This is the second of a 6-part introduction to Living Well. If you haven’t read the first – you can find it here.

In the previous post, I shared a little of the story of how the Living Well adventure began. Over the next few weeks we will begin to unpack the 4 Living Well rhythms that I feel God has been drawing my attention to and gently encouraging me to press into. But before we get to that, I just want to pause and consider the importance of the ‘unforced rhythms of Grace’ that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5.

As a teacher, one of the values I am most passionate about is creating space to make mistakes. I often tell my students that if they are getting everything right ALL of the time, then I am doing a pretty rubbish job as I am only teaching what they already know. As Albert Einstein once said “A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.” Making mistakes is a healthy part of growth and development. I know that – but I also recognise that, if I am honest with myself, it’s a truth that I haven’t fully grasped for myself. My family will tell you, I am not the best at getting things wrong!!! The grace that I so actively encourage in others is often in short supply for myself.

Over the years, that has definitely been true in my spiritual life. Times when my spaces of prayer and reading the bible have been thin on the ground have caused me to feel increasingly inadequate which, in turn, makes me feel less like pressing in to God – and it easily becomes a downward spiral. I have come to learn that that shame is NOT from God and holds me back from the life-giving joy, acceptance and encouragement that is found in relationship with Jesus.

And so, as I learn what it means to walk in step with the unforced rhythms of Grace offered to me by my Father God, I am learning to do it kindly – with grace!

Philippians 1:6 says that ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus.’ God knows and accepts that I am a work in progress and I need to be OK with that too!! As John the Baptist said, ‘He must increase, I must decrease’ – and that means laying down any pride I have, that can be easily bruised when I feel anything less than perfect, and pressing fully into the grace and love of Jesus – confident that I am loved as I am!

‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’

Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

And so, Living Well, for me, is a journey. The 4 rhythms that I am exploring are rhythms that I can see through scripture are life-giving and good for the soul! The invitation in Matthew 11 is to watch how Jesus does it – to walk with Him and work with Him, following His unforced rhythms of grace – and the rhythms that I feel God has drawn to my attention are all modelled for us as we look at the life of Jesus and learn from how He did it. We are not having to work this out for ourselves – we can learn from the expert – we simply need to plant our feet in the well-worn footsteps of Jesus as we keep company with Him.

We are not having to work this out for ourselves – we can learn from the expert – we simply need to plant our feet in the well-worn footsteps of Jesus as we keep company with Him.

How do I feel about getting things wrong? Are there areas of my life that I know aren’t right but that I am working hard to try to fix? What might it look like to invite Jesus into those areas?