Mind-Full of Jesus= Peace
How did last weeks 10000MINUTES practice go?
Every time you see, hear, taste, or smell something Christmassy, thank God for EMMANUEL, God With Us!
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One of the favorite practices that we did this past year, was when we gave purpose to our every breath. We would breathe in something like “You Are God”, and when we’d breathe out we’d pray “& I Am Not” (or something like that). It was so helpful for me to stay in a constant place of surrender and perspective.
One of the big buzzwords these days is Mindfulness. The issue is not about us being mindful in our waking hours, but what we are mindful of. We are all mindful about something, (FB or INSTA likes, our phones, looks, status, wants, needs,...), so what do we want to be mindful about? What do we want to intentionally focus our attention and care on?
Please don’t let me lose you by this next line because it seems too simplistic. The more that we are mind-full of Jesus, the more that peace, hope, and love will become the natural rhythms of our days. This Christmas, through the Emmanuel-ness of Jesus, one of the main gifts that we find, get, or are invited into is PEACE.
We could do a whole year on Biblical peace (peace as a noun, verb, adjective, etc.), and probably should, but we are going to simplify it for this week. The word Shalom was the hello and goodbye of that day. Peace and Shalom are technically synonyms, but weak at that. I think of peace as rest and no war, but Shalom contains these and so much more. One of the main words for Shalom is wholeness or to be complete and whole.
Think about that in the context of Christmas. The main message of the American Christmas tradition is that we are not complete, we don’t have enough and NEED more. And the more that our minds are full of that message, well, the more that we lose Shalom. Jesus THE MESSIAH brought Shalom/Peace/Wholeness, and because of Jesus, Emmanuel, God With Us, God In and Through Us, we can simply REST!
I don’t know about you, but I am already feeling the slam of this crazy season and it’s just the first week of December. This season we are bringing the breathing practice back.
10000MINUTES Practice:
In the midst of the craziness and rush, practice Shalom through your breathing.
Breathe In: EMMANUEL
Breathe Out: GOD WITH US
I guarantee more Shalom, more Jesus, more wholeness by the end of this practice!
Text “10k” to “55678” if you want weekly text reminders to your phone. We’ll be sending out a few encouragements a week to help you practice Jesus all week long!