People may look at my life from the outside and think I am too busy. I’m a therapist, I help lead worship and organize the welcome team at TRU. I am a Big Sister to Adelle. I volunteer with Homestead. I work out 4 times a week and am learning kickboxing. I have elderly parents and grandkids who need me. I’m writing a novel. I sing in a band and do some of their social media.
Then I have days like today with virtually nothing on my schedule. Intentionally. To find balance. God is teaching me how to balance, how to prioritize, how to be present in this moment and let Him lead the next. How to give up busyness, distraction, striving, pleasing.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “You cannot give what you don’t have.” This is so true.
Every morning I get up an hour before I have to start getting ready for the day. I spend that time alone with God. Not doing. Just being. I’m learning that its okay to prioritize me. To rest. To renew. To just be.
I’ve written about Whispers of Rest, the devotional I am going through for a second time to soak up the truths here. I am letting this sink in at a new level: “Its okay not to be all things to all people all of the time by ourselves.” I think I really felt that way as a school social worker.
2 Corinthians 1:4 says “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”
I used to think that meant just that we go through difficulties so that we can better empathize with others’ difficulties. That is true. But as I do therapy, the one thing I see more than anything else is that people are too busy! They/we are so caught up in this culture that teaches us we have to DO constantly. We spend hours on our screens. We do this long enough and it messes up our health, our mental health, our actual brain chemistry. We were not created for this world.
Bonnie Gray writes, “When you come to a fork in the road today–between choosing the quiet or filling it up, by performing, pleasing, or disappearing–stop…Enjoy something no one would be able to point at and say, ‘Look. She did something.'”
Be instead of Do.
Be quiet. Be loved. Just soak up His quiet love.
“The Lord is with you. He will take great delight in you: He will quiet you with His love.” Zechariah 3:17
Stop worrying, planning, doing, distracting, pushing, controlling, rushing…. Just listen to what He has to say to you. In this moment.
We are conditioned to be busy instead of loved. He provides all we need. For this moment.
Intentional quiet. Trust.
You don’t have to be strong. Just loved.
“In repentance and rest you will be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
I plan to take my own advice as soon as I finish this blog post. Lol. No, really, I’m sitting here in my robe, a to do list before me, a whole day before me. Sheets to wash, appointments to make, people who need me.
But I choose rest. Renewal. This moment.
And who knows after that? Maybe I’ll go back to bed. I will wait and see all that God has for me in the next moment.
Right now I choose to be. In this moment.
dianegclark 