{"id":396,"date":"2020-02-05T21:11:31","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2020\/02\/03\/taking-a-break-from-the-relentless\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T20:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:17:42","slug":"taking-a-break-from-the-relentless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/taking-a-break-from-the-relentless\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Break from the Relentless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunday\u2019s Chicago Tribune published a column by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary Schmich, entitled Where do we find relief in a relentlessly jangling world?<\/em><\/a> It resonated with me. Clearly, she and I live in the same news-soaked environment. My guess is that you do too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She begins, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It\u2019s relentless, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you read the sentence above, what popped to mind? What is the \u201cit\u201d that just won\u2019t stop, that won\u2019t give you a break, that makes it hard to breathe and think?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Part of \u201cit,\u201d she thinks, might be the current spate of fear-inducing news topics \u2013 to which each of us can add our own deadlines and anxieties. \u201cFear,\u201d she writes, \u201cmakes everything seem more relentless.\u201d Then she adds that our incessant connectedness likely contributes to a sense of being trapped by it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On her way to a suggested coping mechanism, Schmich remembers reading an article that cited the psychological benefits of partitions on airplanes, those drapes that separate first class from economy. Allegedly, they give us folks in coach the illusion of space, the impression that we\u2019re not trapped, the possibility of having someplace to go that isn\u2019t Seat 32E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schmich thinks we need to figure out how to provide our own partitions in order to occasionally screen out the relentlessness of life. I can\u2019t agree more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many benefits of my work here at Valpo is the break that I am obliged to take every weekday morning at 10 a.m. Granted,\u00a0Morning Prayer\u00a0is not required, but let\u2019s face it, I\u2019m a pastor on this campus. Prayer and worship are supposed to be my thing. How weird would it be if I sat in my office answering email while the people gathered\u00a0right next door?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, even though I, like most people on campus, don\u2019t have any direct responsibilities to make Morning Prayer happen (I have dedicated and talented colleagues that serve in that way), I feel obligated to leave my desk in the Helge Center at 9:55 every day that I\u2019m on campus and head over to the Chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s such a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that some on campus are constrained by their responsibilities from taking this break with me. I get that. But for those who are not, allow me to suggest that if you\u2019re feeling \u201cjangled\u201d as Mary Schmich describes it, 20 minutes daily might be part of the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy. We walk over, we sit down and the praying and singing start happening around us. For a few minutes in the middle of the morning, there\u2019s nothing else going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve even taken to going without my phone. It\u2019s weird, but it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr. Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deaconess Kristin Lewis and University Pastor James Wetzstein take turns writing weekly reflections.<\/em> You can contact Deaconess Kristin here<\/a> and Pastor Jim here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s Chicago Tribune published a column by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary Schmich, entitled Where do we find relief in a relentlessly jangling world? It resonated with me. Clearly, she and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-a-wetzstein","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/06\/20151211-FJA-Christmas-Advent-Vespers-018-300x200.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 5, 2020","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 5, 2020 9:11 pm","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025 8:17 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12039,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/12039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}