Otium Sanctum

Guerneville, Healdsburg, Jenner-Sonoma County. 

Jenner, San Francisco, Alexander Valley. 

My backyard, San Francisco, Balboa Park.  

During this season of waiting I have been afforded the gift of time. As I have been confronted with such lavish freedom between completing nursing school and finding work, many realities have convicted my spirit about the culture I live in and its influences on spirituality. 

1st, We live in the 21st century where being busy is the norm. Richard Foster describes busyness as one of Satan's greatest schemes in distracting us from God, ourselves, and the things that really matter. 

2nd, In the Western World and sadly within the Evangelical Church we do not value being a people of spiritual discipline. Some how a Sunday church service and signing up as a greeter or teaching Sunday school has replaced practicing spiritual disciplines. I am speaking of Mediation. Prayer. Fasting. We can look in the gospels and SEE the life of Jesus built upon these spiritual disciplines. The theme of him retreating, seeking solitude, waiting on the Father is central to his ministry on earth. And early in the morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there-Mark 1:35. 

3rd, Social Media has replaced living intentionally. Being in the moment with others, with the environment, with ourselves, and with God. I fall short of this often. Which is why the Holy Spirit has convicted me and why I began reading Richard Fosters, Celebration of Discipline.  Satan has flooded our 21st century culture-invading the minds, hearts, eyes, and bodies of Gods people-by creating an appetite for constant stimulation, noise, and busyness. Its no wonder why pornography is destroying marriages, relationships, and chivalry. Matthew 6:22 Jesus says, The eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is healthy then the body is full of light. We have traded the ancient arts of spiritual discipline (which Foster says positions us towards God) with the superficial and empty existence Satan offers through the world.  So I ask, How am I being set a part? 

4th, Otium Sanctum also known as "Holy Leisure". Foster proposes is the way of changing the culture. "It refers to a sense of balance in life, an ability to be at peace through the activities of the day, an ability to rest and take time to enjoy beauty, an ability to pace ourselves." I often like to capture the world around me through a lens. It helps me see beauty. Stop. Breathe. I have also been contemplating the disciplines of the Eastern world, particularly meditation. Transcendental Meditation aims to empty and detach self entirely from the world. Foster describes meditation, as an emptying of self and an attaching to God, Spirit, and Son. I have been practicing meditation by setting a timer for 5 and 10 minute increments (for now). Foster describes several types of meditation:

1. "Palms Down" and "Palms Up": When your palms are down you empty yourself. "Lord, I give you my fear about being a new nurse, not knowing anything, feeling stupid." When your palms are up you receive: "Lord fill me with peace and confidence as a new nurse." 

2. "Exhale" and "Inhale": This essentially is the same as the above form. In the exhale you release to God and in the inhale you receive to fill what is lacking/replace what is not of Gods kingdom.   

3. Meditatio Scripturarum: Choose a scripture and ask the spirit to have it become living in you, through exegesis, internalizing and personalizing the passage, and experiencing it with your senses (as if you were there).

4. Choose something in creation: tree, ocean, water, leaf and carefully ponder it. God uses His creation to show us something of His glory and can speaks to us through that form of creation. 

5. You and Him: Picture God and you, together. Picture the Spirit dwelling in you. Picture you and Jesus, eye to eye. Where are you? What is he saying to you? How does He feel about you?   

Romans 12:2 says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. I believe meditation can be an avenue in which we posture our heart, mind, and body towards God. And then HE can work in us. Foster says, "The path of "spiritual disciplines" does not produce the change; it only puts us in the place where the change can occur." I like this because it takes the legalism and righteousness out of the discipline. Therefore it is not the act of meditation or prayer or fasting that makes us holy, pure, righteous but it is the act/working of the Spirit of God in us.