week?

• What is one place you can begin to declutter your life and live more simply, internally or externally?

• How do you respond to Jesus’ invitation to rest?

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This week we had “Breakfast Church” which included a time of table conversations around acknowledging our limits. Consider getting together with a couple of other people this week to discuss the conversation starter below:

We all have limitations that we don’t like to admit.  Here are a few:

• Our bodies – physical limitations

• Our minds – we don’t know what we don’t know

• Our gifts – the problem of comparison

• Our personalities & emotional wiring – we only have so much capacity

• Our families of origin

• Our socioeconomic origins / opportunities

• Our education

• Our season of life

As you consider this list of limitations, discuss or journal about the following questions: 

1. What limits do you most struggle to acknowledge and why?  What feelings come up for you when you think about your limits?

2. How might accepting or honoring those limits bring you greater freedom?  How might your limits be a gift instead of a weakness?

3. How can appreciating our limits help us extend grace to one another?

The Gift of Slowing Down

The Gift of Slowing Down

Simple Gifts - Part 1

Sunday, December 3, 2023
Luke 10:38-42, Isaiah 40:28-31, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 37:3-7

The Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.  One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part. It won’t be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42 (CEB)

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Have you ever noticed that the only spiritual practice explicitly commanded in the law is Sabbath?  Yes, we are instructed in worship, prayer, and countless other means of receiving God’s grace, but Sabbath is right up there in the big 10.  John Mark Comer writes:

God eventually has to command the Sabbath. Does that strike you as odd? It’s like commanding ice cream or live music or beach days. You would think we’d all be chomping at the bit to practice the Sabbath. But apparently there’s something about the human condition that makes us want to hurry our way through life as fast as we possibly can, to rebel against the limitations of time itself.” (Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, 159).

Sabbath is about rest, and it is about acknowledging our limitations.  It is a call to slow down and be still with God, just as Jesus encouraged Martha in the midst of her own well intentioned hurry.   Consider the following 10 symptoms of “Hurry Sickness.” 

1.  Irritability (especially at little things)

2.  Hypersensitivity

3.  Restlessness (difficulty relaxing)

4.  Workaholism / non-stoop activity

5.  Emotional numbness

6.  Out of order priorities

7.  Lack of care for your body

8.  Escapist behavior (overeating, social media, binging TV, etc.)

9.  Slippage of Spiritual Disciplines / Devotional Life

10.  Isolation

How many do you have? 

Resist the tendency to feel guilt or shame.  These symptoms are tragically built into our culture and have become normal.  The point is to become aware of just how busy and chaotic our lives have become.

Once we become aware of this reality, we can take Jesus up on his invitation, to “take his yoke upon us, for his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.”  Frederick Dale Bruner reminds us that a yoke is a work instrument.  You would think he might offer a mattress or a vacation for our weary souls, but no, Jesus, realized that the most restful gift he can give is a new way to carry life; not an escape, but equipment to be more fully present in each moment and to find peace and rest even in our work. 

Dallas Willard says that we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.”  In a season of preparation and of learning to pay attention to the coming of Christ in our world, this seems a highly appropriate invitation. 

This advent, let us learn to honor Sabbath together, to receive the gift of rest.  Let us, as Paul writes, “make it our ambition to lead a quiet life” (1 Thess. 4:11). 

We will fail multiple times a day, but each time we can slow down, breathe, and come back to the present moment.  Let us breathe deeply in the love and peace of the Spirit, and breathe out our anxious busyness and toil, that we may be present enough to encounter the gift of Emmanuel, God with us, in each moment of our lives.