"Best of" Conversations - Episode 6 - God's Design For Our Dilemma

This is week 3 of our Summer series "Best of Summer Conversations." It's a look back at our best and most listened to podcasts from our first 3 seasons. It will be a great primer for anyone who is new to Soul Care.

SHOW NOTES

In this episode we are treated to a special preview of the Potter’s Inn Soul Care Institute where Gwen Smith teaches on Sabbath Keeping: God’s Design For Our Dilemma. The discussion includes the origin of Sabbath, why we feel so much guilt concerning Sabbath, and why God gave us Sabbath in the first place. Gwen also introduces her 4 Pillars of Sabbath:

1. Rhythm - Sabbath is God’s built-in way of giving us rhythm in our lives instead of just running full-steam continuously.
2. Protection - In a sense, Sabbath protects us from ourselves and the violence that we inflict on ourselves, driving ourselves to work harder and harder. Sabbath gives us rest.
3. Joy, Delight, and Celebration - Sabbath is a blessed and holy day, when God rests in His creation and He delights and celebrates in you.
4. Belovedness - Taken altogether, Sabbath is a reminder that we are beloved by a good and gracious God who truly cares for us and our well-being.

Resources mentioned in the podcast

Soul Care Institute program information

“Trough” poem by Judy Sorum Brown

There is a trough in waves,

A low spot

Where horizon disappears

And only sky

And water

Are our company.

And there we lose our way

Unless

We rest, knowing the wave will bring us

To its crest again.

There we may drown

If we let fear

Hold us within its grip and shake us

Side to side,

And leave us flailing, torn, disoriented.

But if we rest there

In the trough,

Are silent,

Being with

The low part of the wave,

Keeping

Our energy and

Noticing the shape of things,

The flow,

Then time alone

Will bring us to another

Place

Where we can see

Horizon, see the land again,

Regain our sense

Of where

We are,

And where we need to swim.

By Judy Sorum Brown

From her book The Sea Accepts All Rivers and Other Poems

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The Sea Accepts All Rivers and Other Poems by Judy Sorum Brown

For more on Judy Sorum Brown, her poems, books and other work, please see https://www.judysorumbrown.com/books

Article by Parker Palmer, The Self inflicted Violence of Over-Work

Free Resource for Download: The Sabbath Reader

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