September 9, 2025 • 34 mins
Ever feel completely exhausted despite getting enough sleep? There's a reason for that—and it goes beyond physical fatigue. In this second episode on rest, we dive deep into four often-overlooked forms of restoration that are essential for wholeness and recovery.
Continuing our exploration of Dr. Sandra Dalton-Smith's seven types of rest, we move beyond the physical, mental, and emotional to discover spiritual, social, sensory, and creative rest. Each offers a unique pathway to restoration that many of us desperately need but rarely recognize.
For anyone on a recovery journey or supporting a loved one through betrayal trauma, these forms of rest aren't luxuries—they're essential practices for healing and growth. Join us as we discover God's multifaceted invitation to find rest for our weary souls.
Ready to experience deeper restoration? Subscribe now and discover which form of rest might be your missing piece.
Resources:
Healthy, Holy Alternatives from Awaken 360
Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend
Awaken Men's Retreat 2025 - Register Today!
Sacred By Design Women's Retreat 2025 - Register Today!
Free Resources to help you on your journey to Becoming Whole
👉Men's Overcoming Lust & Temptation Devotional
👉Women 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Women overcoming unwanted sexual Behavior)
👉Compass 21-Day Prayer Journal & Devotional - (Wives who are or have been impacted by partner betrayal)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fire comes down from heaven and Elijah defeats the
prophets of Baal.
And then he goes and for daysand days and days he is
exhausted.
He just had the most spiritualhigh that anyone maybe in
history has experienced Seeingfire from heaven come down and
consume the offering.
And then he is under the broomtree despairing of his life.
(00:22):
He's so exhausted the Lordsends angels to meet his
physical needs.
We talked about this last week.
We need physical rest.
So he gets physical rest, foodand water and then he just
sleeps and sleeps and sleeps ashe makes his way down to Mount
Sinai.
So we're in a two-part, twoepisodes back-to-back.
(00:44):
On rest, we've talked aboutthree forms of rest physical,
mental and emotional.
And I share that littlevignette of Elijah the prophet,
because even he, this man of Godwho just literally called down
God's fire from heaven, neededrest.
He needed physical rest,undoubtedly he needed emotional
rest, running from the king'swife who wanted to kill him.
(01:08):
He probably needed mental rest.
And so we talked about thosethree.
I'm on again with Kyle Bowman.
Welcome, kyle, our director ofministries.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Hello again, James.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And we want to round out these seven forms of rest
identified by Dr SandraDalton-Smith in her book Sacred
Rest.
We've talked about physical,mental and emotional and how all
three of these are actuallyreally key to growing in your
recovery, to becoming a personof sexual integrity and
hopefully, if you're a betrayedspouse who's listening, you
(01:42):
realize there are probably a lotof ways that you need more than
just more sleep although youmight need more sleep if you're
dealing with the early stages ofbetrayal trauma but you need
different types of rest.
This was revolutionary for me,kyle, when I first came across
it a few years ago, and I foundit to be revolutionary for the
clients I walk with as well.
(02:02):
So today we're going to roundout this series, or these seven
forms of rest, by talking aboutthe final four.
I'm going to give an overview Ididn't do this last time, but
let me just share what the finalfour are and then we're going
to get right into it.
Number four is spiritual rest,five is social rest, six is
sensory rest and finally, numberseven is creative rest.
(02:26):
Now, you might have thought alot about the first three.
Hopefully, even this week yougot to reflect on that.
Physical, mental and emotional.
These are so key.
These are fundamental to beinghuman and needing rest.
By God's design, we said lastweek Jesus needed these types of
rest, but now we're going toget into some that might be a
(02:48):
little bit less obvious orapparent for most of us.
Okay, so we're going to firstget into spiritual rest.
Dr Dolan Smith defines this asconnecting with God.
She wrote the book for abroader audience, but she is a
Christian and so she kind of,you know, uses some broader
language, but she actually doesencourage her readers, even if
(03:09):
they're not Christians, toconsider what does it look like
to connect with God?
Jesus says in Matthew 11, cometo me, you who are weary and
burdened, I will give you rest.
So really, all seven of theseare invitations to Jesus's rest.
So really, all seven of theseare invitations to Jesus's rest,
but especially this one.
(03:31):
You need spiritual rest whenyou're disconnected from God.
You might call this being soultired.
I was saying that to Kyleearlier.
You might be triggered fromwounds from your past that lead
to that disconnection.
There might be something, awound that's unhealed, that has
led to some measure ofdisconnection with God Some way,
(03:52):
where you're like I don't knowhow to connect with him.
In this season I don't reallyknow if I want to connect with
him.
Do I really want to go wake upand spend time with him or
whatever?
But this is so central to theChristian life and this is
something that non-believersmight have some measure of
access to.
The other six forms of rest,this is one where, as believers
(04:15):
in God, as followers of Jesus,we have a unique invitation to a
deeper kind of rest than isavailable for others.
So, kyle, given what I'veshared about how she kind of
sketches spiritual rest, how doyou get spiritual rest, kyle?
How does someone who's been inministry for a while now and
here's a lot of hard stuff on aday-to-day basis how do you find
(04:38):
ways to stay connected?
To abide, you might say, or towalk in the spirit?
There's so many ways to talkabout this, but how do you get
spiritual rest, kyle?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
One of the ways is through some spiritual practices
.
I practice Lectio Divina andhopefully we can put a link in
the show notes to the practiceof Lectio Divina.
I've also done Visio Divina aswell and also Centering Prayer.
(05:09):
There is an organization thatwas started by Father Thomas
Keating.
It's a contemplative outreachand they have some literature on
how to do Centering prayer andit's really a way of being very
(05:29):
focused on where you are beingfocused on the presence of the
Lord, bringing into focus maybeone specific, one specific
attribute about God and who heis, and just bringing all of
yourself to that, and it's agood way of just being able to
(06:01):
drop the layers of the thingsthat have happened in the course
of the day.
It can help you to reconnectwith God because you're not
talking about God storming inand just taking over the moment
with you, but you're talkingabout allowing, just offering a
gentle invitation for the Lordto meet with you, and some
(06:26):
people really need that.
Some people can feel like,especially if they've been in
more Christian traditions thatmight be lean, more legalistic
or rigid.
They might just feel overtakenby God and we serve a God who
(06:46):
wants to come near and doesn'twant to overwhelm you with his
nearness.
He wants to just encompass youwith all of his love.
So that's one of the ways thatI will get spiritual rest.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
One for me is being honest with God, honest
conversation with him.
You know, I think often ourstruggles to be honest with God
impede our ability to connectand receive his healing, receive
his love, and often we weretaught actually dishonesty by
our about how we really feel, byour parents, by sometimes by
(07:26):
our spiritual communities.
