I love hearing Ruth Haley Barton’s voice when I read her books. I have been on nine retreats led by Ruth over approximately a two year period. When I go to read her books, I can’t help but hear the inflections in her voice and her deep care for ministry leaders (for me!) as she teaches during retreat and as she types the words of the book.
It’s been too long since I finished my Transforming Community retreats and it’s been too long since I read one of Ruth’s books. My stated goal (rule of life) at the end of my retreat cohort was to continue in certain rhythms that would allow me to live an unhurried life where I was able to enjoy God. I have not kept my rhythms, my life continues to feel over-busy, over-stressed, and over-hurried, and as a result, I’m not enjoying God in those deep moments like I did on my TC retreats. Those deep moments that I still long for, but feel impossible to attain in my regular life and ministry.
Then I picked up Ruth’s newest book, Invitation to Retreat. What I love most about Ruth’s writing and teaching is it reminds me I’m not crazy to desire rest. She of course uses more eloquent words than this, but you get my idea. In the world of life and ministry, you are made to feel out-of-place, lazy, and slacking off if you aren’t cramming your life full of tasks, accomplishments, and striving. Nor does it helped that I am hard-wired for this sort of achievement-based life.
I tell people about my 9 retreats and about Ruth’s ministry and I often can read their minds: oh yeah, one of those crazy people who is always going off on retreat. See ya, I’ve got things to get done. It’s easy to start to think they are right. Whereas when I began reading Invitation to Retreat, Ruth’s voice immediately brought me back to the true reality that we are meant to rest in the Lord. Not a lazy “rest” of watching TV all day, but a deep soul rest where we enjoy God, knowing we are loved and experiencing that love, and laying down all our attempts to earn our belovedness. Attempts of striving, being busy, and having more. To get away from it all in order to be with him, just as I am. Invitation to Retreat brought me back to the reality that we are human beings created with limitations and that we must honor those limitations, lest suffer the consequences of overwork which I am all too familiar with. Ruth’s voice in the book reminded me it’s the culture out there that has got it upside-down, and the true, healthy, reality is that of a God of Sabbath rest and an incarnate Savior who would pray the Jewish prayer hours and go up alone onto mountainsides to rest.
What I love about the whole concept of retreat is the way Ruth puts it as an invitation from God. She uses illustrations I can relate to all too well, like getting cut from a sports team, being in middle school and longing for the popular crowd to accept me, or for the girl I had a crush on to reciprocate. These are feelings where I wasn’t invited in, and it stings. Yet here God is, the Creator of the universe and the Lover of our souls, inviting me to stop everything else and spent time with him, and I reject him so often! But the invitation is still there, and that invitation truly is exciting!
There were so many great reminders peppered throughout Invitation to Retreat. There are real battle wounds from doing ministry. We hurt people and get hurt by people. We must remove ourselves from the battle for a time in order to retreat and rest, and in this quiet away from the storm, realign what needs to be realigned. There is no way these realignments can take place when we’re in the midst of the battle.
The biggest thing that keeps me from retreat is me thinking of how much I’m needed by God (so how could I ever take a break?), which is so ironic because it is in retreat when I realize God doesn’t need me at all, but I desperately need him.
Invitation to Retreat reminded me I have a choice. I don’t have to walk through life exhausted.
Trying to earn approval from people is exhausting and unattainable. In retreat, I find I already have this approval from God and am able to give up the chase of trying to earn it from others. My unquenchable thirst is fully satisfied on retreat.
On a personal note, I love Ruth’s vulnerability in this book. She is the master of rest in many of our minds, yet pulls back the curtain on how she is just as desperate for these truths as we are. As someone who struggles to admit I have limits, it’s refreshing to hear from Ruth that she also struggles with this, and to know that God will be with me when I go to him, just as he has been with Ruth. And that I’m not alone in having to disappoint people when I arrange my life to be one of limits, as facing this disappointment is such a tremendous challenge.
At the end of the day, something’s got to give. It’s only when we become so desperate, so beat up by the hecticness of it all, so empty from always looking to people to fill us up, so raw, literally at the end of our rope, when we say yes to God’s invitation. If you don’t know where to find that invitation or you need to be reminded of it, read Invitation to Retreat.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
I’m so glad I happened across this post. (For some unknown reason, I don’t get email notifications of new blog posts anymore.) This was so encouraging. I love going on retreats where you get away from the world, in many ways. Once some friends and I met at a Catholic brothers retreat center and while we didn’t, the brothers were silent all the time, even at meals, which I guess is blessed but tbh seemed weirdish.
There’s a French word you’ll like, ressourcement. It’s meaning is what you’d imagine, returning to the source to find life and as you mention rest. It brings to mind the rest mentioned in Hebrews, the rest we’re called to in Christ. I think it’s what meant to happen every Sabbath.
There’s a portion of a poem I keep with me:
“You are the seeker’s sure resource,
of burning love the living source,
protector in the midst of strife,
the Giver and the Lord of life.”
fwiw, I’ll be hitting up the podcast again. I listened to the 1st TULIP one but missed the second and thinking I need to listen in order. Guess I’ll be binge listening.
Hey Noah keep well. Never apologize for needing to experience union with God in Christ in order to minister to others.
Thanks Alan! As far as subscribing to the blog, use the box in the right sidebar above the VidAngel ad, “Subscribe to Noah’s Blog Posts” and you should be good to go. If that doesn’t work, let me know so I can work out the bugs. And thanks for the encouragement regarding resting. I just re-read “Way of the Heart” by Henri Nouwen this week, so needed. There’s a quote in there about how when everyone else is mad, they think the non-mad person is the mad one! This would be the person who desires rest and to unplug, where the rest of the world thinks that’s crazy.
As an FYI, I tried entering above VidAngel but get this message “Failed to add user – Missing API Key” Good news I got your reply so something’s working right.
I’ve heard of Nouwen but never read his work, but “Way of the Heart” sounds like a great read. That quote is true and you’re right. The world thinks that’s crazy cause it doesn’t know the rest Jesus gives. If church was living that rest, if the reality was seen, that would make such a difference. And that’s on all of us, to know that rest in Christ and live it in the world.
thanks for the heads up on the api key, i’m looking into it. it looks like i have a bunch of people who signed up via that subscribe box, but they all have that “missing api key” next to their name. ug!
did you get an email in your inbox regarding my two most recent blog posts, the one about life being more fulfilling without porn, and the episode 8 of my podcast one? i posted them both yesterday, one of them was pretty late into the evening.
Yeah, got both of them Tuesday. When I left the 1st comment I clicked the Notify me of new posts below the fill in info. That’s working 🙂
I haven’t listened to the podcast but the porn article was really good in focusing on how good it is without it. Usually the focus is on the negatives. I left a comment there.
That’s great to hear, thanks. If you got both of them in your inbox, that means it’s still working, despite the API Key error you received. Whew! I wasn’t looking forward to going down that troubleshooting rabbit hole to figure out how to fix that. The blog comment notifications are a different plug-in, but glad those are working too!
fwiw, I had hit the new post notification under comments before the other one and may be that’s why I’m getting them. Those signing up above VidAngel may not be. You may want to try signing up under some different email & see if it works.