March Retreat Recap
We arrived with expectation and left lighter.
St. Dorothy’s Rest in Camp Meeker, CA became sacred ground for us. Peaceful walks beneath towering redwoods, unhurried conversation, and the kind of silence that does not feel empty but full shaped our time. All 29 of us gathered together, each carrying different responsibilities, apprehensions, and interior burdens. Some came as seasoned retreatants, familiar with the rhythm. Others arrived for the first time, unsure of what awaited them.
What became evident almost immediately was this:
God knew how to meet each woman exactly where she was.
With just 24 hours together, every moment was intentionally held. The schedule made room for teaching, small group reflection, shared meals, and extended quiet. Each element worked together to create space not just for rest, but for encounter.
We were nourished in every sense of the word.
Chef Sara and Miranda prepared meals that felt like care on a plate. The food was delicious, thoughtful, and offered with love. Sam, our host for the weekend, embodied a kind of hospitality that did more than accommodate us. It welcomed us. It reflected Christ in a quiet, attentive, and generous way.
We were gently held.
My dear friend, Cindi Fong, offered the gift of spiritual direction throughout the retreat. This is a sacred and often underutilized practice, particularly within many African American church traditions. Her presence was steady and discerning. She came alongside each woman not as an authority over, but as a companion with. In those quiet, one-on-one spaces, something began to give way.
Tears fell.
Walls softened.
God began the deep, interior work of repair.
🌿 The Theme: Surrender and Trust
The invitation of the retreat was simple, but not easy.
Surrender and trust.
Our anchor text was the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. It was not an obvious choice. In fact, it was a passage I wrestled with for weeks, unsure if this could truly be the place where Jesus would speak something life-giving to us.
But He did.
What emerged was not condemnation, but clarity.
The parable revealed a pattern that felt uncomfortably familiar. What begins as stewardship slowly drifts into ownership.
What God entrusts, we begin to claim.
What we are meant to tend, we begin to control.
What was always His, we start to call ours.
In that subtle shift, something in us tightens.
🌿 The Movement: From Arrival to Release
Over the course of our time together, we moved through a sacred progression.
Arrival. Awareness. Release. Fruitfulness.
We began by grounding ourselves in truth.
We are not owners. We are entrusted.
The vineyard still belongs to God. Our lives, our callings, our relationships, and our outcomes do not originate with us. They do not ultimately belong to us either.
We are tenants in the Kingdom.
Not abandoned, but entrusted.
This truth is freeing, but it is also confronting.
As we sat with it, another reality surfaced.
We have been holding things too tightly.
🌿 The Drift Into Ownership
What struck us most was not just the rebellion of the tenants in the parable, but how familiar their posture felt.
Ownership rarely begins as defiance. It begins as responsibility.
Over time, stewardship becomes control.
Assignment becomes identity.
Responsibility becomes possession.
Before we realize it, we are no longer tending what God has given. We are protecting it.
We begin grasping.
We begin defending.
The parable names this clearly.
Grasping is a form of spiritual violence.
It is the quiet insistence that says, this is mine. I deserve this. I am in control here.
In our small groups, we began to name it honestly.
Where have I tightened my grip?
Where have I claimed ownership?
What am I protecting that was never mine to keep?
🌿 Respecting the Son
The turning point of the retreat came in a single, piercing line from the parable.
“They will respect my son.”
It is a line filled with both hope and heartbreak.
Even after rejection, even after resistance, the owner still sends the son. He sends him believing he will be received.
That is the mercy of God.
Yet the tenants could not recognize him.
He was not hidden.
Their vision had been distorted.
They did not just want the vineyard. They wanted control, authority, and inheritance.
In doing so, they lost the ability to recognize the very one to whom it all belonged.
We began to see the truth clearly.
When we claim ownership, we stop recognizing Jesus.
This does not always happen in loud or obvious ways. It often happens in quiet displacement.
We manage what belongs to Him.
We protect what was never ours.
We center ourselves in a story that was never about us.
The question lingered in the room.
Are there places in my life where I have not recognized the Lord?
🌿 The Sacred Work of Release
From there, we were invited into silence.
Not as an escape, but as a return.
With journals open and hands slowly loosening, we began the sacred work of surrender.
“Jesus, I hand back ______.”
What emerged in those hours was both tender and weighty.
There were things we had been holding for years.
Roles we had over-identified with.
Outcomes we had tried to control.
Stories we had carried as if they were ours to resolve.
One by one, we began to release them.
Not out of fear, but out of trust.
🌿 Handing It Back
In our final session, we were reminded of a truth that reframed everything.
What Jesus asks for becomes the foundation for what He builds in us.
He is not taking from us to leave us empty. He is receiving from us so that He can form something deeper.
He collects, and then He cultivates.
He receives surrender, and then He produces fruit.
This means we can let go.
The vineyard is safe with Him.
🌸 We Left Lighter
By the time we gathered for our final moments together, something had shifted.
Not everything was resolved.
Not every question was answered.
But the grip had loosened.
There was a softness where there had been tension.
A peace where there had been striving.
A quiet trust where there had been control.
We left lighter.
🌿 An Invitation to Our Next Retreat
If what you’ve read resonates, if you sense that there are places in your life you have been holding too tightly, or areas where God is inviting you into deeper trust, I want to personally invite you to join us for our next Rhythms of Repair Retreat, June 11–13.
This is not just a getaway.
It is sacred space for God to meet you in a real and personal way.
He will reveal what has been carried.
He will invite you into surrender.
He will begin the slow and beautiful work of repair.
You do not have to do this work alone.
Come.
Let me know you’re interested in the June retreat!
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