Tag: sabbatical

Ways I Encountered God During My Sabbatical (and Key Lessons Learned)

My 6-month sabbatical, which concludes July 8, has been a rich, fulfilling time of rest, rejuvenation, and restoration. I am so grateful that InterVarsity has both the systems and structures that allow for sabbatical, as well as the culture that supported me in taking it. It’s hard to summarize 6 months of experiences in one document, and it’s possible that some realizations will only emerge after more time has passed, but here is my current list of highlights. At the end are the main lessons that I learned that I hope to bring forward with me after I return to work. 

Ways I encountered God

Time with kids:

  • Told numerous Bible stories to Luke per his request! Luke’s favorites involved Jesus calming the storm and appearing to the disciples after his resurrection. 
  • Having a solo week with Luke while Liz was away with Ellie. We were able to eat dinner at a farmer’s market, had lunch at a Nepalese restaurant, hiked along a stream, and ate ice cream
  • Was able to be fully present with kids when they were sick and stayed home from daycare
  • Spent significant time with Ellie every Tuesday and Wednesday. We often went to the library or to the Dickinson art gallery. 

In Church:

  • Being able to fully engage with and enjoy a small group and the Alpha course
  • Having a deeper sense of community with the diverse people who attend our church
  • After a sermon series about loving one’s neighbors, intentionally taking Luke with me to hand out cookies and donuts to our nearby neighbors—discovering that 3 people who attend our church also live on our block! 

Spiritual Reflection:

  • Met with a spiritual director each month
  • Journaled regularly
  • Took a total of 10 Retreat Days, mostly at Stillwater Retreat center in Carlisle

Reading and writing: 

  • Read ~35 books, especially books that covered topics like power, politics, and faith
  • Read through old journals from 2008-2013, seeing in the pages how I grew as a person and as a follower of Jesus. I saw how angsty and insecure I was when I was younger, and how I slowly grew more confident and secure as God kept leading me forward. 
  • Wrote ~15 blogs about faith, philosophy, politics, and even Star Wars!
  • Created a 9-week small group Bible study guide on the theme of “Politics in the Bible”
  • Listened to the Good Faith podcast and the Bible Project podcast

Outdoor activity:

  • Skied at Roundtop Mountain on 7 occasions, despite the limited snow this winter
  • Hiked at White Rocks, Pole Steeple, Oppossum Lake, Kings Gap, Letort Stream, Waggoner’s Gap
  • Kayaked on the Conodoguinet and canoed in the Poconos
  • Sat on the beach at Fuller Lake

Conversations with friends:

  • In person visits with Jason & Megan, Andrew & Sam, Neil, Mark, Kirk, Jeff & Sam, Ian, Steve & Meg, Joanne, Emery, Sean & Nicole Tim, Ryan, Colin, Grace, Rella, and many others
  • Phone calls with Betsy, Rob, Avi, Lauren, Tom, and many others

At home:

  • Set up a basement “lair” for myself to retreat to 
  • Was able to enjoy cooking more frequently and thinking through more elaborate meals
  • Hired a construction company to tear down our old fence and build a new one 
  • More meaningful time with Liz

Travel:

  • Trip with Liz to Stasbourg, France for a wedding. Had an Airbnb overlooking what had been the tallest cathedral in Europe, and had time to explore numerous old streets, churches, and architecture
  • Family vacation in the Poconos right on a gorgeous lake
  • Trips to Longwood Gardens 
  • Trip to Newburgh for Memorial Day
  • Upcoming trip to Massachusetts 
View of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg, France

Lessons Learned During Sabbatical

1. I should pay more attention to my feelings and desires, rather than ignoring them. They often point to a helpful next step. Over sabbatical I got better at listening to my body and soul. When I felt lonely, I reached out to a friend. When I felt hungry, I made sure to find something I wanted to eat. When I felt sick, I took it easy and rested. When I felt bored, I left the house to run errands or went on a hike. When I return to work I want to make sure I keep listening to my own feelings and desires and responding accordingly. 

2. I can have confidence and security in myself as I build my life on Jesus. I don’t have to be anxious, worried, or panicked even if others are, because I know where my foundation is. On the flip side, I don’t have to get sucked into thinking the grass would always be greener if something about my situation changed. God has brought me step by step to this current location, life, family, and career, and I must continue to be grateful and intentional in all of those things, trusting him to keep leading me.  

3. Institutions, organizations, and systems of power matter a lot, but the way Christians interact in them should be different compared to others. A Christian should long for a slow and steady influence over a longer amount of time, rather than trying to achieve a flashy big impact all at once. Similarly, the best way to change culture is not just to critique it, but to create more of it. And lastly, as intense as this political moment is right now, Millennials such as myself should not burn ourselves out trying to fix everything right now. We need to be preparing ourselves and our own institutions for what’s going to come in the next 20-30 years, when we enter senior leadership and become the next generation of leaders.

4. Do not ignore the Holy Spirit and prayer. Through reading books and reflecting on my own experiences, it becomes more and more clear to me how important it is to be aware of the reality of the spiritual realm and the power of God in bringing hope and healing. One move of the Holy Spirit it worth 50 attempts solely in my own power. 

Top 3 Books I’ve Read So Far in 2023

Sabbatical has allowed me much more time to read, a hobby I’ve always loved but often don’t set aside time for. Here are some of my favorite books I’ve read this sabbatical. I’m also trying out these “Amazon Affiliate” links; if you end up purchasing a book using my link below, I earn a small commission. (Not sure how I feel about Amazon on the whole but thought it’s worth a try.)