But we we see so clearlythroughout the Bible that
there's so much honesty I meaneven Jay Stringer talks about
honor and honesty how someonelike Abraham could make mistakes
, like I mean mistakes is kindof a light way to put it.
But he literally was ready togive his wife over to different
(07:48):
kings out of his own fear ofthose kings killing him to then
take his wife and yet we honorhim as the founder of our faith.
You know the Judeo-Christianworldview and faith came through
God's interactions with Abraham.
So we honor him incredibly.
But the Bible's honest aboutlike he was pretty cowardly here
(08:10):
.
David is so honest throughoutthe Psalms.
Kyle, like man, you can saystuff.
I just encourage you, find,find a fresh translation.
I'm an NIV guy.
More often than not I've hadseasons with the ESV, some NASB.
But check out the Psalms andthe NLT, the New Living
Translation, or the Message,because you're going to find
(08:33):
that I've been going throughBible in a Year NLT and NLT is a
little bit more.
Does the know, does thetranslation for you?
Kind of thing Like it's givingyou more contemporary language,
in other words.
And there's just I've read thePsalms now dozens, maybe more
than that, of times, but there'scertain ways that the NLT will
translate a certain verse thatI'm just like Whoa, you know, um
(08:56):
, like.
One of the examples is Moses.
Actually, psalm 90 is fromMoses, and in the NLT it says
something like satisfy us eachmorning with your unfailing love
, so we may sing for joy to theend of our lives.
And then in that same area itsays like oh Lord, come back to
us.
How long will you delay?
It says again somewhere inthere replace the evil years
(09:19):
with good.
Like God, you've seemed to letso much crap happen to us Like.
These are just such raw, honest,direct prayers, kyle, and I
don't think many of us aretaught this especially and this
is where I want to bring it backto being honest with God when
we are tempted giving in, orright after we've given in, to
sexual sin, giving in or rightafter we've given into sexual
(09:39):
sin, or thinking about thebetrayed spouse being honest
with God, about all the ways ourworld has been thrown upside
down by betrayal when we thoughtthere was faithfulness.
Or, you know, I'm going tothink about parents for a second
.
Like being honest with God,about what on earth?
Like I thought I've raised mykid pretty well.
Why are you letting them seemto go off the rails with this or
(10:01):
that issue around theirsexuality?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
There are so many examples inScripture, in the Psalms,
especially if you look at someof the lament Psalms, you know
they start off with like God,have you forgotten God?
Where are you?
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah.
Why are you asleep, god?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, I'm laying on my bed and I can't even open my
eyes because I'm crying so much.
Or even if you think about andI may have mentioned this before
on the fact that he has youknow, hey, god, I'm out here and
(10:47):
I've prophesied all the thingsyou've said to prophesy and, hey
, they're trying to kill me.
So let me tell you, god, what Ineed you to do to them.
And then he just goes straightin and he says some really hard
things, but, like you said,being able to release that to
God and know that you're notscaring God, he's not going.
(11:12):
Oh, my goodness, I'm going tozap you Because you're not
saying anything that he doesn'talready know.
Yeah, that's the key, like heknows our hearts.
Yeah, if it's in our heart.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It doesn't make a huge difference with God Now.
There are things in our heartbetter not said to people, right
.
But like with God, there neednot be any disconnect between
the darkest places in our heartsand what we actually tell him
about.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Absolutely those things actually move you toward
God.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah.
If you're struggling to seek himwith all your heart, because
there's a huge theme of seekingGod in scripture like seek me
with all your heart, you willfind me.
Seek the kingdom you will.
You know like sometimes we getstuck in.
We struggle to seek becausewe're struggling to be honest
with God about ourselves, aboutwhat we're really dealing with.
We got to keep moving, kyle.
(12:04):
We could probably sit on thatfor a lot longer.
Let's talk about social rest.
So, dr Dalton Smith defiancesas finding comfort and solace in
relationships and socialinteractions, making space for
the relationships that reviveyou.
So when do you need it?
Social overload, especiallyfrom and I'm going to do air
quotes If you're watching,you'll see it social media, from
(12:26):
social media, you might beoverloaded by the media in
general, the news, whatever.
You know, being at an event, aparty, you might be overloaded.
But you also can experience theneed for this when you feel
separated and disconnected, whenyou feel isolated and lonely.
So these are places that I knowmany of us listening are like
(12:46):
well, I'm an introvert, like Ijust you know I need more alone
time and that may be true.
But think about thoserelationships, because even
introverts, you know, they mightnot love a group of 20, but
it's really healthy forintrovert to have that one
person you know or several ofthose one people or a small
group of people, and so who arethe people who actually see you?
(13:07):
You feel seen by, you feelrevived by, like you actually
enjoy.
One way I like to think aboutthis Kyle is and again you know
pornography.
What a, what a false version ofthis right Like I feel seen, I
feel you know, connected in themost intimate of ways.
But it of this right Like Ifeel seen, I feel connected in
the most intimate of ways, butit's false right and it actually
contributes to us probablyfeeling less rest socially,
(13:27):
especially if we've said no togood things like going out with
friends that actually do bringus life.
But think about it this way wecan't just be deep and intense
all the time.
I'm known for being somethingof someone who leans that way.
I cannot be deep and intenseall the time.
I'm known for being somethingof someone who leans that way.
I cannot be deep and intenseall the time.
I'm trying to help clientsthink through their deepest
(13:48):
struggles.
I get enough of that these daysin my workday.
We need depth, we need placeswe can be seen and known.
We also need fun.
We brought this up earlier withmental rest.
So when you're thinking aboutrelationships, some of us err
toward a side of like you know,I've heard this especially with
guys I walk with and all theguys want to talk about is you
(14:09):
know what's going on in sports,and I feel for those guys like
man, I do not have relationshipsin my life right now that have
depth, that are actually talkingabout meaningful things or hard
things or how our marriages orwalk with God's actually going
right.
And then there are some peoplewho are so focused on the depth
and everything is intense andlet's have that face-to-face sit
(14:30):
down where we're just staringat each other on the couch and
it's just such intenseconversation and they can lack
some of the lightheartedness ofjust having fun and being
shoulder to shoulder and doingan activity.
So I don't know.
I think that there's somethingin this for me.
Kyle, you can hear me light upas I talk to you about it, but
talk to me about social rest.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
How do you find it?
Well, you know me, James.
James knows me as the personwho goes in the room and just
talks to everybody.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hundreds of people, Probably probably cows, getting
charged up and it's you know.
It's unreal to me.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But there are those times where but again, in those
large social situations it'shard to really connect with
people on a deep level.
You know, you get to know wherethey're from and what they do
and maybe some interest and, youknow, maybe get a little bit of
family history, but you don'treally get to know them.
(15:27):
And I truly believe God hasplanted in all of us the desire
to know and be known, first byhim and then by others than by
others.
