CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/14395
faith Get your groove on By The Rev. Dan Alger T here are rhythms in life. Winter, spring, summer, fall. Morning, afternoon, evening, night. Favre plays, Favre loses, Favre retires, Favre plays again. Christians believe that God created the world this way. When the Bible describes creation, it uses Hebrew poetry and you can almost hear the rhythm in the way it is written. God made the world with rhythm, with flow, with groove. When we step in time with that beat, the healthier we are, the more peace we have in our lives, the more we become who we were created to be. When we’re out of sync, it leads to conflict, confusion and unhealthy lives. We call this sin. It affects every aspect of life, but there’s one place where I am especially out of step, and probably you are, too: rest. When God created the world, he created people on the sixth day and rested on the seventh. So, the first thing we humans did on this planet was rest. Then, we started working. I tend to do the opposite. I work until I’m exhausted then rest to catch up until I start working again, worn out already. My rhythm is awkward and off like Jerry Springer on “Dancing with the Stars.” The rhythm that God created is designed for us to work from our rest, not rest from our work. We were created to know God, commune with God, enjoy God, hear God and to be filled by God first and foremost. All of work and life flows from that relationship. Work is good – we were made to tend the garden – but we have things backward. When we put work first, we find our identity, meaning and fulfillment in it rather than in our creator. Many times, we are so busy with our work that we don’t have any time left to be with God at all. What if we switched things around? The Bible counts the days of creation as evening first and then morning: rest before work. How different would our lives be if we were to listen for the beat he is laying down before we start moving our feet? Let me encourage you to stop. Listen. Rest. Maybe once you hear his song you’ll look a little smoother out there.CV The Rev. Dan Alger is pastor of The Church of the Apostles. He may be reached at www.tcota.org or ecs@tcota.org. Methodist University welcomes its largest new freshmen class ever as well as its largest number of returning students ever! 2010–2011 is going to be a great year for all the Monarchs! To learn how you can join us, go to www.methodist.edu or call 910.630.7000 or 800.488.7100