Personal Development, Continued: On Pulling Away

So then, what helps us grow deeper - according to our spiritual director this week, James Emery White? If you missed the past two posts, you'll have to go back!

• Personal Development: On Reading
• Personal Development: Deepening Our Souls

Daily

As you might expect, White recommends taking a daily retreat from the demands of one’s life for silence, meditation, reflection, prayer, surrender. Such a practice, he quotes Francis de Sales as saying, can be like gathering a bouquet of four or five flowers to keep and take a whiff of throughout the day. Nice.

Monthly, Annually

White quotes another writer who recommends an all-day retreat at least once a month, a longer withdrawal of 36-48 hours perhaps twice a year, and suggests that finally, regardless of profession, we need annual sabbaticals.

Is this a bit head-in-the-clouds? After all, who gets sabbaticals? Precious few people. Though most of us do get paid vacation; it could be used any number of ways. And leave-without-pay might be an option few would consider, but still an option.

In terms of regular retreats, White says he began escaping monthly to a bed-and-breakfast in the mountains. “On the front end I would have told you that it was impossible to put this into my life. Looking back, it is unthinkable not to have it.” Hmmm.

My friend Paula recently spoke about this at the church she’s part of in Portland. I played the first 20 minutes of the “conversation” she and her pastor had, for our morning prayer time at the office. (You can listen to it here). Paula used to do campus ministry, now leads spiritual retreats for other people who are "in ministry." She’s a worship leader, too, and in fact has made it her job to help people find refreshment. Nice gig, eh?

Paula mentioned in passing that the organization she was part of for decades had a policy requiring staff to take a half day, monthly, to get away and spend time focusing on the Lord. I like that. I proposed such a plan to our staff as well. (The ones most empowered to make such a decision were not present, unfortunately.)

Sabbaticals

For some time I have been thinking it would be nice to have another sabbatical, perhaps at the end of the seven-year period following my last one. I began vocational ministry in 1994, and spent 2002 on sabbatical. I’d like to do the same for a good chunk of 2010.

Few professions allow this, it is true. Mine does. As I recall, our parent-agency’s policy is to allow (encourage, sometimes mandate) four months’ sabbatical following ten years of ministry. I’d like to ask for more. What I have in mind is not four months of family time and fishing trips, but something more along the lines of personal/professional/educational development, and probably nothing that could be done in four months.

One reason I'm thinking about this is that people are lining up now with projects that if they came to fruition would require a lot of my attention in 2010. So, I figure I need to say so a year in advance if I'm taking more than a few months off.

Smaller Steps

If I’m honest with myself, though, I have to recognize that my ambition to take a sabbatical is a bit out of step with the way I live my life on a more day-to-day basis. In the last year I’ve worked an average of 47 hours a week, and I only took 70% of my vacation/holiday time in the last year. Could be worse, but could also be better. Perhaps my soul would be in healthier shape if I stopped thinking as much about the sabbatical idea and took some smaller steps, like going home at 5 p.m. a bit more often.

A friend of mine recently reviewed a 2003 book, When It’s Rush Hour All Day Long: Finding Peace in a Hurry-Sick World, by John W. Tadlock. Describes me quite well:

"One of the more serious costs of hurry sickness is the exercise of poor judgment…Too often people choose paths that are counterproductive to emotional and spiritual wholeness. Fatigue reduces our critical faculties…" We lean toward impulsive decisions. (p. 53)

Read more excerpts from Tadlock's book here.