Intentional Rest

Have you ever had a moment when you just needed rest?  Solitude?  Quiet?  

A few weeks ago, our church began a series for Lent titled Quiet: Hearing God Amidst the Noise.  I was excited.  Whitespace is something I have been trying to incorporate into my personal life, but also our family life since before our oldest daughter was born.  

This would be encouraging.

Or so I thought...

What followed in the next few weeks were feelings of extreme Overwhelm.  I wanted Quiet, but no matter how much I tried nothing seemed to help.  

Then about a week ago I had a realization...

I was starting to burn out...

Somewhere along the line in the first few months of this year I had begun to feel overwhelmed.  

I was being pulled so many different directions.  

None of them bad, but none of them were cohesive and moving forward together, rather they were all different directions and changed every week!

In 1 Kings 19, we see the story of Elijah... One of my favorite parts of this particular part of Elijah's journey comes in verse 12 where Elijah hears a whisper, and that whisper is God speaking to him.  Since first beginning to invest in Spiritual Whitespace, I have cherished this experience of Elijah's where it emphasizes that God was not in the chaos and loudness, but could only be heard when Elijah stopped and listened.

When our pastor started this series on Quiet, that was my focus.  I wanted the noise to stop so I could get to the quiet.  Then I went back and examined Elijah's story just a little more and noticed something that I had forgotten.  Before Elijah could even be present to hear the whisper, he had to rest.  In verses 3-6, we see that Elijah has a period where he rests, eats and repeats.  Without the rest, Elijah was incapable of hearing God.  

So I made some decisions...

I cut back on nearly everything that I could that wasn't absolutely necessary and if it was something that felt scattered and disorganized I removed myself as much as possible.

When that started I noticed that I stared napping more....

Nearly everyday found me searching for those moments when my body demanded rest.

I said no to good things so I could build my capacity to say yes to better things.

I started listening to more podcasts, reading and spending more time cuddling my girls. 

After about a week of this I am finally starting to feel more like myself.  

The better version of me.

One that is not overwhelmed and pulled too many directions.  

I still notice the need to move slowly, but I can tell that the feeling of burn-out is receding.  

As that happens, I find myself seeing the tiredness that surrounds me.  

The exhaustion as we push to make things happen without stopping to ask if those are even the things God still wants from us.  

We are in the season of Lent.  

I just had the realization that what I gave up during Lent is something I hope to maintain long after its 40 days are over.  

I have given up exhaustion and the "should's" for rest, quiet and the chance to hear God's voice more clearly.

What would that look like for you? 

Would you like to hear God's whisper?

What if for the next two weeks you gave up the crazy demands that drain you and took the time to find moments of rest?

What are ways you could start that today?

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys.... Until It Is...

It's slightly annoying when other people's monkeys become your circus.... It's incredibly irritating when they turn their elephants loose on the crowd that you are in!

~Tonya Schrougham

This last week has been incredibly crazy!  Just when life felt like we were finding a normal, we get hit with a cost increase in a budget area that was not scheduled to change until the beginning of next year.  While one part of me is really happy with my initial reaction to this particular surprise with an insanely short window for adjustment and decision making (I had my worse case scenario plan together within 15 minutes of being informed of this change), I do find myself drifting into the world of worry on occasion.  I do not make decisions lightly so having the pressure to need to readjust with no warning whatsoever and less than two weeks before the cost increase hits is not exactly something I like.  

One thing I am learning during this season in life is that while I LOVE the popular meme that makes the rounds on Facebook and Pinterest:

I am beginning to notice that some people turn their elephants loose on me while I'm admiring the insanity of their monkeys....  Then comes the moment of truth.... Do I stay in their circus or is it time to exit the vicinity completely?  It seems like it should be such an easy choice!  After all... Who in their right mind stays in the path of the stampeding elephants?!  

But what happens when the elephants do not look like elephants?  What happens when the other people in the path of the stampeding elephants are relationships you value?  Relationships that have meant something to you in moments of growth?  Then the decision to leave or stay even in the stampede of insanity that only sees the scary little mouse that is actually a mere blip on the radar of life.  All of the sudden a challenge becomes the thing that throws everyone's world out of balance.  And so the elephants stampede...  Reaction to the perceived threat begins a chain reaction of choices that have impact beyond the immediate apparent "solutions" they offer.  

This particular change has me frustrated at times, mad at other times and at other moments excited at the possibilities.  I become frustrated that a short time frame has been forced on me (I'm determined not to pour money down that particular drain when the end result is the same in the long run). I become mad in other moments when all I see is yet another broken promise and the impact that has yet again on my life when I thought I had distanced myself enough from this particular person.  In the end, however, I keep coming back to the excitement at the possibilities.  

