Lessons from Sabbatical

I’ve finished my time of sabbatical and am happy and grateful to have returned to my role as pastor of a wonderful church community. One thing that means is that my posts here at “Out of the Ashes” should return to a more regular rhythm as I resume Wednesday posts inspired by my weekly sermon, augmented with the occasional reflection on current events or other issues. This week I look back at my sabbatical time.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Sabbaticals are a break from one’s usual responsibilities and a time to rest and re-energize. But a sabbatical is not an extended vacation. It’s meant to be a time of reflection and discernment, a time of strengthening one’s connection to the Holy. I believe that means it’s also a time to get to know one’s self better, something that’s always good to work at but often gets lost in the busy-ness of our lives. The more we know ourselves, the bigger our capacity to forgive and love ourselves. And the more we love ourselves, the more we are able to love others. And it is through that journey to love that we find God, who is love, as well as our own healing.

In the extra-biblical gospel of Thomas (saying #3), Jesus says that if we don’t know ourselves, we experience a poverty of the soul. We lack something necessary to live in the fullness of life. But when we know ourselves we learn that God is not some being in the sky looking down on us and deciding who’s naughty and nice, but God is the love within us and surrounding us. And we learn that we are the children of God, ourselves beings of Divine love.

At some point during my sabbatical, I posted three key words where I would see them every day. These are words I believe are keys to knowing one’s self. One of those words is “learn”. If we seek God and the fullness of life, we need to keep learning, to keep asking questions. To know one’s self, I think we also have to learn about the world around us. Part of knowing one’s self is to figure out how we fit into the world. As part of my sabbatical I attended the Wild Goose Festival, which is always a worthwhile event. There are so many great workshops where one can explore current and relevant issues that affect people’s lives, which is useful for asking ourselves where we fit in. It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn.

The second key word I posted was “experience.” As an extreme introvert, I find it all too easy to isolate myself, especially if I’m stressed. So once in a while I need to be reminded that a full and abundant life is not just lived within the confines of my own brain. I have to get out and experience life, to be in relationship with not only people but with nature as well. Another thing I did during sabbatical was get back into a poetry workshop I sometimes take. For me, that is a way to experience, to get out of the house and be around good people. As an added benefit, I find writing poetry to be not only fun but a good spiritual exercise. Poetry challenges us and invites us into new perspectives. It asks us to reflect on life, both the extraordinary and the mundane. It’s a way of seeking meaning and asking where one fits into the world.

The third word I posted is “serve.” Looking within and knowing ourselves in our desire to connect with the Divine is not really just about ourselves. Part of figuring out where we fit into the world is service, making sure our lives are not lived selfishly for our own gratification but are in some small way a benefit to others who might need what we can offer with our gifts and talents. To that end, I spent some significant time on a writing project during sabbatical, which I talked about previously in a post titled “Searching for Good News.” This project isn’t just personally beneficial, but I see it as service because my hope is that other people will find it meaningful and helpful too. That’s how service works. Striving to do something for others, whether for the world in general or our next door neighbor, also helps us grow by nurturing the love within us that then becomes the seeds of God’s realm, the kin-dom, the Way of hope and justice.

We also need to nurture a strong foundation for this spiritual journey. We need strong roots, if you will, so our spiritual tree doesn’t get blown over in the next storm. That means taking time to process all of the experiences and learning and information in general that comes at us in our lives. Another important part of my sabbatical was spending a week at Gilchrist Retreat Center for a personal retreat. It was a much needed time of getting a little closer to the earth and a little farther from the internet. Gilchrist is also just a beautiful and peaceful place. I also spent time on sabbatical journaling and meditating to reflect on my life and who I am, who I will become.

Of course, there are other things I told myself I wanted to do during sabbatical that I never got around to. So it’s also good to remind ourselves that it’s ok not to accomplish everything. Keep it simple and don’t expect perfection. We don’t have to beat ourselves up if in the experiencing of life we don’t get to everything. It’s good to have more on our wish list than we can actually do because otherwise life could get pretty boring.

To look within our own heart is to know ourselves and to know God. It is where we’ll find healing and wholeness. And perhaps we can start to know ourselves better through truly experiencing life, through learning, and through service to others, all rooted in a foundation of spiritual practice and guided by love. May you and everyone you encounter be blessed by knowing the beautiful and wonderfully created person of love that you are.