Sabbatical? ... Yes and no ...Well after coming back to Australia from a brief break in the US and Korea, I definately feel I need to take a break this year ... at least from what I've been doing before. Mike and I have both been realizing that we need to learn how to "relax" and not always be in "intense" mode all the time in our lives.
A book that we're both reading right now [The Power of Full Engagement] has been a great guide for us to learn how to do this. It looks at a new paradigm of handling time and energy ... here's a sample:
Old Paradigm // New Paradigm
Manage time // Manage energy
Life is a marathon // Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is wasted time // Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance // Purpose fuels performance
Self-discipline rules // Rituals rule
Power in positive thinking // Power in full engagement
Manage time // Manage energy
Life is a marathon // Life is a series of sprints
Downtime is wasted time // Downtime is productive time
Rewards fuel performance // Purpose fuels performance
Self-discipline rules // Rituals rule
Power in positive thinking // Power in full engagement
Learning how to have a day (and times throughout the day) to fully "detach" from my usual work will benefit more in the long-term strength and energy for my work. But I think these concepts are for only certain personality types. If you naturally "take breaks" most of the week, then you might need to read a different kind of book =P ... I think this is definately a must-read for workaholics/intense/goal-oriented people though.
Anyways ... though I have begun a sabbatical from pastoral ministry, I'll be helping start up Crossing Borders (an N K mission agency) for Australia. For those who have expressed interest in helping pioneer this new branch into Australia, we'll be having an introductory meeting at my place on Thursday night. I would love your prayer support for this new exciting pioneering work in seeking to bring hope and restoration for the people of N. Korea.
Another prayer request would be for wisdom, strength and insight in a writing project I'm helping out with. President Kim's wife of Handong University has asked me to re-write and edit the English version of her biography book that was a best-seller in Korea for Christian books. It's a pretty huge project so I'm going to need some major prayer support in this process. The book has been used to touch thousands of people already, and they hope the English version will help bring this amazing testimony to a wider audience ... so there's a bit of pressure there, but I'm not stressing too much over it (so far).
It's been great having Mike here too these past couple of weeks ... we've been doing through similar ups and downs last year but we're slowing getting back on our feet ... and one thing I know for sure is that I'm going to need a lot of restored energy before getting back into pastoral ministry ... thus my sabbatical.
So there's a bit of a 'formal' update on what's going on with me and my pseudo-sabbatical. =)
 | Currently Reading The Power of Full Engagement : Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal By Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz |
2 comments:
heya Eddie. :)
"rituals rule", I don't really get that... but anywayz~ haha
hope you are relaxing well~! have a great day!
Hey EBae,
Hope you're not too embarrassed by the picture of you in my last post :) hee hee ... but I must say I was so nicely surprised to see you taking that step of faith to serve in that way. As always, I was *very* proud of you :)
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