The pop-up sauna was in a purpose-built gypsy caravan,
situated in a quiet industrial landscape. Outside sat three barrels of icy
water. Mhairi enthusiastically coached me to soak in the sweltering heat of the
sauna for ten or so minutes, and then emerge into the open air to plunge into one
of the barrels of cold water.
You have to submerge all the way to the base of your skull,
she advised, because you want the icy water to reach your vagus nerve. That will
have the effect of resetting your whole nervous system.
Hmm. I’m not sure I would know if my nervous system had a
reset, but in fact, the experience was more pleasant than it sounds and I slept
better that night than I normally do.
A week of 24/7 prayer commences in our church buildings on
Monday. A team will gather on Sunday to set up the designated room with prayer
stations, offering a variety of foci designed to stimulate contemplation,
adoration, petition, penitence – whatever the participant needs and wants.
This is an opportunity to reset a weary spiritual system,
exhausted with the ways of the world and struggling to find beauty and peace.
There is no need for coaching. Jesus invites us, ‘Come to
me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’ Yes, we can
come to him all the time wherever we are, but there is something special about
going into a room set up as a trysting place to meet the lover of our souls. I
anticipate that it will hit the vagus nerve of my spiritual system, so I have
signed up multiple times.
I am eager and longing for that deep refreshing found only
in Jesus’ presence.
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