"Slow Down" Lyrics
by Chuck
Girard | from the album All Those Years
In the
midst of my confusion
In the time
of desperate need
When I am
thinking not too clearly
A gentle
voice does intercede
Slow down,
slow down, be still
Be still and
wait, on the Spirit of.... the Lord
Slow down
and hear His vo.......ice
And know
that He....is....God
In the time
of tribulation
When I'm
feeling so unsure
When things
are pressing in about me
Comes a
gentle voice so still, so pure
Slow down,
slow down, be still
Be still and
wait, on the Spirit of.......the Lord
Slow down
and hear His vo.......ice
And know
that He.........is God
And know
that He....is...God
©1974
Dunamis Music[1]
“Are you
tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll
recover your life. I’ll show how to take
a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—Watch how I do it. Learn the
unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you will learn to
live freely and lightly”[2]
– The message
Recover your
life! What a warm and welcoming invitation. This is an invitation many need to
hear and yet few, very few, take the time to heed. Even on this day, this day of rest we
continue to worship at the altar of Busyness.
Not only do we not heed the message to slow down and breathe but I fear
if our bodies didn’t tell us to just stop now and then many of us would run our
selves right into the ground until we are facing the wrong side of the grass.
Now this
call, I wish it were a commandment, but it is a call, an invitation an open
door to a space in the spirit where she says; to come sit, breathe, be in my
presence. This call isn’t just for the weary worker or the tired traveler. This is an invitation to all and especially
those who have been so burdened by society they are nearly broken.
This
invitation is one to each one of us and to those who are not here and have not
heard the invitation. This is for those
worn down by a strict religious creed.
This call is for those who have been excluded from their home
communities where they are beaten down and told repeatedly that they are going
to hell unless they repent and change.
This invitation is for those who are marginalized in their worship
spaces to a point that they are exhausted by attending what should be a
prayerful service.
This is a
call of practice. This a way of being of
Christ, that one must develop. There is
the practice of an honest and sincere welcome.
This is a practice of community. This is a practice that takes
work. It takes work because not everyone
wants to be welcoming at the same time.
Right? There are days when we can
do the welcoming into sacred still space and there are days when we really need
to be in that still quiet space for ourselves.
We are
blessed that in 2000 this congregation went through an intentional process and
wrote and adopted an open and affirming covenant. Now many of us think of that ONA is just for
the LGBTQ community but the way it is written we are proclaiming our self a safe
welcoming space for all people.
The
congregation of the united Church of Christ in Petaluma declares itself to be
open and affirming of all God’s people. We commit ourselves to nurturing a
faith community where all the people who seek love and grace of God are
welcomed and loved, regardless of race, ethnic or national origin, (in this part of the statement we may
consider being an immigrant welcoming and/or a sanctuary church or a Black
Lives Matter congregation) we welcome regardless of age ( there is a new
curriculum to be an age- friendly congregation),we welcome regardless of gender(
there is a call to be careful around our use of pronouns and to be aware that
some people do not identify on a gender binary scale), we welcome all no matter
their sexual orientation, physical or mental abilities ( is there a group who
may want to study what it means to be a wise church which is a program offered
by the UCC mental health network), we welcome no matter your economic condition
( perhaps we need to make a stronger connection with cots) we welcome no matter
to your marital status ( we need to be aware that sometimes being the single
person in a congregation that often focuses on families may be difficult).
We openly
welcome and invite all to join in the worship, fellowship, membership,
employment and leadership of our congregation, and to participate fully in the
life of the church (Perhaps someone has not done so in a long time but always
wanted to participate in service, offer companionship to some of our shut-in
community or work on our board? This is
your invitation who knew it has been
here all this time).
In affirming
the value of ALL God’s people, we;
· Recognize that we are all created by,
loved and accepted as God’s children;
· Believe God’s children are gifted by
God with unique talents and attributes;
· Believe we are born with God-given
dignity, and that all people share the worth that comes from being unique
individuals created by God;
· Respect the dignity and self-worth of
all persons.
We believe we are called by Jesus’ teachings to love our
neighbors as ourselves. We commit ourselves to reach out (anyone have any ideas
on how we may reach out more to our community) we are committed to reach out to
all who wish to worship and affirm their faith in God. We commit ourselves to
respond to the needs of those who have experienced exclusion, prejudice and
discrimination in Christian Churches as well as in society.
