Forced Retreat

A ‘fast’. A spiritual retreat. Or circumstances which force life as we’ve known it to halt.

In each of these we navigate similar internal struggles. We navigate a struggle toward 'new creation'.

The ‘fast’ we reference above illustrates this internal journey most simply:

Whether it is a fast from food, digital life, or something else, our brain initially throws a fit. We exhibit ‘spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder’ – hyper-active and hyper-focused on the one thing we are denied. Our brain or body wants what it has been conditioned to consume.

Once we allow ourselves to move through this first stage we arrive at the next: rest. Here we submit ourselves to the loss. Initially, this stage can feel like a chasm has been opened in us. Arriving at ‘rest’ can initially feel like “giving up” – or mourning a type of death.

Eventually – if we seek God as the place of our rest – we arrive at true rest. In ‘true rest’ we wake one day to find we are deeply content without the thing we once craved. We might even become grateful it is gone.

This whole process is like the fading of a desert mirage. Initially we panic – the promise of the alluring image is melting away! And as it melts, the reality behind it comes into view. But to our amazement, it isn't a desert that's revealed. It is open fields and rolling hills! Not an empty abyss – but freedom and space to stretch our legs. To run wild in. To exercise muscles we forgot we had. To engage life more deeply, playfully, and to create something new!

Parenting has many seasons requiring us to give something up – maybe it is simply 'control'. Sometimes we are gently called to willfully submit what we hold too tightly. And sometimes those things are forced from our hands.

Whichever it might be, in proper context, it truly is a 'fast' and a spiritual retreat. The sooner we understand this, the sooner we can co-operate with God in this journey toward new creation.

Don’t worry about your life.
Look at how I provide for the birds in each season.
You are worth so much more to me than them.
Everything I have for you: My plans for your good,
for a future and a hope – these will come
when you continually draw near to Me
and seek My Kingdom.
It will be everything you truly long for, and more.

[A paraphrase of Matthew 6:25-34 & Jeremiah 29:11-14.
We encourage you to read them in full.]