Greetings!

What a tangled web we weave, when to muchness we choose to cleave! Something that has been occupying my heart and mind during, but long before these Lenten days of reflection and meditation began, is how to truly embrace Shabbat as the pause that refreshes and brings greater fluency, to life more abundant. In other words, I have been pondering the question of how to embrace as a spiritual discipline, the practice of saying No, as an affirmation of rest , being a divine gift, that God intends for the whole creation, to make full use of.

We live in a world that demands more and more of our time and energy and often, sometimes without thinking, we yield to those demands. We get sucked deeper and deeper into a never-ending vortex of activity, much of which may be classified as good but, in all honesty, does very little if anything, to keep us within the embrace of divine will where, despite the throng and press of trials and tribulations, we are kept in perfect shalom.

If like me, you are getting to that point in life, both chronologically and mentally, where busyness is fast becoming enemy number one; if even in sleep, you seem unable to escape its persistent clamor, as its constancy overwhelms the pristine sounds of silence, beauty, and joy, turning the realm of dream into nightmare, then you also have arrived at the place where saying No is a lifeline being offered, and grabbing hold of it, demands much more than a momentary pause.

The past week was hectic! There is no other way to describe the frenetic pace at which I was operating, trying to complete assigned tasks and then some. I was at one point so tightly wound, I had to confess not only my fatigue to God but also my inability to embrace the gift of No, in order to shed load that does nothing but weigh me down, no matter how attractive it seems. It is at times like these when, were it not for grace, the experience of joy and contentment, within and without, would remain…a wish.

There is, therefore, no denying the graciousness of God, who uses even our weakness, to convey the strength of His love. In doing so, His Spirit awakens our consciousness to the truth that were we less occupied, less busy, less driven by our many tasks and assignments, how much more at peace we could be; how better able to contain the goodness God desires to lavish upon us; how much more discerning of God’s will and directives we could be, by accepting the gift of No to enable a better Yes…to God.

There is a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor titled The Practice of Saying No; in it she quotes Swiss theologian Karl Barth who said: “A being is free only when it can determine and limit its activity.”  Upon reading that, I remembered a quote from the late Roman Catholic Bishop – Fulton Sheen who said: “Freedom does not mean the right to do whatever we please, but rather to do as we ought. The right to do whatever we please, reduces freedom to a physical power and forgets that freedom is a moral power.”

Pair the bishop’s words with that of the African American mystic and theologian of the 20^th century, Howard Thurman who said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive” and what you get is an open door that leads to true self…the place where No paves the way for the Yes that enables the Spirit’s liberating work within us, to the praise of God’s and not the world’s glory.

So, what then shall we say of these things? Brown Taylor implies that saying No is how we are able, over time, to resist the lure of what Richard Foster describes in his Celebration of Discipline, as muchness and manyness and with them, our culture’s “killing rhythms of drivenness and depletion, compulsion and collapse.”

Well, I shall continue to wrestle with this very difficult but oh so necessary subject. I admit without remorse that I do experience envy, when I see people who seem to have it all together, people who can say a very polite but precise No, without batting an eyelid, simply because that which fuel’s their ability to say Yes, is awareness of the need to periodically and intentionally stop and refuel. Believe me when I say that I am not throwing stones here; I am simply preparing myself and hopefully you, to grab hold of the lifeline we all need, to more than survive; we need it to live and to thrive.

Until next time I pray you will remain in His grip as you join me in gradually embracing the gift of No to enable a better Yes.

Grace+