Sublime

in the rhythms of worship, the Spirit inscribes in us the character that makes us a certain kind of person.

Joy, for Augustine, is characterized by a quietude that is the opposite of anxiety—the exhale of someone who has been holding her breath out of fear or worry or insecurity. It is the blissful rest of someone who realizes she no longer has to perform; she is loved. We find joy in the grace of God precisely because he is the one we don’t have to

THE GIFT Be still, my soul, and steadfast. Earth and heaven both are still watching though time is draining from the clock and your walk, that was confident and quick, has become slow. So, be slow if you must, but let the heart still play its true part. Love still as once you loved, deeply and without patience. Let God and the world know you are

Marva Dawn, author of Keeping the Sabbath Wholly,

Sometimes we will enter cautiously, curiously, tentatively making our way through this labyrinth within the labyrinth, having a vague sense of need but unsure of how it will be fulfilled, and so open to surprise, to that moment where the spirit leads us to an experience we couldn’t have anticipated.

we’re all sinners who deserve death and separation from God. For those of us who don’t get that, we’re the ones for whom things aren’t fair—we do not get what we deserve.

Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. Worship is the heart of discipleship because it is the gymnasium in which God retrains our hearts.

psalters marked psalmboken;

“On reflection,” confesses Eugene Peterson, “I realized that I had become busy, a bastard form of ambition.”