So it's like, even if I'm inthose situations where there's
all these people and I'm havinga good time and I'm talking to
(15:48):
everybody and engaging, I stillwant to have those one-on-one or
very small group of people thatI have these conversations with
.
That you know that.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I have these conversations with that.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
you know the conversation runs the gamut of
everything.
You can go to the depths but wecan also do say the silly,
lighthearted, fun, funny kindsof things and just enjoy each
other's company and what thatdoes to your brain.
Even being in the company ofpeople like that and again, like
you said you're, you're turningtoward true intimacy.
(16:25):
In that point, at that point,when you can, you have those
people with whom you don't haveto put on the mask, you don't
have to try to show up and be onif you will yeah Right.
You know you won't have the needto turn toward false intimacy
because you're experiencing moretrue intimacy.
(16:46):
And I think it's a harder thingto do, especially modern day,
attached to phones.
There are, you know, like us,like me, who lives in the DC
metro area, where you know yougot to swipe about four or five
(17:11):
pages to get to the calendarpart that's free and doesn't
have anything on it, you know,and so it it takes.
It does take a little bit ofeffort, for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And some of our listeners are thinking about the
fact that, yeah, there's a lotmore isolation.
Some of them are single andthey're like man if I had a
spouse, this would be so mucheasier.
Some are married and they mightexperience some of it there,
but they might also beexperiencing distance there.
Maybe there is betrayal and thespouses are not really there
(17:40):
for each other.
So, Kyle, when you think aboutthose different groups of people
, what do you say to them?
Because I am coming from thisas a married man, You're coming
at this from a perspective of asingle woman.
How do we make sense of some ofthose different realities that
we face?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I think some of it is and really going to prayer and
really asking the Lord to showyou who are the people Maybe
it's the one, maybe you'restarting with the one where
you're asking the Lord who isthe one with whom I can connect
(18:21):
and with you at the center,where we can be authentic and
open with one another, andthat's regardless of whether
you're married or single.
God wants you to be incommunity with other people.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, we need it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
If you're married, you can't get it all from your
spouse.
If you're single, you can'tjust be isolated and you can't
get it from social media Right.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
That's a really important thing.
You cannot get this kind ofrest from social media.
In fact, I just I don't know,this is kind of bold, kyle I
want to challenge some of y'all.
Consider praying about Lord.
Do you want me to fast or evenjust delete social media in this
season, or particular apps thatyou find yourself drawn to,
especially if you're strugglingwith addiction and you notice,
(19:11):
hey, I seem to start on such andsuch platform every time, you
know, noticing attractive peopleor something friends is not
that the cost seems to be faroutweighing the benefit, both
anecdotally in my own life andin people's lives.
But also research is showingpart of our epidemic of
(19:32):
loneliness and anxiety andperhaps depression is positively
related, or it's impacted, inother words, by social media
usage, especially duringdevelopment.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
For sure, For sure.
So it's important to beintentional and I know for some
people that can be really hardand it might be easy.
Your first thought might bewell, I don't know any people
where I don't you can think ofall the reasons why you can't.
Well, what might it be like foryou to trust God in that and
(20:08):
say, like God, this is somethinghonest that I want, it's
something good that I want, andLord and you have to be willing
to have your hands open becausethe person's not going to be
perfect.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, Because it's easy to go.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I want this kind of person and this kind of person.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, and pornography trains us for more of that
right, Kyle, Absolutely andfrankly, probably the dating
apps do, which I know are such ahard space.
I don't mean to throw salt inthe wound.
Most people who are using thedating apps are like this is the
hardest thing, but yeah, we'relearning.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
We're being trained so much in our culture to want
perfection and to never find itright.
Yeah, and the person that theLord brings to your mind might
be the person you go.
Holy God, are you?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
sure.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
That person, but can you trust God in that?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah Well, and is there something about them you
might not know yet?
Like you might actually bothlove going to the arcade and
playing pinball, and you're likeme and you never somehow dug
that out.
I tend to do this, kyle, likeI'm often surprised when I find
like a place of deep connectionthat I'm like whoa, I assumed
there was nothing to connectover.
You probably are the opposite.
Maybe this is something I cankeep growing in.
(21:15):
You're probably assumingthere's a place of connection to
be had, but hey, we got to keepmoving, kyle.
Let's talk about number six,sensory rest.
Oh, real quick.
One last thing.
Great book for finding yourpeople is called Find your
People by Jenny Allen, and shehas some really good parameters
of like, proximity and depth andthere's just some good stuff in
(21:36):
that book.
We could probably do a lot moreon that.
But let's talk about sensoryrest.
Okay, she defines Dr Dawn Smithdefines this as denying one or
more of your, your senses, theexperience of the physical world
for short periods, in otherwords, taking a break from touch
, taste, hearing, you know,smelling and seeing.
(21:58):
And so we need this kind of rest, kyle, when, when we have
sensory overexposure, you and Iwere in a training for four days
this week and we were staringat our screens for a total of
seven hours a day, four days ina row.
My eyes were tired at one pointyesterday.
When we're overstimulated, whenwe have a restless body, like
it could be connected to racingthoughts, like we talked about
(22:20):
last week, difficult emotionslike anger, anxiety, anxiety,
disturbing dreams, troublefalling asleep we're often so
overloaded it's like we've gotTimes Square in our pocket 24-7
and we cannot seem to get away.
And frankly, kyle, there weretimes this week after the
training where I'm like I don'tknow what to do because I've
(22:41):
been staring at a screen all day, but the only thing I can think
to do to relax my mind, myemotions, is more screens, which
was not actually that restful,right.
And so a couple ideas to getthis.
I'm sure you have some thoughtson this too.
Daily tech breaks.
So going on a walk without yourdevices, again, shower without
(23:03):
music I said that last week.
Drive without music or apodcast, regular tech, fast,
this could be a whole daywithout tech that you might plan
out ahead of time.
I'm going to go to church.
I'm going to get lunch withsomeone.
I'm going to take a nap in theafternoon after reading my book
and then I'm going to go playpickleball.
You got to find ways to actuallyfill it positively.
(23:25):
Consider a tech fest.
Don't bring your phone tochurch.
Bring out, bring your Bible.
How crazy would you look?
You know you're walking intochurch with your Bible.
So, yeah, these are just somereally important things to
consider in our very, veryoverstimulated culture, because
Jesus's time was a time where,even if you were dealing with I
(23:47):
don't know, I don't know whatthey were dealing with mentally
back then, but they had all thetime in the world to process
stuff.
Kyle and they were probablyaround people.
They would walk on journeys formiles.
Besides singing, they had noform of like you know
entertainment.
They couldn't just pull outtheir phone and get their
AirPods out, like it was adifferent time, and so I just
want to suggest to y'all thatcould the amount of tech
(24:09):
exposure you're dealing with,could the amount of time you're
spending on screens especially,and music and sounds, could that
actually be part of what'sgetting you out of touch with
your deeper needs for God andfor people and keeping you stuck
in addictive patterns?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Absolutely.
