– Cara Ray
This world is so fast-paced and busy—chaotic really. I feel always pressed to go faster, do more, be better, like I’m running in a never-ending hamster wheel chasing expectations impossible to attain. Can you relate?
The sad result of this way of living is that it affects my ability to sit still, to be still. Psalm 46:10 commands us to “Be still and know that I am God.” It’s a difficult command to obey in a world that lacks (and discourages) stillness.
In my effort to learn this skill of being still, I have taken up bird watching. It’s a great tutor of restfulness, and has taught me much about myself and the Lord as I observe these winged creatures that flit about so.
We have an Eastern Phoebe pair which makes our yard their home between April and November. Last spring, the pair decided that the small ledge where the beams of my second story deck attach to my house was a good place for their nest. I perched myself on a bench a short distance away and watched them dart back and forth carrying grass and mud for their new nest. After watching them do this for a few days, I wondered why it was taking them so long to build their small nest. I moved my bench much closer and got out the binoculars to investigate. I couldn’t believe what I found.
As the pair continued their usual back and forth flight path, I noticed that each time they returned with their construction supplies, they went to a different section of the ledge. They were building a total of nine nests simultaneously!
After a few more days of this, the female finally settled down on the largest of the nine nests and laid her eggs. But her rest wasn’t like it should be. She would sit for a while, then leave to gather some more grass, and work on one of the other nests. Eventually, she abandoned all nine of the nests, including the eggs she had laid.
A week or so later, I discovered the pair (though, mostly the female) building again. This time she was constructing a row of three more nests, but quickly chose to finish only one—which was just above my bedroom window. After so much fretting, she laid another brood and was finally still. She successfully hatched, and fledged, three chicks, but only after she stilled her striving and focused on what she was created to do.
I see myself in all of Phoebe’s striving. I’m guessing many of us do. The antidote to all this restless fretting is the topic of a book I’ve just read, and I encourage you to do the same. The book, released this week, is The Pursuit of Holy Leisure by Cara Ray.
I was not previously familiar with the term “holy leisure”, until I picked up this book. I now know that it is a reality most Christians long for, yet often feel they fall short of in this busy world. Holy leisure is a concept that Ray traces back to the early church fathers who defined it as restful devotion (Does that sound as lovely to you as it does me?). It’s an “ability to be at peace through activities of the day, an ability to rest and take time to enjoy beauty…..”. It’s really a “whole-hearted pursuit of the most essential thing in life—loving and enjoying Jesus.”
Holy leisure is about being rooted and grounded in Christ as we are nourished by the Word of God and prayer. The resulting renewed mindset overflows into everything we do, and affects our response to every circumstance we face. In her book, The Pursuit of Holy Leisure, Cara Ray begins right at the foundation by reminding us of who we are in Christ. From here, Cara takes the reader on a journey to the various places we encounter in our spiritual lives—the hidden places of our hearts and what we seek; the familiar places of work, faith, and our daily lives; the hard places of trials and dry seasons; and the fruitful places as we abide in Christ.
Along this journey, Cara teaches the reader how to be still—to cease our striving, and enjoy our Savior in all moments of our lives. We learn to reorient our hearts from performing a dutiful ‘quiet time’ to delighting in God, always. And don’t we all, as God’s children, desire to delight in Him more?
The Pursuit of Holy Leisure is well written and easy to read. Cara weaves Scripture with engaging stories to bring deep and challenging truths to a practical, heart level. Each chapter ends with some questions to enable readers to reflect and apply what they’ve learned. I was so blessed and helped in reading this book, especially the much needed reminder that I am in Christ, and he in me. The way she broke this truth down resonated with me like it never had before.
The Pursuit of Holy Leisure—and my fretful, 12-nest phoebe—have lessons to enable us cease our striving in this chaotic world. May we learn to enjoy restful devotion, and to be content in the one thing we were created to do: glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Here’s where you can get your copy today:
Canadian readers, you can find it here.
Everyone else, you can find it here.
The Light for My Path 