Fermata Oct 8, 2021: Physical Needs Connect to Spiritual Needs

Fermata is the weekly newsletter describing some of the past week’s highlights from Notes of Rest, which is my spiritual retreat ministry that interweaves text, music, and questions for the sake of cultivating stillness, introspection, and creativity in communities so that all may rest. I'd love to host a Notes of Rest for your church, seminary, or affinity group. Feel free to reply to this email to start the conversation!

John 4:7-15
 
This week’s Fermata comes from Notes of Rest at for the Health of the Public, which happened last month for an Emory graduate class comprised of students from Candler School of Theology and Rollins School of Public Health.  I wanted to help these ministers and public health advocates in training sit with the relationship between bodily needs and spiritual needs, a link shown in the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus' conversation began with the physical need for water, but then mushroomed into the spiritual conversation about Jesus' presence as living water himself. The text and music helped students discover and recover appreciation for their own bodies and how their physical needs connected them to God and even their enemies.

How is your life's physical needs pointing you towards your spiritual needs in this season? And in our increasingly polarized climate, what is Jesus showing you that your people share with your enemy?

May The Lord who thirsts for righteousness connect your body to your soul this week. To help you draw that bridge, here's I've Got a River of Life.

abundantly,
Julian