You would be amazed it feels sogood sometimes to have quiet.
Just one of the things that Ihave been able to do over the
past few years is like I don'thave to turn the TV on.
You know, as a single person,sometimes I just have it on
because I like to hear thevoices.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
But then I've gotten to the place where I can just
turn it off and I don't have tohave it on, I don't have to
binge watch anything, and Idon't have to even kind of
wrestle with, oh what am I goingto watch, you know, just turn
it off and enjoy whatever thequiet brings.
Maybe I do read, maybe I justspend some quiet contemplation
(25:15):
time just contemplating.
I have a pet.
Sometimes I spend a little bitof time talking to him, a little
bit of time talking to him, butjust to enjoy the quiet in that
way.
You'd be surprised howfulfilling you can feel because
(25:36):
you didn't have all this otherjunk that you had to take in and
do something with.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, I have so many of my best thoughts, kyle, in
the shower, simply because Idon't currently have any habit
of putting on music in theshower and it's like, well, so
much is connecting and I haven'tgiven myself room for that most
of the day.
So, sensory rest this is a bigone, but we need to get to our
(25:58):
final one for the sake of time,which is creative rest.
Creative rest this is probablythe most out of left field for
y'all, but Dr Dolan Smithdefines this as immersion in
creative beauty.
That could be nature, thatcould be art, that could be the
way you set up your corner inyour house, you know, for your
quiet time chair with plants andwho knows what around.
(26:21):
But you need this when you'restuck in the mundane, and you
need this when your job is a lotof creative energy and perhaps
when you're struggling to thinkcreatively.
Um, some of you guys may or maynot realize, but we create a
lot of resources here at regen,and so, whether it's writing a
blog, creating a podcast orcreating something like man or
oasis or compass, like there's agood amount of time, kyle, that
(26:44):
this job uses a lot of creativeenergy for me.
And so if I'm completely stuck.
I think this is brilliant advice.
We can get out into nature art.
We can listen to music, perhapssingle-mindedly, like I'm
putting on music right now.
That's all.
I'm going to be doing Somethingto actually help us to engage
it instead of it just beingbackground noise.
What I'm meaning when I saythat.
(27:05):
And so again, your Sacred byDesign retreat coming up this
fall in November.
I know you guys are all aboutthis.
You and Andrea are like man.
Especially Andrea seems to bebringing so much of this mindset
of art and beauty to the womenshe walks with.
We can't just say, hey, stoplooking at what seems the most
(27:25):
beautiful, which might bepornography to you right now.
We need to say start looking atwhat is the most beautiful,
jesus, what he's created, artthat depicts nature, or maybe
holy things, or scenes fromscripture or whatever Great
music you know.
Finding ways to actually engagein the beauty of God, I think,
(27:47):
is a bigger antidote than mostrealize, kyle, for healing in
this area.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
And I think some people don't realize that that
is a way of engaging with God aswell.
You know, god created beauty,yeah, and so it's a way to
engage with him.
He gave people the gift tocreate sculptures and paintings
and design beautiful things, andso that's a way to engage with
(28:15):
God.
Visio Divina is a great way todo it.
I would offer Betty Dickinsonand maybe we can put a link to
her website in the show notes.
She has some amazing art thatstrategically walks you, or
systematically walks you,through engaging with something
(28:37):
beautiful.
She uses scripture with it.
It helps you to connect withGod in it.
You know, find that thing thatbrings that peace and calm to
your heart.
And again, like you said,you're turning your eyes toward
some things that are created byGod, that are beautiful, that
(29:01):
you will want to continue toimmerse yourself in, as opposed
to turning to images that cannotbring life to you.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, you know, a lot of our listeners, I'm sure are,
you know, protestant Christianslike you and I are, kyle.
We also do have Roman CatholicChristians on our team.
But I just want to say to myfellow Protestants that you know
, I think you know there'sdifferent views on, obviously,
depicting God.
Does that violate the first orsecond commandment or whatever
(29:33):
like in art?
I know that the reasonCatholics believe it's okay now
is because Jesus now is.
You know he came physically andembodied.
But regardless of what youthink about that, I think we
could probably many of us couldagree that we threw out a lot of
art, we threw out a lot of thebeauty.
Now, I know that some of thatcan be related to things like
(29:54):
social justice, like hey,there's a lot of wealth in an
ornate church building orwhatever church building or
whatever.
But I just want to challenge usto consider are there ways that
God actually might be invitingyou to engage in art that
somehow points you towardhimself, like I've noticed I
mean, some of you probably seeit if you're watching on YouTube
.
I've got these they're sort oflike modern day icons behind me
(30:18):
of John Christophson he's out ofsight right now but Polycarp
and Thomas Aquinas, with just aquote this is from a wonderful
book that came out last yearcalled Our Church Speaks, which
is 52 different saintsthroughout the ages Catholic,
protestant, you know, justpeople who love the Lord deeply
and a little bit of a reflectionon how their life points us to
Jesus.
(30:38):
And so are there things likethis that actually inspire you,
are there things that, like I'llput, we'll put in the show
notes the Ghent altar piece.
I came across this recently.
I'm now collecting a littlefile on my computer of you know,
you might call it sacred art orart that points me to Jesus,
but this is an incredibledepiction.
The part I have, at least, isthe new heavens, the new earth,
(31:01):
the whole Holy Spirit as a dove,a lamb, with blood coming out,
you know, as Jesus.
But something about this, kyle,I'm looking at it right now,
like I so often struggle toimagine heaven as beautiful,
because I just picture this kindof desert-like city in the
middle of a desert, jerusalem inthe middle of a desert, like I
don't know why, that's just mymind struggles with creativity.
(31:23):
But this again altarpiecedepicts these rolling hills of
greenery, trees, these beautifulstructures that that who knows
how they were made.
Obviously, this is justsomeone's interpretation.
This is not like you know.
Clearly, heaven's going to lookexactly like this, but it just
stretches me, kyle.
It stretches me to like look atthe clearly heaven's going to
(31:43):
look exactly like this, but itjust stretches me, kyle, it
stretches me to like look at thebeauty that is to come, look at
and think deeply about the lambwho is giving his life, you
know, for the people that aresurrounded worshiping him.
It's I don't know.
I'm inspired.
This is kind of a new thing forme to consider, but I'm kind of
inspired by some of the beautyand the depth of different
(32:06):
Christian art throughout history.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, it's again.
It's created by God.
People have been given the giftby God to create beauty, and so
I think it is a means of beingable to do that.
So, even if you're a person,maybe you, you know, just kayak,
just kayaking on the lake, justbeing on gentle water and
(32:32):
hearing the water rushing, andengaging with God in that way.
You know, it looks differentfor different people, but if you
can engage in beauty, it makesit really hard to turn to
something that is false beauty.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, Beautiful, Wonderful way to end, friends.
