Dear Folks,
I was surprised to learn that many marathon organizers engage the services of a pacemaker—that is, a runner hired to set a steady pace as the race commences and to keep that pace all the way to the finish line.
Life sometimes go by in a blur. Days and weeks and months come and go too fast. There are times that I feel a bit frazzled, out of sorts, winded.
In the midst of such racing, I look to Sunday mornings at Grace Church|Red Hill as my pacemaker. Keeping the Sabbath aligns me to a deeper rhythm of which we are a part. The sabbath encourages rest, resets the speed, tracks the pace to larger forces than the demands of a busy weekly calendar or to do list.
When we observed the Summer Solstice this last Sunday, we became attuned to Earth’s place and pace within the solar system and, by association, our place and pace. In geological time, our lives last only a short while. Even more reason to slow down. Even more reason to savor life now. Even more reason to linger.
Theologian Kosuke Koyama offers this take on the speed of God’s love, “Love has its speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, at three miles an hour.” (From Three Mile an Hour God.)
Thank you for the essential part you play in keeping the Sabbath’s speed at three miles an hour. I am grateful that you bring your whole self into the GC|RH community, sometimes a self that is frazzled, out of sorts, winded. That is what we do for the other, we create a space and pace that invites us to slow down, to rest, to linger. And we do so together.
Be well,
Neal