Here's the Next Step Practice for this week to help you carry Sunday into the rest of the week. We share these practices because we believe that what we do and how we live matters.
So often, as we hold so much and feel the weight of the world on our shoulders, we may feel like we have to put on a brave face, power through, and keep it together. Perhaps we've been conditioned in this way, or we are afraid of abandonment or seeming weak. But in Jesus, we encounter a God who weeps — who lets his own heart break.
This week, we're inviting you to do the same to embrace the strength found in vulnerability and tenderness. After all, as Leonard Cohen wrote, "There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in."
➡️ Here are three ways to practice fasting from holding it all together:
Christine Valters Painter writes, "You may have a specific loss you are grieving: the loss of a loved one, the loss of an ability, the loss of a dream. Or it might be a grief that is less personal, maybe the losses caused by climate chaos or the extinction of species, or the cost of war, or the painful oppression of poverty." But so often, we power through grief, tell ourselves to pull it together, and just keep going without tending to our broken hearts.
Find a time when you will not be disturbed. Turn off your phone and notifications.
Sit or lie down in a comfortable place. Light a candle if you have one.
Offer a prayer to God who weeps with you, and ask to be held in this sacred time and space.
Quiet your heart to listen for what is true for you today around any grief you are holding. Allow the feelings to rise and fall as needed.
At the end of the time, offer a prayer of gratitude for the gift of tears. Give thanks for the blessing of love in your life that opens up the heart of grief.
On Sunday, Brent shared Anne Lamott's practice of creating a God Box as a way of acknowledging that we can't hold it all together on our own. Lamott writes, "On a note, I write down the name of the person about whom I am so distressed or angry, or describe the situation that is killing me, with which I am so toxically, crazily obsessed, and I fold the note up, stick it in the box and close it. You might have a brief moment of prayer, and it might come out sounding like this: ‘Here. You think you’re so big? Fine. You deal with it. Although I have a few more excellent ideas on how best to proceed.’ Then I agree to keep my sticky mitts off the spaceship until I hear back.”
Find an empty box. Decorate if you'd like.
On a piece of paper, write down the name or situation that you are holding.
Place it in the box and close it.
Offer a quick prayer. It can be something like, "You do it, God."
We believe that for which you're giving yourself space to grieve can also go in the God Box. If you're feeling like you need a little more practice this week, consider integrating both of these options as you fast from holding it all together.
💬 Write back and let us know which fasting practice you're taking on. 🙌 You're taking your next step with at least 75 others this week!
If you missed Sunday's message from Brent, you can catch up here.