I'm just going to close this ina brief word of prayer.
Lord, would you highlight theselast four forms of rest places
that you're inviting those wholisten to find deeper rest in
you and in that which youprovide?
Lord, the beauty that you'vecreated of nature, the beauty
(33:10):
that people have partnered withto create with you, like art and
music, but all these otherforms as well sensory rest and
social rest, spiritual restwhere would you connect our
listeners deeper to the heart ofJesus and would you give us all
rest for our souls?
For your yoke is easy and yourburden is light.
(33:31):
You say Pray.
All this in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, Amen.
Fire comes down from heaven and Elijah defeats the
prophets of Baal.
And then he goes and for daysand days and days he is
exhausted.
He just had the most spiritualhigh that anyone maybe in
history has experienced Seeingfire from heaven come down and
consume the offering.
And then he is under the broomtree despairing of his life.
(00:22):
He's so exhausted the Lordsends angels to meet his
physical needs.
We talked about this last week.
We need physical rest.
So he gets physical rest, foodand water and then he just
sleeps and sleeps and sleeps ashe makes his way down to Mount
Sinai.
So we're in a two-part, twoepisodes back-to-back.
(00:44):
On rest, we've talked aboutthree forms of rest physical,
mental and emotional.
And I share that littlevignette of Elijah the prophet,
because even he, this man of Godwho just literally called down
God's fire from heaven, neededrest.
He needed physical rest,undoubtedly he needed emotional
rest, running from the king'swife who wanted to kill him.
(01:08):
He probably needed mental rest.
And so we talked about thosethree.
I'm on again with Kyle Bowman.
Welcome, kyle, our director ofministries.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Hello again, James.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And we want to round out these seven forms of rest
identified by Dr SandraDalton-Smith in her book Sacred
Rest.
We've talked about physical,mental and emotional and how all
three of these are actuallyreally key to growing in your
recovery, to becoming a personof sexual integrity and
hopefully, if you're a betrayedspouse who's listening, you
(01:42):
realize there are probably a lotof ways that you need more than
just more sleep although youmight need more sleep if you're
dealing with the early stages ofbetrayal trauma but you need
different types of rest.
This was revolutionary for me,kyle, when I first came across
it a few years ago, and I foundit to be revolutionary for the
clients I walk with as well.
(02:02):
So today we're going to roundout this series, or these seven
forms of rest, by talking aboutthe final four.
I'm going to give an overview Ididn't do this last time, but
let me just share what the finalfour are and then we're going
to get right into it.
Number four is spiritual rest,five is social rest, six is
sensory rest and finally, numberseven is creative rest.
(02:26):
Now, you might have thought alot about the first three.
Hopefully, even this week yougot to reflect on that.
Physical, mental and emotional.
These are so key.
These are fundamental to beinghuman and needing rest.
By God's design, we said lastweek Jesus needed these types of
rest, but now we're going toget into some that might be a
(02:48):
little bit less obvious orapparent for most of us.
Okay, so we're going to firstget into spiritual rest.
Dr Dolan Smith defines this asconnecting with God.
She wrote the book for abroader audience, but she is a
Christian and so she kind of,you know, uses some broader
language, but she actually doesencourage her readers, even if
(03:09):
they're not Christians, toconsider what does it look like
to connect with God?
Jesus says in Matthew 11, cometo me, you who are weary and
burdened, I will give you rest.
So really, all seven of theseare invitations to Jesus's rest.
So really, all seven of theseare invitations to Jesus's rest,
but especially this one.
(03:31):
You need spiritual rest whenyou're disconnected from God.
You might call this being soultired.
I was saying that to Kyleearlier.
You might be triggered fromwounds from your past that lead
to that disconnection.
There might be something, awound that's unhealed, that has
led to some measure ofdisconnection with God Some way,
(03:52):
where you're like I don't knowhow to connect with him.
In this season I don't reallyknow if I want to connect with
him.
Do I really want to go wake upand spend time with him or
whatever?
But this is so central to theChristian life and this is
something that non-believersmight have some measure of
access to.
The other six forms of rest,this is one where, as believers
(04:15):
in God, as followers of Jesus,we have a unique invitation to a
deeper kind of rest than isavailable for others.
So, kyle, given what I'veshared about how she kind of
sketches spiritual rest, how doyou get spiritual rest, kyle?
How does someone who's been inministry for a while now and
here's a lot of hard stuff on aday-to-day basis how do you find
(04:38):
ways to stay connected?
To abide, you might say, or towalk in the spirit?
There's so many ways to talkabout this, but how do you get
spiritual rest, kyle?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
One of the ways is through some spiritual practices
.
I practice Lectio Divina andhopefully we can put a link in
the show notes to the practiceof Lectio Divina.
I've also done Visio Divina aswell and also Centering Prayer.
(05:09):
There is an organization thatwas started by Father Thomas
Keating.
It's a contemplative outreachand they have some literature on
how to do Centering prayer andit's really a way of being very
(05:29):
focused on where you are beingfocused on the presence of the
Lord, bringing into focus maybeone specific, one specific
attribute about God and who heis, and just bringing all of
yourself to that, and it's agood way of just being able to
(06:01):
drop the layers of the thingsthat have happened in the course
of the day.
It can help you to reconnectwith God because you're not
talking about God storming inand just taking over the moment
with you, but you're talkingabout allowing, just offering a
gentle invitation for the Lordto meet with you, and some
(06:26):
people really need that.
Some people can feel like,especially if they've been in
more Christian traditions thatmight be lean, more legalistic
or rigid.
They might just feel overtakenby God and we serve a God who
(06:46):
wants to come near and doesn'twant to overwhelm you with his
nearness.
He wants to just encompass youwith all of his love.
So that's one of the ways thatI will get spiritual rest.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
One for me is being honest with God, honest
conversation with him.
You know, I think often ourstruggles to be honest with God
impede our ability to connectand receive his healing, receive
his love, and often we weretaught actually dishonesty by
our about how we really feel, byour parents, by sometimes by
(07:26):
our spiritual communities.
But we we see so clearlythroughout the Bible that
there's so much honesty I meaneven Jay Stringer talks about
honor and honesty how someonelike Abraham could make mistakes
, like I mean mistakes is kindof a light way to put it.
But he literally was ready togive his wife over to different
(07:48):
kings out of his own fear ofthose kings killing him to then
take his wife and yet we honorhim as the founder of our faith.
You know the Judeo-Christianworldview and faith came through
God's interactions with Abraham.
So we honor him incredibly.
But the Bible's honest aboutlike he was pretty cowardly here
(08:10):
.
David is so honest throughoutthe Psalms.
Kyle, like man, you can saystuff.
I just encourage you, find,find a fresh translation.
I'm an NIV guy.
More often than not I've hadseasons with the ESV, some NASB.
