Goodness Weekly 9.04.23
“In rest, I have the time to discern between thoughts and feelings and desires. Having removed the urgency to act on any of them, I can simply listen to my soul.”
–Justin McRoberts
This Week
Tuesday, Sept 5th, 7am Taco Tuesday at One Another Coffee featuring Mission Bell and Primero Tacos
Wednesday, Sept 6th, 7pm Youth group at the Stirmans’
Saturday, Sept 9th, 10am Second Saturday
Sunday, Sept 10th
10:30am Worship in the Sanctuary
4:30pm Chapel worship
Upcoming…
Wednesday, September 13, 7pm Youth group
Wednesday, September 20, 6:30pm Sunset Worship
September 23, 10am La Luz Opening Reception
Stay in touch with what’s going on around campus by visiting the Collective Calendar, and following us on Instagram.
What’s Good:
Our new coworking space is opening to the public this week and we are so excited to see this part of our community start to grow. Want to be a part of it? Email us to learn more and check out the space.
Our new nature-based preschool, Sprouts School, is also opening soon and we are currently enrolling children ages 0-6. Our teachers were in training all last week and can’t wait to meet their new little sprouts when school starts.
A Message from Jess
“Work hard, play hard.”
“No fun until the work is done.”
“Saturday is work day”
I wonder what messages you received about the balance of work and rest?
One of the strongest, for me, was from my grandfather when I called him on his 76th birthday. He was a business owner, and I asked, “Grandpa, have you considered retirement?”
His response was, as always, straight to the point—“When you retire, you die.”
He went on to name the friends that he knew who had truly lost their purpose when they retired—so much so that along with it, they lost their desire to continue really living.
With a similar work ethic as my grandfather, my father started working in the family business at nine years old and never stopped. Many of my family’s life commandments are centered around the value of hard work. Perhaps the greatest insult you could say would be that one of us was lazy–and the Thibodeau family was many things, but not lazy.
Learning this concept of rest has been one of my greatest adult lessons. As I’ve shared before, I worked as hard as I could on my own to learn this (ironic, I know), but I still needed guidance and hired a coach to teach me.
We started by addressing the tapes that were playing in my head saying things like, “rest is a reward for hard work” or “there’s just too much to be done to pause for any amount of time.” Kerry, my rest coach, helped me to see that those thoughts were not serving me any longer and that I needed rest because I was a human being, not a machine.
This month, we are going to focus on rest practices. Each week I will share a new practice in this newsletter and in my upcoming messages in the Sunday afternoon chapel services, which will be focused on rest.
I invite you this week to spend some time considering what ideas you’ve internalized around rest. Find a meaningful way to let go of those that no longer serve you.
Get started by finding just 15 minutes of rest—this could be taking a walk, sitting with a cup of coffee in silence, reading a book, playing a game, or whatever is restful to you.
If you enjoy music, check out the song Weightless by Marconi Union. This song is named the most relaxing song in the world, at just under 8 minutes, and it might be a perfect way for you to take a little break.
Love, Jess
Inhale:
There are old habits I’m struggling to release
Exhale:
Help me to let go and know that I am worthy of good things,
I am safe to breathe deeply and rest here for a minute
