Unhurry your body and soul: play the Resting in God Game (Luminous Friday)

[For my Friday posts, May is “body month.” It’s about how we relate to our bodies as spiritual people. This is in keeping with chapter four of Luminous, Being Present with Our Bodies…]

The other morning I got out of bed, made my usual cup of tea, and settled into my special spend-time-with-God chair. I must have slept funny, because my lower back felt tight and hurt a little. As I sat down, I remembered that at Sanctuary as part of our move to become unhurried Jesus-followers, we are playing the Resting in God Game. It means taking a set amount of time and doing nothing other than just that – resting in God. The Resting in God Game sounded like the perfect way to start the day. So I sat down, leaned all the way forward to stretch out my back, and just stayed there for… I don’t know, maybe 3-4 minutes. Now that’s the way to start a day!


In fact, most of this week I have been starting the day with the Resting in God Game. The one day I didn’t, I was in a bad mood all day. Coincidence?

The Resting in God Game can put you into a contented frame of mind. I have found myself drifting in God’s presence, guided by the thought, “Whatever you give, that’s enough.” Whatever health; whatever money; whatever encouragement; whatever clarity; whatever love; whatever feelings of his presence; whatever anything – it’s enough.

On Sunday when I introduced the Resting in God Game at Sanctuary, I coached the congregation that resting-in-God prayer is a way to enact Psalm 131…

Lord, my heart is not proud;
    
  my eyes are not haughty.

I don’t concern myself with matters too great
    
  or too awesome for me to grasp.
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
    
  like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
    
  Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
    
  now and always.

To rest in God is to be content in him, to let him be enough. It’s the opposite of our usual tendency to demand more and more from God without appreciating what he has already given us. (Asking God for help is necessary too, but not during these resting-in-God times.)

There are many ways to pray, and all of them involve your body. Resting in God is best done when being physically peaceful. It is restful for your body as much as for your soul. Thus it seemed natural the other morning to stretch while praying in this way. My body was saying, “Ah, this is good.” And so was my soul.

If you want to play the Resting in God Game with us at Sanctuary, here are some pointers:
  • Choose the 2-Minute Plan, the 5-Minute Plan, or the 10-Minute Plan (some people use a 20-Minute Plan) – whatever fits for you at that time. Set a timer and start resting.
  • Picture Psalm 131 if it helps. Be like a child spending time with your loving parent.
  • Be fully grateful. Don’t ask for things. Just appreciate him, what he already has given you, and what he will give you today.
  • Make a treat of it. Have a cup of coffee or tea afterward. Or nibble on a piece of chocolate. Light a scented candle. Or something else you enjoy.
  • If possible, let this resting-in-God time lead you into your daily devotions.
  • When distracting thoughts intrude, let them drift by like objects on a river. Return to appreciating God.
  • Don’t try to feel something or make something happen. Let God be enough, whether he overwhelms you with his presence or remains quiet. 

Note: the Resting in God Game is a companion to the Slowing Game, explained more here.

I am convinced that Jesus regularly rested in his Father. He let his Father be enough. He became simple and content as in Psalm 131, and he encouraged others to be childlike also. Resting in God is one way we can move closer to praying like Jesus.


Note: Throughout 2014, my Friday posts will be excerpts and thoughts from Luminous: Living the Presence and Power of Jesus (IVP, 2013). My hope is that these posts launch you into the weekend in a Jesus-centered way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Ten essential Dallas Willard quotes

Image
This week the church has lost a great saint and a shining light. Dallas Willard succumbed to cancer. As John Ortberg says in a wonderfully written tribute , Willard was brilliant, but "his heart and his life were better than his mind." I thought it would be appropriate to bring out ten quotes that do a pretty good job of getting at what Willard spent his life teaching and working on. 1. This quote states the central problem Willard spent his career working on: "My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him. In his case, quite frankly, presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profound ignorance." (opening paragraph of  The Divine  Conspiracy ) 2. The central problem, restated: "The governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be 'Christians' forever and never become disciples." ( The Gre...
Read more

Why I have no hope of going to heaven

Image
I have little hope of going to heaven. In fact, I don't even want to go to heaven. Why? Because if we mean by "heaven" the final destination for God's people, then heaven isn't somewhere we go at all. Heaven isn't up in the sky. Heaven is here. When we say "heaven," most people think it's the place you go when you die. You are with God and his people, and you live forever in eternal bliss. The trouble is, that's a half-truth. It's not the biblical hope. Imagine it like this. Say you are living in a house that has been your beloved home for a long time, but it has fallen into disrepair. The plumbing is bad, the roof leaks and the house is infested with termites. You have painted the walls, and you even bought new kitchen appliances. You love the house, but it needs extensive work. Now through the generosity of a rich relative, you suddenly come into an inheritance huge enough that you can have your beloved house completely remod...
Read more

Backpacking at the Dinkey Lakes

Image
I just returned from a backpacking trip in the high Sierras with my dad and oldest son. We packed in an area near Fresno called the Dinkey Lakes Wilderness. Yes, the lakes were dinky, as in small. Most natural alpine lakes are. But the place is really named for a small dog named Dinkey who protected his master by attacking a charging grizzly bear, giving the man time enough to grap a rifle and kill the bear. Dinkey lost his life for his act of heroism, but he was such an inspiration that an entire Sierra wilderness was named after him. Anyway, we visited eight lakes, each of them stunningly beautiful in its own right. The visit was everything we could have hoped. We shared adventure, exploring places we had never been. We fished -- successfully. We swam and goofed off. We enjoyed each other's company. There is nothing like three generations of a family getting large chunks of uninterrupted time together. The bonds between all three of us were strengthened, and for that we are deepl...
Read more

A test of your relationship with God

Do you have the kind of relationship with God that is like a married couple, including fights and spats? That’s the biblical, Jewish picture of a person who really knows God.  At a certain point in life when I was dealing with some major disappointments, I came to the conclusion that it would be better to yell all my frustrations at God than go through a separation and live apart from him. That’s why I love this quote from Lois Tverberg and her quote of Peter Kreeft so much. Trust me, you’ll want to read to the bottom of this discussion of Job.  “Job’s friends were making the mistake that Western Christians do today when we don’t have a Hebraic understanding of the ‘knowledge of God’—da’at Elohim. A Westerner opens the Bible and wants to prove God’s existence and construct a theology to explain God’s nature. We would call that ‘knowledge of God.’ But in Hebrew, to ‘know’ someone was to be familiar with him through experience and relationship, as a wife knows her husband.....
Read more

Connecting with God when it feels like nothing special is happening

Image
I read recently that Facebook has been known to lead to depression. This person just enjoyed a vacation to Hawaii. That person's kids are cuter and apparently don't act up like yours. And that friend over there just won another award. If you're feeling sassy about your life, you join in on the bragging parade. If that little gray cloud is hovering over you reminding you of how things just aren't turning out, Facebook makes it worse. Today I decided to raise my fist in protest by writing a post about the morning my walk with God was less like leaping forward and more like shuffling along. It's like getting on Facebook and posting, "Nothing special happened in my world this morning. You feel me?" This morning I got up and made tea like usual. I sat in my chair like usual. I began my prayer time, like usual, with these words: "You were [God’s] enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself...
Read more