But check out the Psalms andthe NLT, the New Living
Translation, or the Message,because you're going to find
(08:33):
that I've been going throughBible in a Year NLT and NLT is a
little bit more.
Does the know, does thetranslation for you?
Kind of thing Like it's givingyou more contemporary language,
in other words.
And there's just I've read thePsalms now dozens, maybe more
than that, of times, but there'scertain ways that the NLT will
translate a certain verse thatI'm just like Whoa, you know, um
(08:56):
, like.
One of the examples is Moses.
Actually, psalm 90 is fromMoses, and in the NLT it says
something like satisfy us eachmorning with your unfailing love
, so we may sing for joy to theend of our lives.
And then in that same area itsays like oh Lord, come back to
us.
How long will you delay?
It says again somewhere inthere replace the evil years
(09:19):
with good.
Like God, you've seemed to letso much crap happen to us Like.
These are just such raw, honest,direct prayers, kyle, and I
don't think many of us aretaught this especially and this
is where I want to bring it backto being honest with God when
we are tempted giving in, orright after we've given in, to
sexual sin, giving in or rightafter we've given into sexual
(09:39):
sin, or thinking about thebetrayed spouse being honest
with God, about all the ways ourworld has been thrown upside
down by betrayal when we thoughtthere was faithfulness.
Or, you know, I'm going tothink about parents for a second
.
Like being honest with God,about what on earth?
Like I thought I've raised mykid pretty well.
Why are you letting them seemto go off the rails with this or
(10:01):
that issue around theirsexuality?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
There are so many examples inScripture, in the Psalms,
especially if you look at someof the lament Psalms, you know
they start off with like God,have you forgotten God?
Where are you?
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah.
Why are you asleep, god?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, I'm laying on my bed and I can't even open my
eyes because I'm crying so much.
Or even if you think about andI may have mentioned this before
on the fact that he has youknow, hey, god, I'm out here and
(10:47):
I've prophesied all the thingsyou've said to prophesy and, hey
, they're trying to kill me.
So let me tell you, god, what Ineed you to do to them.
And then he just goes straightin and he says some really hard
things, but, like you said,being able to release that to
God and know that you're notscaring God, he's not going.
(11:12):
Oh, my goodness, I'm going tozap you Because you're not
saying anything that he doesn'talready know.
Yeah, that's the key, like heknows our hearts.
Yeah, if it's in our heart.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
It doesn't make a huge difference with God Now.
There are things in our heartbetter not said to people, right
.
But like with God, there neednot be any disconnect between
the darkest places in our heartsand what we actually tell him
about.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Absolutely those things actually move you toward
God.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah.
If you're struggling to seek himwith all your heart, because
there's a huge theme of seekingGod in scripture like seek me
with all your heart, you willfind me.
Seek the kingdom you will.
You know like sometimes we getstuck in.
We struggle to seek becausewe're struggling to be honest
with God about ourselves, aboutwhat we're really dealing with.
We got to keep moving, kyle.
(12:04):
We could probably sit on thatfor a lot longer.
Let's talk about social rest.
So, dr Dalton Smith defiancesas finding comfort and solace in
relationships and socialinteractions, making space for
the relationships that reviveyou.
So when do you need it?
Social overload, especiallyfrom and I'm going to do air
quotes If you're watching,you'll see it social media, from
(12:26):
social media, you might beoverloaded by the media in
general, the news, whatever.
You know, being at an event, aparty, you might be overloaded.
But you also can experience theneed for this when you feel
separated and disconnected, whenyou feel isolated and lonely.
So these are places that I knowmany of us listening are like
(12:46):
well, I'm an introvert, like Ijust you know I need more alone
time and that may be true.
But think about thoserelationships, because even
introverts, you know, they mightnot love a group of 20, but
it's really healthy forintrovert to have that one
person you know or several ofthose one people or a small
group of people, and so who arethe people who actually see you?
(13:07):
You feel seen by, you feelrevived by, like you actually
enjoy.
One way I like to think aboutthis Kyle is and again you know
pornography.
What a, what a false version ofthis right Like I feel seen, I
feel you know, connected in themost intimate of ways.
But it of this right Like Ifeel seen, I feel connected in
the most intimate of ways, butit's false right and it actually
contributes to us probablyfeeling less rest socially,
(13:27):
especially if we've said no togood things like going out with
friends that actually do bringus life.
But think about it this way wecan't just be deep and intense
all the time.
I'm known for being somethingof someone who leans that way.
I cannot be deep and intenseall the time.
I'm known for being somethingof someone who leans that way.
I cannot be deep and intenseall the time.
I'm trying to help clientsthink through their deepest
(13:48):
struggles.
I get enough of that these daysin my workday.
We need depth, we need placeswe can be seen and known.
We also need fun.
We brought this up earlier withmental rest.
So when you're thinking aboutrelationships, some of us err
toward a side of like you know,I've heard this especially with
guys I walk with and all theguys want to talk about is you
(14:09):
know what's going on in sports,and I feel for those guys like
man, I do not have relationshipsin my life right now that have
depth, that are actually talkingabout meaningful things or hard
things or how our marriages orwalk with God's actually going
right.
And then there are some peoplewho are so focused on the depth
and everything is intense andlet's have that face-to-face sit
(14:30):
down where we're just staringat each other on the couch and
it's just such intenseconversation and they can lack
some of the lightheartedness ofjust having fun and being
shoulder to shoulder and doingan activity.
So I don't know.
I think that there's somethingin this for me.
Kyle, you can hear me light upas I talk to you about it, but
talk to me about social rest.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
How do you find it?
Well, you know me, James.
James knows me as the personwho goes in the room and just
talks to everybody.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Hundreds of people, Probably probably cows, getting
charged up and it's you know.
It's unreal to me.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But there are those times where but again, in those
large social situations it'shard to really connect with
people on a deep level.
You know, you get to know wherethey're from and what they do
and maybe some interest and, youknow, maybe get a little bit of
family history, but you don'treally get to know them.
(15:27):
And I truly believe God hasplanted in all of us the desire
to know and be known, first byhim and then by others than by
others.
So it's like, even if I'm inthose situations where there's
all these people and I'm havinga good time and I'm talking to
(15:48):
everybody and engaging, I stillwant to have those one-on-one or
very small group of people thatI have these conversations with
.
That you know that.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I have these conversations with that.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
you know the conversation runs the gamut of
everything.
You can go to the depths but wecan also do say the silly,
lighthearted, fun, funny kindsof things and just enjoy each
other's company and what thatdoes to your brain.
Even being in the company ofpeople like that and again, like
you said you're, you're turningtoward true intimacy.
(16:25):
In that point, at that point,when you can, you have those
people with whom you don't haveto put on the mask, you don't
have to try to show up and be onif you will yeah Right.
