All in Sabbatical Sketches

The Power of Ritual

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

On Wednesday, I went to the midweek Eucharist service at St. Bart’s Episcopal. It was a short, simple, and meaningful 30 minute service. Guided by the Book of Common Prayer, we stood up, knelt, read scripture, and prayed together. As the one non-Episcopalian in the room, I was always a beat behind but not in a way that made me feel embarrassed.

One of the aspects of these rituals that I appreciate is that it does not allow those in the pews to be passive observers to the service. We do not just hear someone offer up prayers from a pulpit, but we all kneel in prayer. We do not simply listen to someone speak of God’s grace, but we say words of confession and then are reminded that God forgives us. The liturgy of the service was a literal work of the people.

I am a bit of a worship omnivore. I love the use of creative arts and spontaneity in church. Indeed, I often miss the high energy of bands leading in worship that I experienced for so many years serving at summer camps. But I also feel a deep connection to these ancient practices of reading and kneeling together. It allows me to jump into the river current of the church and be moved with those around me. There is something in those rituals that can resonate deeply.

Monday Mixtape: The 60s

Chris Cox
Monday Mixtape, Sabbatical Sketches

A few months back, I realized two things: 1. My sons get along a lot better when we listened to music on the way to school; 2. They have not had wide exposure to music. So we started doing theme weeks where would listen to an artist, genre, or decade in the car on the way to and from school. Each Monday for the next few weeks, I am going to whittle down one of those playlists of 40-60 songs into a 12-14 song playlist. This is Monday Mixtape.

The 60s
The 60s playlist was the first decade that we did in our car-based music education series and it is our youngest son’s absolute favorite. There have been times when I’ve had to go run an errand and asked Liam if he wanted to go with me. If he waffled, all I had to say was, “You can listen to the 60s playlist” and he was in. As such, his favorite song will be on this list. These are in order by the year they were released.

1. “Runaround Sue” by Dion (1961)

On one hand, I feel bad for kicking off this list with this song since it follows the tired trope of the girl who dates a bunch of the other guys. If a guy went around dating a bunch of girls, he would get a song celebrating his magic with the ladies. But the music just moves; doowop evolved into something actually cool. When I was growing up, our family would typically listen to either Christian music or the Oldies station and even as a 6 year old I would have told you that “Runaround Sue” was a jam.

2. “My Girl” by The Temptations (1964)

It’s the first song EA and I danced to at our wedding. It’s my ringtone for her (even though like a good millennial, my ringtone has been on silent for about 12 years). It is simply a pop masterpiece. When those strings take off right before the key change and the last verse? It’s magical. Plus “When it’s cold outside / I’ve got the month of May”? That is the month of my wife’s birth.

3. “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” by Stevie Wonder (1965)

This song is on the list purely for the reason that the jubilant horns in this song are how joy sounds in my head. It’s really hard to feel down when those things hit.

Walk Before You Run

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

One of my goals during this sabbatical is to re-ground myself. When life is going a hundred miles a hour, it is easy to get swept up in the next thing that has to be accomplished. I am going to try to slow down and do those things that resonate with who I am.

Ironically, one of the ways that I am hoping to slow down is to run. In addition to being a physical exercise, running has always been a spiritual and mental practice for me. I feel more like myself when I get to run regularly; when I first moved to Nashville it was 3 or 4 runs a week of 4-5 miles. Since Covid that regularity has eroded to a 5K run every week or two.

When my therapist asked me what I was going to do on my first day of sabbatical, I replied that I was going to drop my kids off at school and go for a run. I wanted to get out there and get going.

I did not get out there and get going yesterday morning; at least not in that way. I like to believe this is a sign of maturity. When I was younger and I would go for a run after a long layoff, I would push myself and then I would run sprints afterwards. I would be panting with my hands on my knees saying out loud, “Christopher (my reasonable voice calls me “Christopher”), why are you doing this?” And then I would respond super dramatically, “Because I can.” Then I’d will myself to do another sprint. It was dumb, but you can often get away with dumb when you’re in your early 20s.

Begin Again

Begin Again

Chris Cox
Sabbatical Sketches

I am going to try something that I haven’t done in quite some time. In fact, I don’t think many people do it much anymore: blogging. Remember blogs? They were kind of big in the 2000s; like podcasts that you read. It was great.

I remember firing up my first blog on Blogspot when I was just out of college. Was it named after a line in a Jars of Clay song that my 22 year old self thought was incredibly deep? Yes. Does that song still make me tear up if it catches me at the right moment? Also yes. Does that blog still exist on the internet? Horrifyingly yes. Am I going to link to it? Heck no. You’re going to have to hunt down the ramblings of my early 20s yourself.

I wrote fairly consistently for about a decade, but fell out of the regular habit when I moved to Nashville to take a job as a youth minister. And I have missed it. Writing about faith, life, and the often nerdy thoughts that amble through my mind was a way to ground myself and reckon with a world that can often bewilder me. It was also an essential part of my relationship with God, a spiritual practice that nourished me.