Our Sabbatical 2025

Heavenly Waters

Recently, my husband and I began a reevaluation of our lives; looking at how we spent our time, where we devoted our resources and what our motivations for life were.  For a considerable amount of time, we talked about it, prayed about it and sat with those questions, allowing God to reveal what he was seeing.  Then the opportunity arose where we could take a sabbatical to the mountains.  Little did we know; God was giving us more than what we asked for or could have imagined.  The cabin was extremely remote, feet from a trout stream, where hard roads turned to gravel, two lanes turned into one narrow passage and finding anything at night was futile. 

Upon our arrival, 5 minutes before dark, we pulled up somewhat alarmed at the steep incline of the very narrow driveway which dead ended onto a flat pad with no way to turn around.  Taking a deep breath, we made our way into the cabin and were suddenly overwhelmed by the tranquil environment encircling us.  The rushing water could be heard in the stream, 20 feet away, the glow of a softly lit room drew us in as we inhaled an aroma that captivated the entire cabin, lined in cedar logs and woodsy décor, with a hint of cinnamon.  In the air was music playing softly, quickly realizing God knew exactly how to set the tone for the rest of our week.   

We sat for a moment, looking through pamphlets on wifi passwords and such, when for the first time we saw what the owners had named this cabin, which was not listed in any of the online booking material.  The name of our retreat was called “Heavenly Waters” and I will say that it lived up to its name in the days that proceeded, and God would use this place to renew a foundation of things that had been covered over in the years of busyness, chaos and human effort living.  He pulled back the curtain on what had become acceptable by the world’s standards and dug deeper into the core of where our true passion was and how it looked back when we began this life journey with Him.  Our agenda was to site see, eat out and explore, but God had a different agenda, and we only left the cabin once for groceries.

Somehow, we had left our first love!  I don’t mean we walked away from God or the church or even prayer and reading the word when time allowed, I mean we forgot what had fueled our passion for Him in the first place and set us on fire for all things Father inspired, all things Kingdom minded and absolutely all things Spirit led!  Our pursuits had been transformed into getting the day done with the most accomplished work and somehow before bed, not feeling like you left bomb craters to fill because human effort had tapped us out emotionally. 

I think we often feel that toiling is better than tending or building is better than abiding.  The truth is, if we abide, we have more to tend, and building is made easy.  Few of us know how to abide today.  We take the approach like on the movie, “Field of Dreams” …if you build it, they will come.  So, we try to match the western world mentality and pump into our lives or ministries, the never-ending pursuit of keeping up with what others are doing to make a dent in the darkness around us. But what is the “IT” that we are building?  Our worship lifestyle becomes what someone will subscribe to or how many likes it will get US.  We have allowed the pollution of self-promotion and earthly reward, to rob us of our true rewards and our earthly intimacy with our Father and robbing Him of all the glory and honor that is due Him.

Taking a look at our motivations in everything we had done and were doing, we asked the question, “what do I hope to see or gain in what I am doing?”  I asked personally, “have I become mechanical in my day, doing what “I” think needed to be done or have I let God set my agenda every moment of every day?”  Does the outcome of my day bring glory to God in its entirety or was there some good-looking accomplishments that I could consider all my own?  Then we expanded our view a little further out and asked those same questions of the church, our nation and the world.  How much in those areas had been infected by the same virus?  Do we project a version of ourselves that is authentic or one that is relevant?

In closing, here are some bullet points of our week away at “Heavenly Waters”.  These will be points of ponder for the weeks and months ahead as we allow God to continue his recalibration of our lives and that which we pursue and engage:

·        The lesser NEVER includes the greater, but the greater ALWAYS includes the lesser

·        Our decisions today will determine our future tomorrow

·        We are so busy working to become, that we forget we already became

·        Do we (reflect society) or (influence it)

·        Whatever I build in the flesh, I will have to maintain in the flesh

·        Servants focus on duty and outcome, friends of Jesus focus on intimacy and relationship

·        Those who truly love Jesus will lose sight of their own goals and embrace His!

·        Wrong priorities violate true love

·        Are we serving God here or serving self

·        When we abandon our understanding of who we are to gain a greater understanding of who he is, then our lives cry out to Him

·        We must decrease so that God might increase.