Midweek Musings: November 17, 2022

Dear Friend,

Nine of us went on a silent retreat earlier this month to the Holy Wisdom Monastery right outside of Madison. None of those who came with me had done a silent retreat before and we began with a bit of trepidation. What would it be like to be so intentionally silent for so long and away from our home where we might get caught up in chores or errands or phone calls? What would come up in our hearts and minds when we took the time to be still and invite God’s presence?

Twenty-four hours later, everyone agreed they could have gone longer. The silence had been a gift, a challenge, a time to rest, a time to think, a time to allow feelings and thoughts that hadn’t had room to surface. We recognized it as very different time.

Two of the items shared below touch on this idea of rest/silence and I hope you will enjoy them. Making time for silence – for contemplation and rest and prayer – is a spiritual discipline missing from so much of our busy, noisy world. I hope we would all find more time for it for the renewal of our souls.

Pastor Jenny

something Worth reading

Feral Church Children

by Lisa Brown

We have a lot of kids running around at Covenant these days. It is such a blessing. I came across this article about how important it is to let kids just “be” at church. Yes, Sunday School and programs and worship are all important too, but the time kids spend running around our Gathering Space – grabbing another donut, talking to adults who aren’t their parents, playing in the classrooms, having a spontaneous game of hide and seek – all of these times have a great impact too.

Read the full article here.

something worth hearing

One of the resources I regularly use for Bible Study is the commentary done by the Salt Project. A few times a year they put out a podcast on a theme as well. Recently they finished a five part podcast on “Understanding Church” that was a great way to think about what the church is really for in the world. The narrator, Matthew Myer Boulton, is easy to listen to and does a great job of weaving in scripture. Find them by using the search feature in your podcast and entering “Strange New World”.

something worth watching

The Nap Ministry

I keep encountering things about The Nap Ministry – a collective led by Tricia Hersey. It is a movement led by the phrase “rest is resistance.” I’ve come across this in a number of different ways and from different people, but it is a powerful idea in a world that insists we work ourselves to exhaustion and that we are only worth what we can produce. The movement isn’t explicitly religious, but I hear all kinds of connections to the spiritual discipline of Sabbath. Sabbath isn’t just about sleeping, though it is about that too. It is about knowing we have been created for more than work – more relationship, more joy, more connection.

The leader of this movement, Tricia Hersey, says this:
“This is about more than naps. This is about more than naps. This is about more than naps.

This has been my battle cry and mantra since I created the “Rest is Resistance” framework in 2016. I begin experimenting with rest as a tool for my own liberation and healing in 2013. It has always been about more than taking a full nap. My rest as a Black woman in America suffering from generational exhaustion and racial trauma always was a political refusal and social justice uprising within my body. I took to rest and naps and slowing down as a way to save my life, resist the systems telling me to do more and most importantly as a remembrance to my Ancestors who had their DreamSpace stolen from them. This is about more than naps. It is not about fluffy pillows, expensive sheets, silk sleep masks or any other external, frivolous, consumerist gimmick. It is about a deep unraveling from white supremacy and capitalism. These two systems are violent and evil. History tells us this and our present living shows this. Rest pushes back and disrupts a system that views human bodies as a tool for production and labor. It is a counter narrative. We know that we are not machines. We are divine.”

Here is a short clip about the Nap Ministry from USA Today.

something worth praying

For Rest

Meta Herrick Carlson

The world hustles and benefits
from a cruel lie—
idleness must be earned.

It is reserved for the privileged
who have achieved some success.
A reward only after
everything has been given or taken.

But our bodies and souls know better.
They remember the seventh day of creation,
the generation of rest,
the rhythm of a holy pause
before there could be more living.

When we rest we call out the lie
for the sake of those fooled
into thinking they are too powerful to rest,
for the sake of those who are unsafe
when they pause for peace.

When we rest we can remember
it is not a reward but an essential beat,
for in our stopping, we witness
what God is doing inside and way beyond us.


from Ordinary Blessings: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Everyday Life

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