Area to consider
Values and behaviours are in tensionYou hold influence lightly. You're willing to lead when it matters and step back when it doesn't. You can trust others with decisions even when you think you might do it differently. You have a sense of what you're here for, and it shapes how you live and the decisions you make. You hold it with some flexibility – it's a direction, not a script. However, although you believe in freedom, you're... Show full
You hold influence lightly. You're willing to lead when it matters and step back when it doesn't. You can trust others with decisions even when you think you might do it differently. You have a sense of what you're here for, and it shapes how you live and the decisions you make. You hold it with some flexibility – it's a direction, not a script. However, although you believe in freedom, you're... Show full
To be human is to participate and make a difference in the world.
“What is my life actually for?” is a question many of us ask.
It sounds like a big, abstract question. But it shows up in really ordinary moments: in what you choose to study, in how you use your time, in what you dream about.
The Purpose section of Ethos explores just that, our purpose: how we participate in the world around us and how we use the power and influence we have. It looks at the meaning of life, exploring what we’re here for.
We live in a culture that tells us freedom is the goal. Your life is yours. Do what makes you happy and build the life you want. But many people find that more freedom and options actually create anxiety – if you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone, how do you know what is right? What if there was a bigger story to plant our story in, that helped make sense of what we were to do with our lives?
Below is a spiritual practice to help you explore that.
Start with the spiritual practice of Sabbath
Building in a regular practice of resting and restoration can help you recalibrate and reorient your life.
Have you ever had a day off and felt worse by the end of it? Scrolled for hours, suddenly it’s evening and you feel more drained than when you started. That’s because not all rest is equal. Counterfeit rest numbs us. Real rest renews us. And most of us have never really learned how to rest.
Stopping feels risky. If I slow down, will I fall behind? Will things unravel? Will I miss out? So even on our days off, we’re never really off. Most of us are exhausted a lot of the time but we don’t know what to do about it.
Sabbath is an ancient practice, and it might be exactly what we’ve been missing. The word simply means to stop. It appears right at the very beginning of the Bible, woven into the story of creation itself. God works and then God rests. Not because he’s tired but because rest is built into the design of everything. It’s not a reward. It’s not an afterthought. It’s part of how life is meant to be lived.
Sabbath makes us ask the questions: what if the weight of the world doesn’t rest on my shoulders? What if life isn’t something we have to hold together on our own?
So, try this: block off one day, or even half a day, this week. No work, no life admin, no social media. Just the things that bring you life – being outside, eating good food, time with people you love.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
There is so much more to discover, so click on the button to start your four-week journey on the practice of Sabbath.