Now that I
have read all that I am exhausted. Being
Church, Being the United Church of Christ, we are called to hard work
sometimes. That is why we need to take
rest, spiritual rest in the Lord.
Kaji Dousa
writes this in Rise up spirituality for resistance
Interrupted!
There is a
moment in the middle of the night. I gasp; I audibly take in so much air that
anyone nearby will hear it.
I know God
most closely in my sleep. For me, the overnight hours are the longest stretches
of prayer I know. God and I talk in my dreams. Not exclusively—other voices
work their way in as well. But God’s
most transformative healing work happens on my way to or in my sleep. Which is why an interruption can feel
so…disruptive to my soul.
What
disrupts my God relationship? The
apostle Paul has a few ideas:
Hardship
Distress
Persecution
Famine
Nakedness
Peril...
All of These
work their way into my gasp points of my God-time. As well they should. The
spirit of the lord is upon me to proclaim liberty to the captive, and this
Jesus-following posture places those of us who do advocacy work at personal
risk for any of Paul’s list. And then some.
Here’s the
truth: Nothing can separate us from God. But things can interrupt our
experience of God. When we are breathing in Goodness- even in a snore- any
disruption can make us Gasp for air.
Maybe that
gasp is good. Maybe it is helpful to know that, in these moments of
interruption, we are in peril if we cannot breathe God in first and foremost.
Your call to
follow Jesus may put you at risk. It may make you naked, vulnerable. It may
make you the target of trolls with nothing better to do than interrupt your
relationship with the Lord.
Amidst all
of the Peril: Get your rest. Love your God. Follow Jesus. Know ye that the Lord
is good and the Lord is God. And She will always show up, always on time. Even
in the still of the night.
And Kaji
concludes with this Prayer
I give
thanks for your ability to break through it all, o God. Even in my Slumber.
Even in my unrest. In Jesus’ name.[3]
Even in her
rest she gasps breathing in Gods’ goodness.
This is what is meant and what we need to do we need to lay our burdens
down, slow down, rest, reflect, and be present to God with all our busyness,
with all our humility and with all our pride.
Everything we have we need to take to the lord, lay it down and rest.
If that
means pausing in our day for a minute to say I am here Lord be present with me
as I breathe. If that means you are
called to meditation for 20 minutes each day.
If it means that at the end of the week you need to come here and lay
all your stuff at the door and come inside for an hour to be present to God
then welcome and rest.
Now for some
of us this quiet rest is hard. It is
hard for us to be still in the lord we need to move our rest needs to be
unrestful, if you will. So, for some we need to take a walking meditation.
Carefully
placing one foot in front of the other and paying attention to the feel of the
path under our feet. Breathing deep and taking in our surroundings being keenly
aware of our surroundings. Being aware
of the God breathe that is always around us just taking in the rhythm of nature
as we walk. For others that may even be
too much, too peace filled.
For some rest
in God may express itself in taking in the heart beat and pace of a city.
Watching the spirit of God moving quickly about seeing glimpses of the face of
Christ in each passing person.
For others still,
there is spiritual reading and reflection.
Lectio Divina a sacred praying of the scripture. For this you simply find a quiet comfortable
place. Choose a text. Read it slowly
caressing each word or phrase in your heart listening for a phrase or word that
stands out to you. Take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and
slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of
concerns, memories, and ideas. Just pay
attention to where God is leading you in this time of prayer and contemplation.
Some may be
more visual in their need to rest with God for t those there is the practice of
visio divina this practice invites one to encounter the divine through images.
A prayerful consideration of and interaction with a photograph in the magazine,
icon, piece of art, or other visual representation allows the viewer to
experience the divine in a unique and powerful way.
For others,
their time with God may come out through their own artful practices be that in
taking time to paint, knit, quilt, bead, take pictures or make music. Just as we are each one of us the face of
Christ in this world so we are each unique in our spiritual rest. But to have a spiritual practice, a spiritual
place that is just for you and God, is essential in empowering us as
individuals and as a community to do the work God is calling us to.
So Slow
down, be still and rest in the spirit of the lord be still and know God or
dance move and find God and make a connection in your unique way. But always be attentive in your time with
God. Listen for Gods voice in your Life
then take up the Yoke, Christs yoke and know whatever it is we are called to
do. We do it not alone, our burdens our
not ours alone but shared in and through our relationship with Christ.
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