THE SHAPE OF THE RHYTHM

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

My daughter, Melanie asked me, the other night at supper what this new life/ ministry rhythm I have been talking about will look like in real time.

I suppose, I am going to really begin learning what it looks like next week, when I return to full time work, but I have been giving some thought to the shape of the rhythm as I walk out these final days of this October sabbatical.

I have never been very successful at fitting ministry into a rigid structure or shape so when I think of the future of my personal ministry rhythm I do not think of it like a triangle, square, cube or pyramid.

Glowing cube and triangular shapes floating amid colorful stars

I have always seen ministry as complex pattern of interconnected threads that move in and through the world I inhabit, some of which I connect directly to and others which I connect to only through a series of other threads that come across mine.

Repeating ornate pattern with peacocks, leaves, vines, paisleys, and glowing accents

Ministry rhythm to me is a battle between math and music. It is structure for a thing that must be limited, for the sake of the one doing it, but that doesn’t want to be limited by time or space.

Fierce musician battling an equation-covered automaton in a magical library

Ministry rhythm is about a schedule but it not JUST about scheduling; It’s about values and distractions, urgent things and important things; It’s about legacy, living in the moment and releasing what’s important into the right hands that will take up the stewardship of things left behind; It’s about the moment and the millennium; It’s about the beat I am currently playing and the acknowledgment that I am working through a whole symphony of movements that I need to be aware of because the whole effects the page of music I am now playing and vice versa.

Two travelers follow glowing musical notes through an enchanted forest toward mountains

OK, that is a fairly chaotic explanation. SO WHAT IS THE SHAPE OF WHAT’S NEXT? Right now this is the best I can come up with.

Surfers and volunteers on boards; visible text reads “VOLUNTEERS” and “3027-2028.”

I suppose that doesn’t help you much… but it helps me a bit.

MOVING IN…

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I have just finished my morning gauntlet of prayer and study. I am moving in to the rest of my day and further into the rhythm that will be 2027 and 2028.

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

These last days of sabbatical are the beginning of a new practice that will probably take the rest of 2026 to work into the fibers of my being.

Yesterday I took my sister to the Irish Festival at the Winchendon Community Park for her birthday.

We listened to some amazing music and did some window shopping at the booths. We shared bangers and mash and Guiness beef stew, apple cider and apple fritters. Then we finished the day with cake and ice cream at home with the kids. It was a great day.

As the day came to its finish line, I walked the dogs and closed in the chickens making sure Hen Solo was with her sisters before locking the coop gate. It was an early night to bed and I realized as I laid my head to the pillow that I had not followed the rhythm as planned. I had not planned for the expectations of others. I had not considered alternative pathways to move into the evening gauntlet of prayer and study. I had not taken an aside from the festivities of the day to pray for even ten minutes.

I have prayed today that Jesus would help me move in to the rhythm He has shown me as my next step. I have asked Him to show me how to fold the rhythm into the life He has given me, how to adapt this life and its demands to the life He is bringing me into. The way lies before me. Learning and wisdom are the prayers of my heart. I ask without doubting that I will have the learning and wisdom and that what He wants will be established.

HEN SOLO

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

This was one of those late autumn mornings when the last leaves are falling like rain on the lawn. The air is filled with gold and red drops the size of playing cards and that unique autumn air quality that reminds me of pumpkins passing and the threat of snowflakes.

As I went to open the chicken coops and pour the feed into the feeding pans, I was greeted by one of our black australorps who for the second night running has hidden during the chicken closing time at night and has spent the night by herself outside the coop.

I am calling her Hen Solo. She seems none the worse for wear this morning, but the winter is coming and I know I am going to have to watch out for her. Soon the weather will make her self isolating behavior dangerous.

WEANING OFF….

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Sabbatical is coming to an end. ..one lap left around the track.

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God has already told me that this last week will be about establishing the things ,He has spoken to me, into a daily practice.

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This day started at 2 A.M. as is my habit with a time of basking in prayer. Then came the day’s opening and what I will call the morning gauntlet: ten minutes of reading, 10 minutes of prayer, 10 minutes of reading 10 minutes of prayer 10 minutes of exercise, 10 minutes of prayer. After this was breakfast and morning prayer. Then family time. Then more prayer. Then farm and household chores. Then more prayer. Then exercise. Then administration. Then more prayer. Then animal care. Then lunch. Then more prayer. Then family time. Then more administration work and preparation for the next things. Now I will be in prayer here at TWR for about an hour and a half. Then supper. Then the evening gauntlet, which looks a lot like the morning gauntlet.

The rhythm will look a little different tomorrow, but will be more of the same.This is the beginning…the establishment of what is next for me personally so that I may encourage the work corporately. I am waiting to see what God still needs to work in me to establish this new thing. I know this only my very personal part of the change that God will bring about as He moves our church forward in the next two year.

I cannot wait to hear what God is saying to others about what is to come for our church.