You see, I like familiarity.  I like what is comfortable.  But deep down inside I know that comfort and familiarity are not the things that make me grow.  I grow when I step outside that comfort zone and embrace the unknown.  In the end I realize that this change and decision is not much different than our decision this year to begin recycling.  The choice to recycle led to a decrease in our garbage to the extent we just in the past couple of weeks dropped our trash service opting to transport our trash ourselves as it saves us money.  As we have been looking at cutting expenses in our budget over the past couple of months we have addressed and looked at nearly every area except the area that we are now being forced to address.  With that comes a certain excitement at the possibilities... my truth... this particular change contains the potential to declutter my life emotionally as it allows me to move more fully past a painful piece of my story.  It allows me to make decisions from a less emotional place and genuinely assess what works and what does not work for our family both financially and emotionally.  In embracing the freedom of choice that comes with this change I allow myself the ability to exit the circus and leave the monkeys and elephants behind for someone else to deal with!  Will that be our family's choice?  Maybe, maybe not, but what I now have is a freedom to choose.  

And reassessing the impact of other peoples monkeys and elephants in my life is something I am discovering I need to do more often!  

In the end it really is a form of exhaling....  

Yep, that would be why these monkeys and elephants found me... 

The need for 

Exhale.

Peace vs Chaos

Chaos....  It's the week of Christmas.  In fact it's the Eve of Christmas Eve, all around us there is rushing to get those perfect last minute gifts.  To cover everyone on the list that we might have forgotten...  The mailman, the paperboy, did we get the distant relatives their fruitcake.  We take a season that inundates us with songs about peace on earth and we join in the chaos that is anything, but peace.

Peace....  It's such a calming word.  Just saying it makes one start to relax...  Until you remember that you still need to wrap all of those presents and get them under the tree.  Oh, and does overnight mail really make it overnight or should you drive the 3 hours and just deliver the package yourself?  Although you really don't have that time since you need to wrap still more presents and then get ready for one family gathering on Christmas Eve and yet another Christmas morning.  And then there's the Christmas Eve service at church or should you try to squeeze in some time volunteering for the dinner the church has agreed to host at the nearest shelter.  Which will appease God the most during this crazy time of year?  Which one fills the requirement of "goodwill to men" the best?  The decisions pile up and scream to be addressed and still Christmas creeps closer and closer while you just don't have enough minutes in the days left until the big event!

We stuff our lives so full of activity at this time of year.  We do it all in the name of good, but is it really?  I've been giving it some thought this year as our family has decided to not get caught up in the chaos that surrounds Christmas.  

I sometimes think as Christians we've become caught up in the commercialism that surrounds the time of year that we celebrate the birth of Christ.  We get caught up in the chaos that is the world around us.  Do we ever stop to think about the events that surround that insignificant night in Bethlehem centuries ago?  

I say insignificant because that's really what it was.  When you think of the media coverage that surrounds the birth of the latest British royal and compare it to the fact that the first to acknowledge the birth of this baby that was likely just one of several born in Bethlehem were mere sheep herders that night really isn't significant from a world view.  In fact the chances are that night the occupation by the Roman government and military was of much greater significance than the young couple from out of town who had their first child.  So in a time filled with the chaos, confusion and unrest that comes when one country is occupied by another there comes a baby boy.  A baby boy who's birth announcement is delivered to rough shepherds in a field by angels.  I love the way the NIV translates Luke 2:14 

"Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests."

Peace.... There's that word again.  Peace, what does it mean?  I think often we believe that it means an end to war both physical and spiritual wars.  But that child was born into a nation occupied by another government.  And 30 plus years later when he was put to death that same foreign power still controlled his homeland.  Kind of challenges the idea of peace.

So what if peace means something totally different than what we think of this time of year?  What if peace means that the purpose of his birth was to bring peace in us as a counter to the chaos that surrounds us?  What if the "peace to those on whom His favor rests" is intended to be a gift that we are given?  What if it's God giving us the opportunity to throw off the chains of chaos and duty and to purposefully invest in moments of quiet?  What if it's not just moments what if it's the opportunity to live our entire lives with a tranquility and quiet inside us that defies the chaotic, busy world around us? 

Sounds great and unrealistic, right?  But does it have to be?   That same baby boy who's birth was announced with the phrase "peace to those on whom His favor rests" went on to share with his followers that:

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God"

Is it possible that by choosing to live in the chaos that surrounds not just Christmas, but is the accepted not just in the world around us, but in the work we claim to do for the Christ who promoted peace we miss out on unimaginable blessings?  Have we turned relationships into tasks to be accomplished rather than a whitespace moment to spend with a friend that will add beauty and meaning to our lives?  Have we begun to thrive on the white noise that surrounds us and no longer recognize that God speaks in stillness?  If in his favor God extends peace then are we choosing to decline His favor by opting to live in the chaos and call it God's work?  Is it possible that we are settling for less than God's best for us in neglecting one of the key reasons he sent us his Son?

So on the Eve before Christmas Eve, I'd like to invite you to opt out of the chaos.  Stop and find a moment to explore what peace means to God.  We're surrounded with songs that remind us about holy nights, moments of peace, simplicity and we have a choice.  We can become a counterbalance to the new kind of chaos that exists in our world today or we can join it and never fully grasp what peace on earth truly means.