Solitude & Silence

Sanctus Church

Solitude & Silence

May 10, 2020 • Jon Thompson

How often do you spend time in the quiet alone with God?

Solitude and silence were at the heart of Jesus' life and ministry. He often withdrew to the "lonely place" before engaging with the crowds and challenges that lay before him. If we treat Jesus as our model, learning how to minimize the noise and increase our attentiveness to God may be the secret to thriving within the chaos of our modern age.

More from Spiritual Practices: The Holy Habits of Faith

Celebration & Rest

June 28, 2020 • Jon Thompson

Celebration and rest are essential aspects of one's spiritual life. They produce a divine joy that fuels everything else we are called to do as believers. So how do we celebrate and rest in the midst of pain, suffering, and urgency?

Service

June 21, 2020 • Jon Thompson

Serve others: easy to say, hard to do—especially when it comes at a personal cost. Jesus calls us to actively will the good of others, including those who we'd rather ignore (or perhaps even harm). This is radical love. This is reconciliation. This is the way through which the Kingdom of God flips our cultural models upside-down and begins to emerge in the here and now. We weren't created and saved to sit on the sidelines. It's time for us to love boldly and find Jesus at the middle of it all.

Simplicity & Sacrifice

June 14, 2020 • Jon Thompson

Are you paying attention to what really matters? Nothing is more valuable than our personal time and attention, and yet we rarely create space to ask ourselves whether our choices are leading us into deeper relationship with God. In a culture obsessed with complexity and accumulation, Jesus calls us to practice simplicity and sacrifice. Why? Because these disciplines, when done as acts of worship, lead us to the One who is able to free us from the tireless cycle of never feeling like we have (or are) enough.