"Terry, Slow Down!" 

If I had a dollar for every time my mother said, "Terry, slow down!" to me when I was going up, I would be a rich man.  This Lent I hear my mother's words echoing in my heart.  Sometimes our lives get so frenetic and busy we forget what it's all about. We race around with an urgency to get everything done. And we forget to discern, "why does it need to get done?" or "Is it really that urgent?" Sometime we create a false sense of urgency in order to justify our frenetic pace so that we don't have to reflect upon what is really important in this life. We use our busyness as a way to hide from the stuff that is going on deep inside of ourselves. We use it to distract ourselves form confronting the hurt or brokenness in us. And some time we push ourselves so hard that we snap. And all of a sudden all the emotional and spiritual stuff that we have been avoiding and masking comes roaring to the surface in an overwhelming and sometime violent soul tsunami and we are taken to our knees. I have seen it over and over in people and I have experienced it in my own life. I have learned that I have to "slow down" and reflect and meditate on what is going on deep within my spirit and heart.  At times the process is affirming and confirming, and at other times it is hard gut-wrenching work. But I have learned it has to be done regularly so I don't come apart at the seams.

The church recognizes the need to "slow down" and reflect and meditate upon our internal life. Lent is that season where we intentionally "slow down" and make time to sit and reflect upon our lives, our relationships, our character, our inner being. For many of us, we don't know how to do this or we are terrified to even attempt it.  Let me assure you the benefits far out way the pain of the process. The first step is to do something different. And to that end let me suggest you join our Sunday Morning Lenten course called "Learning to Pay the Daily Office." The Daily Office is a tried and true tool that guides and directs us to "slow down" and move inward.  Consider joining us after the 7:30 a.m. service from 8:15-8:50 a.m., or after the 9 a.m. service. Together we will learn to pray the Daily Office and begin to use it in our everyday life as a way to "slow down" and seek serenity, meaning and grace in our lives.