Creative Absence

I forget when I first came across the name Christopher Heuertz (which I still have no clue how to pronounce). I think it may have been a video from The Work of the People. He spoke at my alma mater a couple of years ago, but I missed it. But I've been following him on Twitter and reading his stuff for several years now. He seems to be a passionate man.

If you didn't know yet, I'm on sabbatical this summer.  I really appreciated this excerpt from Chris' book. I didn't feel right copying the whole thing here, so you'll have to click on the excerpt to read it, but here is part of it:

"Our communities won’t always be able to offer us everything we need, nor will we be able to give back all that they need from us. This is tricky because sometimes we can’t see it when we’re submerged in community life. The insulation of shared rhythms and life sometimes convolutes our perception. That’s often when we need to step back, to refocus."

Sometimes I wonder "what will happen"while I'm gone - both for me and for the church community while I'm away. I confess that I sometimes have feelings of, "Oh no...What if something goes wrong and I'm not there for it!"

Perhaps those thoughts are exactly the ones for which one might need a period of sabbatical.