You know you won't have the needto turn toward false intimacy
because you're experiencing moretrue intimacy.
(16:46):
And I think it's a harder thingto do, especially modern day,
attached to phones.
There are, you know, like us,like me, who lives in the DC
metro area, where you know yougot to swipe about four or five
(17:11):
pages to get to the calendarpart that's free and doesn't
have anything on it, you know,and so it it takes.
It does take a little bit ofeffort, for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And some of our listeners are thinking about the
fact that, yeah, there's a lotmore isolation.
Some of them are single andthey're like man if I had a
spouse, this would be so mucheasier.
Some are married and they mightexperience some of it there,
but they might also beexperiencing distance there.
Maybe there is betrayal and thespouses are not really there
(17:40):
for each other.
So, Kyle, when you think aboutthose different groups of people
, what do you say to them?
Because I am coming from thisas a married man, You're coming
at this from a perspective of asingle woman.
How do we make sense of some ofthose different realities that
we face?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I think some of it is and really going to prayer and
really asking the Lord to showyou who are the people Maybe
it's the one, maybe you'restarting with the one where
you're asking the Lord who isthe one with whom I can connect
(18:21):
and with you at the center,where we can be authentic and
open with one another, andthat's regardless of whether
you're married or single.
God wants you to be incommunity with other people.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, we need it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
If you're married, you can't get it all from your
spouse.
If you're single, you can'tjust be isolated and you can't
get it from social media Right.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
That's a really important thing.
You cannot get this kind ofrest from social media.
In fact, I just I don't know,this is kind of bold, kyle I
want to challenge some of y'all.
Consider praying about Lord.
Do you want me to fast or evenjust delete social media in this
season, or particular apps thatyou find yourself drawn to,
especially if you're strugglingwith addiction and you notice,
(19:11):
hey, I seem to start on such andsuch platform every time, you
know, noticing attractive peopleor something friends is not
that the cost seems to be faroutweighing the benefit, both
anecdotally in my own life andin people's lives.
But also research is showingpart of our epidemic of
(19:32):
loneliness and anxiety andperhaps depression is positively
related, or it's impacted, inother words, by social media
usage, especially duringdevelopment.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
For sure, For sure.
So it's important to beintentional and I know for some
people that can be really hardand it might be easy.
Your first thought might bewell, I don't know any people
where I don't you can think ofall the reasons why you can't.
Well, what might it be like foryou to trust God in that and
(20:08):
say, like God, this is somethinghonest that I want, it's
something good that I want, andLord and you have to be willing
to have your hands open becausethe person's not going to be
perfect.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, Because it's easy to go.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I want this kind of person and this kind of person.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well, and pornography trains us for more of that
right, Kyle, Absolutely andfrankly, probably the dating
apps do, which I know are such ahard space.
I don't mean to throw salt inthe wound.
Most people who are using thedating apps are like this is the
hardest thing, but yeah, we'relearning.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
We're being trained so much in our culture to want
perfection and to never find itright.
Yeah, and the person that theLord brings to your mind might
be the person you go.
Holy God, are you?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
sure.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
That person, but can you trust God in that?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah Well, and is there something about them you
might not know yet?
Like you might actually bothlove going to the arcade and
playing pinball, and you're likeme and you never somehow dug
that out.
I tend to do this, kyle, likeI'm often surprised when I find
like a place of deep connectionthat I'm like whoa, I assumed
there was nothing to connectover.
You probably are the opposite.
Maybe this is something I cankeep growing in.
(21:15):
You're probably assumingthere's a place of connection to
be had, but hey, we got to keepmoving, kyle.
Let's talk about number six,sensory rest.
Oh, real quick.
One last thing.
Great book for finding yourpeople is called Find your
People by Jenny Allen, and shehas some really good parameters
of like, proximity and depth andthere's just some good stuff in
(21:36):
that book.
We could probably do a lot moreon that.
But let's talk about sensoryrest.
Okay, she defines Dr Dawn Smithdefines this as denying one or
more of your, your senses, theexperience of the physical world
for short periods, in otherwords, taking a break from touch
, taste, hearing, you know,smelling and seeing.
(21:58):
And so we need this kind of rest, kyle, when, when we have
sensory overexposure, you and Iwere in a training for four days
this week and we were staringat our screens for a total of
seven hours a day, four days ina row.
My eyes were tired at one pointyesterday.
When we're overstimulated, whenwe have a restless body, like
it could be connected to racingthoughts, like we talked about
(22:20):
last week, difficult emotionslike anger, anxiety, anxiety,
disturbing dreams, troublefalling asleep we're often so
overloaded it's like we've gotTimes Square in our pocket 24-7
and we cannot seem to get away.
And frankly, kyle, there weretimes this week after the
training where I'm like I don'tknow what to do because I've
(22:41):
been staring at a screen all day, but the only thing I can think
to do to relax my mind, myemotions, is more screens, which
was not actually that restful,right.
And so a couple ideas to getthis.
I'm sure you have some thoughtson this too.
Daily tech breaks.
So going on a walk without yourdevices, again, shower without
(23:03):
music I said that last week.
Drive without music or apodcast, regular tech, fast,
this could be a whole daywithout tech that you might plan
out ahead of time.
I'm going to go to church.
I'm going to get lunch withsomeone.
I'm going to take a nap in theafternoon after reading my book
and then I'm going to go playpickleball.
You got to find ways to actuallyfill it positively.
(23:25):
Consider a tech fest.
Don't bring your phone tochurch.
Bring out, bring your Bible.
How crazy would you look?
You know you're walking intochurch with your Bible.
So, yeah, these are just somereally important things to
consider in our very, veryoverstimulated culture, because
Jesus's time was a time where,even if you were dealing with I
(23:47):
don't know, I don't know whatthey were dealing with mentally
back then, but they had all thetime in the world to process
stuff.
Kyle and they were probablyaround people.
They would walk on journeys formiles.
Besides singing, they had noform of like you know
entertainment.
They couldn't just pull outtheir phone and get their
AirPods out, like it was adifferent time, and so I just
want to suggest to y'all thatcould the amount of tech
(24:09):
exposure you're dealing with,could the amount of time you're
spending on screens especially,and music and sounds, could that
actually be part of what'sgetting you out of touch with
your deeper needs for God andfor people and keeping you stuck
in addictive patterns?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Absolutely.
You would be amazed it feels sogood sometimes to have quiet.
Just one of the things that Ihave been able to do over the
past few years is like I don'thave to turn the TV on.
You know, as a single person,sometimes I just have it on
because I like to hear thevoices.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
But then I've gotten to the place where I can just
turn it off and I don't have tohave it on, I don't have to
binge watch anything, and Idon't have to even kind of
wrestle with, oh what am I goingto watch, you know, just turn
it off and enjoy whatever thequiet brings.
Maybe I do read, maybe I justspend some quiet contemplation
(25:15):
time just contemplating.
