I told you that I spent some time alone in Scotland recently. What I didn’t tell you was about the night I laid in bed in the middle of nowhere while 110-120 mph winds tore at the cabin so ferociously that I was prompted to lean over and grab my phone to ask google:”Do cabin roofs blow off in 120 mph winds”- which is when I learned that I had lost power and with it any connection I had to the outside world. No cell phone. No internet. No electricity. No water. Just Fabs and God and some sheep on a hill (if they survived the storm).
The dangers of walking
January 17, 2015 by 4 Comments
If you’ve ever trained for a marathon: sorry.
If you haven’t: don’t.
Actually ,you know what? The training for the marathon definetly wasn’t the worst part. I learned a lot about discipline and perseverance and such. I remember my first run over 15 miles. I learned a lesson that I promised myself I would never forget. I was SO done and close to the end of my run, so I thought: if I walk for just a minute, it will help me run faster and be done sooner. Big mistake. HUGE.
Wish you were here. But glad you’re not.
January 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I’m writing this in a small cabin in the Scottish Highlands. And I might wish you were here so that you could see it, but I could never wish that because I am so glad that no one is here.
He’s here of course, heavy and thick around me and impossible to ignore. That’s the way He tends to be when all you see is His creation, uninterrupted in all its unfiltered glory; when all you hear is His voice and no other voices or sounds, but the wind and the rain.
It’s 2015 now. The year of promise. Promise of flying skateboards and floating cities in outer space and borderline immortality. Instead we have the internet and cell phones and other such tools that offer unlimited options and one single obstacle: being truly and deeply alone. It feels almost impossible to find a place in this world where you become unreachable to others, and they become unreachable to you. It feels unnatural and borderline unhealthy to even try to find such a place.
It’s an important discipline: solitude. There is this space we all must carve out where we cannot be reached and where we will not reach out. Places we will go into alone and take no one and nothing with us except our souls and the Soul Maker.
It’s a terrifying thing for some of us: solitude. We are kept from it by fear of boredom or loneliness or isolation blaming our personality or our schedules. It is a discipline for a reason, because it’s against our flesh – to be cut off from the things that distract us; to be forced to listen and forced to hear. A terrifying and necessary thing.
We live in an extroverted world. And how grateful I am for the gifts of the extrovert-culture. It forces introverts to live out their worst nightmares. Forces us all to push through the challenging work of sharing ourselves with other humans so that we might receive the blessing of being known.
But have we stopped forcing one another to push through the challenge of solitude and silence so that we might receive the blessing of deeper intimacy with God? When was the last time you were alone? Really alone. Not driving in your car, not before you fall asleep at night, but dedicated and pursued time alone with your Maker? Phone turned off. Unreachable. Willing to miss out on all the world that you might gain Him. In your closet or in your cabin long enough that you began to run out of things to say or think about. Because there is something to discover in the panicked fear of boredom and strange fear that creeps in with extended isolation. There are things to learn if you will push through the feelings and wait until there is nothing left to do but talk and listen to the God who hungers to speak to you.
There are words you have read a thousand times that demand to be heard and will not compete with the noise of the world. There are truths to feast upon that refuse to hurried, refuse to be rushed. There are spiritual meals so complicated and glorious that they cannot be prepared and consumed in the five minutes you throw heavenward before you rush out the door to work.
There is Man who wants more of you than you feel comfortable giving. And He longs to get you alone so that you will have no distractions and no where to hide while the crushing weight of His presence pushes down on you with all it’s weighted glory until you find that the thing you fear most is the thing you were looking for all along.
Spiritual Bootcamp Resources
December 28, 2014 by 10 Comments
[If you want to get a free cool bookmark and guide to help you do Spiritual Bootcamp in January, just complete this form!]
Alright guys.
We’re getting close to the start of a New Year, so I’ll tell you a couple of things I know to help if you’re a resolution-y sort of person:
1. There is only one thing that is necessary.
2. Time with Jesus matters more than most resolutions on your list.
In light of those three things, here’s my suggestion for your New Year: commit to fighting for time in the Word.
Six days of questions
December 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I recently got the privilege to be a part of creating a beautiful Advent Devotional with my church. There are a few extra days that we didn’t include in the guide that I thought I’d share. Grab some time each day this next week and process these things prayerfully with God and with your family and community!
Looking backward & looking forward.
In Deuteronomy 3, God encourages the people to “remember the days of old” and to “consider the years of many generations.” And in Proverbs 14:8 God tells us that a wise man looks ahead.
