The seminary I attended was blessed to have a Pastoral Care Director. Thanks be to God for the Lilly Foundation, which funded that position! Even from the advent of our journey into ministry, we were endued with the need for pastoral care. Early in my first semester, when it all seemed so overwhelming, guess what this Pastoral Care Director did: he scheduled a retreat. He beseeched us all to go. “Are you nuts?”, I thought. I’m sure I was not alone in that. Who had the time to spend three days talking to trees and singing “Kumbaya”? (those things actually did not occur. Yes, I went.)

The reason, he said, for the retreat, was to impress upon us the need to rob time. Time we thought we could not possibly afford. Time to restore and refresh. Boy, was he ever right. God helped us find a way to be away in retreat, yet still get our classwork done.

Stolen moments are those times when we decide to do what is essential, not urgent. It involves really being attuned to what our body and soul truly need in order to draw closer to our Great Restorer and Refresher. Can I claim a patent on those Godly titles? Has anyone else ever used them? Kidding aside, it is incumbent upon us – especially in Lent – to perhaps fudge on Commandment #7, on this 7th of March. After all, there is no mention of the forbidding of time to be stolen. We need to do this for ourselves. When we take stock of our lives, and the pursuits that rob us of wholeness, I think we need to give ourselves permission to retreat. Start with an hour each day. Or a half an hour. Five minutes? Whatever; you can work up to it.

Make time, rob time, steal moments to dwell in God’s presence. Soak up all the goodness, all the love, all the grace, all the mercy that He wants to lavish on you.

Go see “The Shack”. Remember that Jesus never fails, and that he loves you unconditionally.

Pastor Art