{"id":433,"date":"2016-02-25T07:29:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T07:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/sarahthebarge\/2016\/02\/2016-02-when-god-comes-down-the-stairs\/"},"modified":"2018-02-09T16:46:41","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T16:46:41","slug":"2016-02-when-god-comes-down-the-stairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sarahthebarge\/2016\/02\/2016-02-when-god-comes-down-the-stairs\/","title":{"rendered":"when God comes down the stairs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m staying with a friend in Minneapolis for a week in between speaking engagements.
\nLast time I was at her place, it was early January.\u00a0 I had spent a month with family over the holidays \u2014 resting, laughing, eating and doing very little writing or public speaking.\u00a0 So during my time in MN\u00a0in January, I had all kinds of energy.<\/p>\n

I spent 3-4 hours each morning reading, praying, journaling, studying and writing.\u00a0 I was excited and inspired, and I began a 30-day intercession experiment.\u00a0 I prayed for several dozen people every day for the next 30 days. \u00a0It was so fun and so life-giving!<\/p>\n

Okay. Fast-forward to now, when I feel like I\u2019m on chronic deadline for a book that\u2019s mostly written and yet<\/a> the rest of it refuses to come, no matter how hard I try to put it down on paper.\u00a0 I spoke five times last week and traveled thousands and thousands of miles.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

I arrived at my friend\u2019s place wanting this experience to be what it was last time. \u00a0 But instead of arriving filled with energy, I slid into her house on fumes.<\/p>\n

I open my Bible and just stare at words that my tired brain is too tired to process.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried writing more of the manuscript, and I\u2019ve made a little progress, but it\u2019s not the stunning, sudden success I was hoping for.<\/p>\n

I feel guilty that I\u2019m not doing more, and that feeling is compounded by the fact that it\u2019s Lent.<\/p>\n

Lent.\u00a0 A word that reminds me of deprivation, sacrifice, suffering and giving something up to stay open to God.<\/p>\n

My heart wants to engage in Lent this year more than ever, but I\u2019m too weary to think about trying, working, suffering\u2026.all of those good -ing words.\u00a0 And I realized, as I\u2019ve been trying to figure out what Lent is about for me this year, that I was trying so hard to get close to God, it was more about me than him.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

I was on a retreat with my church staff a few years ago, and the head pastor started off the retreat by asking a simple question: \u201cWho\u2019s more responsible for your relationship with God \u2014 you or God?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer is clearly God, right?\u00a0 \u201cWe loved him because he first loved us\u2026.\u201d and all the other verses that talk about God initiating and sustaining a relationship with us.<\/p>\n

But I think it\u2019s taken until now for me to \u201cget\u201d it.\u00a0 For me to see that God doesn\u2019t need me to try harder to get closer to him.\u00a0 God is already here, already working, already close.\u00a0 And maybe the best thing I can do is to stop trying so crazy hard.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like drowning victims who are so panicked, they fight the person who\u2019s trying to rescue them.\u00a0 \u00a0 Sometimes, the harder we try, the further we get from where we most need to be.<\/p>\n

So instead, I\u2019ve taken up resting for Lent this year.\u00a0 I met with a nun on Ash Wednesday <\/a>and agreed to do two simple things each day for the next 40 days: 20 minutes of Centering Prayer (which is staying quiet and listening to God instead of doing all the talking), and listing everything I\u2019m thankful for at night.<\/p>\n

And other than that\u2026.I\u2019m going for walks, sleeping, reading novels, listening to music, cooking meals from scratch and having long conversations with good friends.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s humbling to feel like I\u2019m in a place where I have so little to offer, and yet this is the whole point of Lent and the Easter story, right?\u00a0 That even when we were lost, even before we knew who God was, even before we knew how to try, God set things in motion to come after us. \u00a0God pursued us in love, carried\u00a0the world on his back up the hill of Calvary, and then laid down and died for us.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a poem I discovered in college that I\u2019ve been reading and re-reading this week. \u00a0I hope it encourages you, too.<\/p>\n

The Stairs<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Theodosia Pickering Garrison<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

Oh long and dark the stairs I trod,<\/p>\n

with stumbling feet to find my God,<\/p>\n

Gaining a foothold bit by bit<\/p>\n

Then slipping back and losing it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

There came a certain time when I<\/p>\n

Loosened my hold and fell thereby,<\/p>\n

Down to the lowest step my fall<\/p>\n

As if I had not climbed at all.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

And as I lay despairing there,<\/p>\n

there came a footfall on the stairs<\/p>\n

And \u2018lo\u2019 when hope had ceased to be<\/p>\n

My God came down the stairs to me.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>

\"stairs\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Last time I was at her place, it was early January.\u00a0 I had spent a month with family over the holidays \u2014 resting, laughing, eating and doing very little writing or public speaking.\u00a0 So during my time in MN\u00a0in January, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3133,"featured_media":439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2230,2233,2236,2239,2242,2245,451,2248,541,2251],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-stairs","tag-be-still","tag-come-to-me-all-you-who-are-weary-and-heavy-laden","tag-lent","tag-resting","tag-restoration","tag-sacrifice","tag-stairs","tag-surrender","tag-theodosia-pickering-garrison"],"yoast_head":"\nwhen God comes down the stairs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m staying with a friend in Minneapolis for a week in between speaking engagements. 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