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, by RF Kuang – 4.5 /5 stars

This is a work of historical fiction with fantasy elements, taking place in the mid-1800s at the height of Britain’s power. A young man named Robin is brought from his native China to the Babel Institute in England, where he discovers that words have power – in a very literal sense! But as he learns more about how the British Empire uses the work of translation to advance its own interests, he becomes conflicted, ultimately getting caught up in an anti-colonial uprising. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which felt sometimes like a combination of Harry Potter (a young boy heading to university), Star Wars, and some other young adult adventure stories.

Interestingly enough, Kuang’s larger point about the dangers of empire and speaking a single language track exactly with the main points I made in this blog post from a few years ago. As a very talented young woman of color, Kuang’s writing and main critique ring powerfully, and I’m excited for her continued development as an author. The only issue I have with this book is that some of the phrasings feel a bit contemporary, as if the conversations the characters have about race, class, and empire happen in the 2020s instead of the 1820s. Perhaps that is an intentional choice by Kuang, but at times it brought me out of the flow of the story. That never lasted long though, as the well-paced narrative would immediately draw me back in.

The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation by Wilder & Hendricks – 4 / 5 stars

This book had been strongly recommended to me by numerous people, and so I was delighted to receive it from a friend. The authors explain with simple terminology and concepts drawn from cutting-edge neuroscience research that most of the discipleship that occurs in the (white, American) Church only engages the “left” side of our brains–the realm of intellect, information, and beliefs. While important, the reality is that we are whole-brained creatures who need to be engaged with our full brains. The right side of the brain in particular is the one that engages with community, emotions, and subconscious identity. A church that fails to address the right side of the brain will lead to at best shallow discipleship, and at worst narcissism, unaddressed trauma, and toxic communities. Wilder and Hendricks give concrete stories, examples, and practices for how to cultivate love-filled communities where people can engage with their whole selves. I think this is a great work for Church leaders to read, especially in groups where some of the practices can be tried out.

My one issue about this work is that, as a book with some advanced words and concepts, it often seems a bit left-brained oriented itself! And often many of the solutions that are suggested also feel left-brained, such as the suggested trainings, assessments, and checklists. Perhaps this approach is what is needed for the American Church to take this neuroscience research seriously. But I wonder if a more right-brained approach to discipleship might also emphasize different solutions, like hours-long dinner parties, charismatic worship nights, long hikes in the wilderness, or story-telling around the campfire. That’s messier and harder to quantify, but that feels like the approach Jesus took with many of his followers.

Backpacking with the Saints by Belden Lane – 5 / 5 stars

Most books I read quickly, scarcely finishing one paragraph before I’m already halfway through the next one. But this book forces me to go slow, every line carefully crafted and daring. In fact, I’m only about a quarter of the way through, but it’s already been one of my favorite books this sabbatical. Lane connects the spiritual practice of wilderness hiking to the lives and wisdom of ancient saints, particularly the Desert Fathers. As someone who appreciates hiking, reading this book makes me want to strap on my backpack and just disappear for a few days into the hills. Lane’s prose is provocative and vulnerable, calling us back to the wild that our ancestors knew so well but that modern humans rarely experience unmediated. To be without wilderness is to be less vulnerable, less open to awe, less in tune with our bodies and surroundings, less present — in short, to be without wilderness is to be simultaneously less human and less divine. Lane’s work points us back to nature and to the God who created it to remind us that the universe is so much bigger than us.

Sabbatical Begins

As some of you know, this week I begin a 6-month sabbatical from my work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship! This is a gracious gift offered to paid employees after 7 sequential years of service (it’s been 8.5 for me), and I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time. Already, I have deactivated all of my social media profiles, set up work email’s autoresponder, and deleted any work-related apps off of my phone. Beyond that, during this sabbatical I am looking forward more time to read, write, pray, sleep, be outside, do small house projects, and spend time with my family.

This Sunday I was reflecting on the concept of fasting, i.e., abstaining from something (usually food) for a designated period of time, usually with the goal of gaining greater spiritual focus, clarity, insight, or depth. And in some ways, I think that a sabbatical (a period of “fasting” from work) is very similar to a period of fasting from food.

Like food, work was designed by God as a good thing for humans to have and to enjoy–both existed in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. However, we see in our present world that humans have a broken relationship with both of these things in many ways. Thus fasting and sabbaticals (or even just a weekly Sabbath) are crucial spiritual disciplines to remind ourselves as humans that ultimately these things are not where our identity can be found, but rather in being children of God. Both fasting and sabbaticals are deeply biblical, and we can see periods of both fasting and rest (sometimes both at the same time!) being commanded of God’s people throughout Scripture.

For myself, I have always been a high achiever and a hard worker, ever since entering school 25 years ago and the workforce 10 years ago. I am a little scared but mostly eager for these next 6 months to rest and to reflect deeply on who I am when I am not achieving something. It’s for that reason that I have kept my goals and plans fairly minimal for this time–I could of course take a seminary course or start a side hustle, but then I would still feel tempted by the idol of productivity. I am instead going to try my best to embrace the gift of rest and all that God has for me.

If you are the praying sort, please pray for God to meet me during the next six months. Thank you!