I have a pet.
Sometimes I spend a little bitof time talking to him, a little
bit of time talking to him, butjust to enjoy the quiet in that
way.
You'd be surprised howfulfilling you can feel because
(25:36):
you didn't have all this otherjunk that you had to take in and
do something with.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, I have so many of my best thoughts, kyle, in
the shower, simply because Idon't currently have any habit
of putting on music in theshower and it's like, well, so
much is connecting and I haven'tgiven myself room for that most
of the day.
So, sensory rest this is a bigone, but we need to get to our
(25:58):
final one for the sake of time,which is creative rest.
Creative rest this is probablythe most out of left field for
y'all, but Dr Dolan Smithdefines this as immersion in
creative beauty.
That could be nature, thatcould be art, that could be the
way you set up your corner inyour house, you know, for your
quiet time chair with plants andwho knows what around.
(26:21):
But you need this when you'restuck in the mundane, and you
need this when your job is a lotof creative energy and perhaps
when you're struggling to thinkcreatively.
Um, some of you guys may or maynot realize, but we create a
lot of resources here at regen,and so, whether it's writing a
blog, creating a podcast orcreating something like man or
oasis or compass, like there's agood amount of time, kyle, that
(26:44):
this job uses a lot of creativeenergy for me.
And so if I'm completely stuck.
I think this is brilliant advice.
We can get out into nature art.
We can listen to music, perhapssingle-mindedly, like I'm
putting on music right now.
That's all.
I'm going to be doing Somethingto actually help us to engage
it instead of it just beingbackground noise.
What I'm meaning when I saythat.
(27:05):
And so again, your Sacred byDesign retreat coming up this
fall in November.
I know you guys are all aboutthis.
You and Andrea are like man.
Especially Andrea seems to bebringing so much of this mindset
of art and beauty to the womenshe walks with.
We can't just say, hey, stoplooking at what seems the most
(27:25):
beautiful, which might bepornography to you right now.
We need to say start looking atwhat is the most beautiful,
jesus, what he's created, artthat depicts nature, or maybe
holy things, or scenes fromscripture or whatever Great
music you know.
Finding ways to actually engagein the beauty of God, I think,
(27:47):
is a bigger antidote than mostrealize, kyle, for healing in
this area.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
And I think some people don't realize that that
is a way of engaging with God aswell.
You know, god created beauty,yeah, and so it's a way to
engage with him.
He gave people the gift tocreate sculptures and paintings
and design beautiful things, andso that's a way to engage with
(28:15):
God.
Visio Divina is a great way todo it.
I would offer Betty Dickinsonand maybe we can put a link to
her website in the show notes.
She has some amazing art thatstrategically walks you, or
systematically walks you,through engaging with something
(28:37):
beautiful.
She uses scripture with it.
It helps you to connect withGod in it.
You know, find that thing thatbrings that peace and calm to
your heart.
And again, like you said,you're turning your eyes toward
some things that are created byGod, that are beautiful, that
(29:01):
you will want to continue toimmerse yourself in, as opposed
to turning to images that cannotbring life to you.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, you know, a lot of our listeners, I'm sure are,
you know, protestant Christianslike you and I are, kyle.
We also do have Roman CatholicChristians on our team.
But I just want to say to myfellow Protestants that you know
, I think you know there'sdifferent views on, obviously,
depicting God.
Does that violate the first orsecond commandment or whatever
(29:33):
like in art?
I know that the reasonCatholics believe it's okay now
is because Jesus now is.
You know he came physically andembodied.
But regardless of what youthink about that, I think we
could probably many of us couldagree that we threw out a lot of
art, we threw out a lot of thebeauty.
Now, I know that some of thatcan be related to things like
(29:54):
social justice, like hey,there's a lot of wealth in an
ornate church building orwhatever church building or
whatever.
But I just want to challenge usto consider are there ways that
God actually might be invitingyou to engage in art that
somehow points you towardhimself, like I've noticed I
mean, some of you probably seeit if you're watching on YouTube
.
I've got these they're sort oflike modern day icons behind me
(30:18):
of John Christophson he's out ofsight right now but Polycarp
and Thomas Aquinas, with just aquote this is from a wonderful
book that came out last yearcalled Our Church Speaks, which
is 52 different saintsthroughout the ages Catholic,
protestant, you know, justpeople who love the Lord deeply
and a little bit of a reflectionon how their life points us to
Jesus.
(30:38):
And so are there things likethis that actually inspire you,
are there things that, like I'llput, we'll put in the show
notes the Ghent altar piece.
I came across this recently.
I'm now collecting a littlefile on my computer of you know,
you might call it sacred art orart that points me to Jesus,
but this is an incredibledepiction.
The part I have, at least, isthe new heavens, the new earth,
(31:01):
the whole Holy Spirit as a dove,a lamb, with blood coming out,
you know, as Jesus.
But something about this, kyle,I'm looking at it right now,
like I so often struggle toimagine heaven as beautiful,
because I just picture this kindof desert-like city in the
middle of a desert, jerusalem inthe middle of a desert, like I
don't know why, that's just mymind struggles with creativity.
(31:23):
But this again altarpiecedepicts these rolling hills of
greenery, trees, these beautifulstructures that that who knows
how they were made.
Obviously, this is justsomeone's interpretation.
This is not like you know.
Clearly, heaven's going to lookexactly like this, but it just
stretches me, kyle.
It stretches me to like look atthe clearly heaven's going to
(31:43):
look exactly like this, but itjust stretches me, kyle, it
stretches me to like look at thebeauty that is to come, look at
and think deeply about the lambwho is giving his life, you
know, for the people that aresurrounded worshiping him.
It's I don't know.
I'm inspired.
This is kind of a new thing forme to consider, but I'm kind of
inspired by some of the beautyand the depth of different
(32:06):
Christian art throughout history.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, it's again.
It's created by God.
People have been given the giftby God to create beauty, and so
I think it is a means of beingable to do that.
So, even if you're a person,maybe you, you know, just kayak,
just kayaking on the lake, justbeing on gentle water and
(32:32):
hearing the water rushing, andengaging with God in that way.
You know, it looks differentfor different people, but if you
can engage in beauty, it makesit really hard to turn to
something that is false beauty.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, Beautiful, Wonderful way to end, friends.
I'm just going to close this ina brief word of prayer.
Lord, would you highlight theselast four forms of rest places
that you're inviting those wholisten to find deeper rest in
you and in that which youprovide?
Lord, the beauty that you'vecreated of nature, the beauty
(33:10):
that people have partnered withto create with you, like art and
music, but all these otherforms as well sensory rest and
social rest, spiritual restwhere would you connect our
listeners deeper to the heart ofJesus and would you give us all
rest for our souls?
For your yoke is easy and yourburden is light.
(33:31):
You say Pray.
All this in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, Amen.
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