Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Over the course of a now long career, Sabbath has been hard for me. Inactivity seems lame. I feel like people are suspicious of me if I am caught doing nothing! I like being active, getting things done, being productive. And I’ve been greatly rewarded for it with promotions, raises and various kinds of visibility, etc. Of course these rewards can too easily become incentives, making us more addicted to work, to showing how important we are by showing how we are really busy!
But this mindset reveals what I really desire. And Sabbath is a standard way of becoming aware of our real desires. It gives us the time, space and ability to reorganize them, to follow the wisdom of Proverbs 4.23:
Put everything you have into the care of your heart for it determines what your life amounts to.
In my brief “year-end review” retreat in December of 2015, I felt God say to me that 2016, the year I turn sixty, was to be for me a year of Sabbaths; of daily and weekly pauses to cultivate an inner stillness, of being still and knowing that God is God. With gratitude to the Executive Leadership Team of C4SO, I am delighted to announce that this summer will be for me just such a season of renewal and rest.
When I Will Be Gone
I start my sabbatical June 17. I will return to work on September 1.
What I Will Be Doing
I am also happy to say that nothing is wrong: I am not burned out or sick. This is not about Debbie’s ongoing health challenges. This sabbatical is long-dreamed and we have been planning it for many months. I am simply trying to practice what I preach: to find a lifestyle wherein I work from a deliberately cultivated and essential inner rest and do not always rest from work!
I will not be going anywhere special. Though living in beautiful Southern California, I might do some day trips with Debbie and the kids. Mostly I will be reflecting, reading and writing in my new backyard office.
Bishop Todd’s backyard office
InterVarsity Press has asked me to submit a book proposal. Over the last few months, I have been working to gather fodder for the book through the learning communities I hosted. There is no deadline, so I can study and write in peace. I actually enjoy the process.
Who Will Fulfill My Responsibilities
My staff will continue to operate as usual, and you can contact them directly. Most day-to-day questions can be sent to The Rev. Canon Kimberley Pfeiler, our Canon to the Ordinary. She’ll either answer directly, or connect you with the right resources. Questions or concerns that you would normally bring to me directly can be sent to The Very Reverend David Roseberry, Dean of the Diocese.
How You Can Pray for Me
I am thankful to know that many of you will want to pray for me, and here are three places to focus your prayers:
- That I can make the most of being able to be more attentive to Debbie and to my children who have had a father on the road most of their lives.
- That this sabbatical would be an effective and anointed investment in the next 15 – 20 years of my working life.
- For the book proposal: that I can find the right voice and organize the material effectively.
It’s a joy to serve the Lord and you as your bishop, and I’m thankful for the awesome team around me. You’ll be in good hands while I’m gone. I look forward to returning with a renewed ability to be present, engaged and fruitful. It is rare that I get to sit and think deeply about things, and I am looking forward to that rare gift as the means to yielding all things in my own life and in the diocese to God’s ordering and approval.
Grace and peace,
Todd