Alan Fadling - A Year of Slowing Down: Daily Devotions for Unhurried Living

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400 | Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

2022 by Alan Fadling

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations labeled BCP 1979 are from the Book of Common Prayer, copyright 1979 by the Episcopal Church in the United States. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled BCP 2019 are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019), copyright 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Cover design and image composite: Cindy Kiple

ISBN 978-1-5140-0319-0 (digital)

ISBN 978-1-5140-0318-3 (print)

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TO RICHARD E. FADLING
My father, who always modeled
a love of reading good books and imparted that love to me.
I dedicate this book to him in his eighty-fourth year.

AND TO WAYNE ANDERSON
(19402008)
With gratitude for his mentoring influence in my life,
showing me the way to live, serve, lead, and breathe deep in
the atmosphere of Gods measureless grace.

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. (Genesis 2:2-3)

THIS IS THE LAST WORD in the first creation story of Genesis. Gods blessing of the seventh day as space to rest is a holy moment. Sabbath is the culmination of the creation story. We live in a culture that sometimes sees rest as a necessary evil to be minimized as much as possible. Or it sees rest as the moment we run out of gas for any more work. But rest isnt an absence of goodness. It is space to stop our working, enjoy Gods goodness, and rest in his presence.

Resting is hard work. It requires strong personal leadership to say no once a week to measuring our lives by what we produce. It takes intentionality to slow down and cease our striving to achieve, acquire, and impress others and simply enjoy what God has given us. But God calls this Sabbath gift a holy thing.

Ive sensed a daily invitation alongside this weekly Sabbath call. The creation story that starts our Scriptures describes the days of creation in a way that feels different. As each day of creation ends, we hear that there was evening, and there was morning. This way of envisioning a day places rest first.

Ive been experimenting with seeing my workdays as beginning with rest rather than ending in a collapse after a long day. My various practices of numbing, escaping, or avoiding dont bear good fruit. Im finding it more fruitful when my work grows out of places of soul rest.

How do you find yourself escaping, self-distracting, or numbing in the evening? How might God invite you to enjoy rest in his presence in the hours before you go to bed?