Relaxed Intensity

Thanks to all of you who prayed for my week long retreat regarding spiritual formation and leadership issues.  It was a GREAT week.  The best description was that it was a time of "relaxed intensity."  

Every day we set aside time to meditate through scripture together and pray, catch up and talk about the day to day vagaries of being in Christian leadership, and then have intentional times of concretely inviting the others into our lives and struggles.  

We adopted an event oriented schedule where we moved from event to event, letting each event unfold fully before we moved on, regardless of time.  So for 3, non-super-high-extrovert types, having some form of non-stop conversation from 9am to midnight each night was fairly intense.

I can't tell you how important such time is for my soul, and dare I suggest it, for the other spiritual leaders in your life.  Leaders carry unique burdens because of their role as leaders. Throw some personal insecurity and normal "flesh" issues in and then mix that with the demands of family, others and the seeming never ending stream of criticism, complaining or orneriness that is part of the package and you have a context which over years and decades can erode one's soul.  

So thanks for praying for me and others, and if you ever get the chance, let me encourage you to encourage the spiritual leaders in your life to do the same.  They probably need it, even if they don't know it yet.