To get the background on why I took a sabbatical year, and read about what I hoped to discover, start HERE and follow the series via the list at the top of each post.

This past year and a bit I have been looking at my life through the lens of developing a holistic approach to life thanks to the insights gained through Anne Jackson’s book – Mad Church Disease.

She proposes that there are four interrelated aspects of life that need to be healthy for a sustainable ministry and a rich and rewarding life with God:

• Physical health
• Mental health
• Relational health
• Spiritual health

I was skeptical at first (that’s pretty normal when you are as low as I was), but it became very clear over the course of my sabbatical just how entwined these parts of life are. They each impact the others. They inseparable.

They are all tied to what I choose to believe about God.

Everything I believe about these four aspects of my life is born out of what I understand about God and how I am related to him.

EVERY action for the WHOLE of my life is shaped by what I choose to believe…therefore I must know what I believe, and in order to make decisions against these beliefs and have them “stick” I need to understand why I believe these things. Obviously this is a huge and ever-evolving undertaking. (side-note: if anyone tells you they have got their ducks in a line when it comes to theology…run…it’s not true…God is so immense that no-one can claim that they have their theology 100% correct. Beware of dogmatism.)

As much as they are all tied together and interact, I learned some lessons specific to each of these areas too. I’ll be posting about those discoveries in the next couple of weeks.

The most enduring and recurrent themes that visited time after time in each of the areas of my life were the need to simplify, to rest, and to share. The need to simplify my life in order to make space for God’s purposes was a big one and is feeling like the most urgent. There is too much clutter and too many stressors that I am allowing to have power over me. They must go. How?….that’s the hard bit, and that will be my challenge for the year ahead I think.

That, and continuing the healing process…but as I said in my last post, I am beginning to feel the healing warmth of God’s sunlight on my face and hope and excitement is returning. God has got great plans for my life and the people around me! Time to get on with it!

Wait! One last general thing that I learned is that I’m not going to wait until I hit crisis point before I take a sabbatical year…I’m going to schedule the next one and avoid the crash . That’s the plan anyway.

Next up….what I learned about physical health.

Have you ever taken an extended time out from serving in an official capacity? How did it impact your personal growth and subsequent usefulness to the kingdom?

photo credit – jsnflo

Related posts:

1. Clouds clearing – sabbatical thoughts on mental health

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