{"id":3942,"date":"2008-08-19T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2008-08-19T16:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/?p=3942"},"modified":"2008-08-19T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2008-08-19T16:48:34","slug":"unforced-rhythms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/unforced-rhythms\/","title":{"rendered":"Unforced rhythms"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.<\/strong> I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwatch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.<\/strong> I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Matthew 11:28-30<\/p>\n

HT to Headphonaught<\/a><\/p>\n

What a great image of God and Jesus. <\/p>\n

“Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I remember in elementary school I was in the band. I played snare drum simply because I couldn’t play a wind or brass instrument thanks to my orthodontist work. When I first started out, I had to force the rhythm at times. I had to work on getting it right. But as I became familiar with the song and the drum, it became easier. Suddenly it wasn’t forced. It was natural.<\/p>\n

The same happened when I took piano lessons. The more I did it, the less forced it was. The more natural it became. Now years later, it’s a real effort for me to sit and read music. There are a few songs that still come naturally to me – but don’t ask me to read the music for it – I’ll be lost in an instant. It’s because I’m out of practice and now what may have been unforced rhythm takes a lot of effort.<\/p>\n

Throughout life I see this pattern over and over again.<\/p>\n

Imagine grace becoming such a thing we’re so used to giving and receiving that it just comes natural. It’s just a natural rhythm of life. It isn’t a pain to give when asked. It isn’t a forced effort to smile at someone we’re not particularly found of. It isn’t unusual to accept the unacceptable or the unloved.<\/p>\n

When grace becomes an unforced rhythm of life – suddenly we love those who least expect it and love those who lease deserve it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine what would happen if grace became an unforced rhythm of life just as music was to Evan in the movie August Rush<\/em>? What if it just flowed from us each and every day?<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“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\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwatch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on … Continue reading Unforced rhythms<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,8],"tags":[1405,1406,556,1407,1375],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-verse-quote-of-the-day","tag-burden","tag-light","tag-religion","tag-rest","tag-verse"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-11A","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}