Hope* Writers gifted their subscribers with 10 writing prompts for the month of January. Like I said in my previous blog, I don't usually run out of things to run about, my creative juices do get stifled from time to time and I end up staring off into the big open sky for sometimes an hour.
And I think sometimes that is absolutely and completely necessary. A slowing down of sorts.
One of the prompts for this month is: "If you chose to slow down this month, what do you think you would learn?"
Based on past experience, when I intentionally choose to slow down I often become flooded with an abundance of emotions. All at once. Fun, huh? I think it's no secret that I am an emotional human being. With the work I do of leading students on international mission trips I have gotten really good at pushing down my feelings, needs, desires, and wants for the sake of leading. Healthy? Not at all. And the more I travel and lead teams the more I learn how to better navigate through those things in a healthy way for not just myself but everyone I am in community with.
Sometimes it's hard to deal with all of the emotions in the moment, so I push it aside until there is space and time to really press into them. I'm not saying that's healthy either, but in the circumstance of my job this is more often what happens than not. I also have recognized the ways I do it in real life too; real life being not on the mission field (which is very much real life!).
It's really easy to stay busy, preoccupied with commitments, numb out with social media and Netflix, and to make a bunch of social plans in order to avoid what's really going on under the surface. I'm guilty of it too. I find that when I actively choose to slow down and put down the project, put my phone in another room, and stop looking at my long to-do list, I create space to feel the sometimes uncomfortable emotions in the presence of the Lord with minimal distractions. Keyword minimal. We can't eliminate distractions entirely. That's just not real life. So however this looks for you will look different than a friend, spouse, co-worker, roommate, neighbor, or a son/daughter.
So.
"If I chose to slow down this month what would I learn?"
I would learn a whole lot about myself.
I would continue to learn about my own boundaries as seasons of life change.
I would learn about rest than striving and performing.
I would learn the joy of contentment solely in the Lord.
I would learn to feel but not live in. (Thank you Michele and Lysa).
Slowing down each day would allow me the freedom to not hold myself to the very impossible standard of perfection and constant achieving. Rest. And not a slothful or lazy rest...an intentional rest. There's a difference in engaging in rest vs. doing things that are relaxing. (See "The Radical Pursuit of Rest" book by John Koessler").
Did you know rest is biblical?? The term occurs in both the Old and New Testaments:
God resting from His work (Genesis 2:2).
God gave us that the 7th day was to be one of rest (Exodus 16:23, 31:15).
The land was to have rest every 7th year (Leviticus 25:4).
God promised rest to the Israelites in the land of Canaan (Deuteronomy 12:9).
It can sometimes be used in the sense of:
Reliance and trust (2 Chronicles 14:11).
Rest of our souls for those who come to Him (Matthew 11:28).
God offering us a rest that wasn't enjoyed by the people who died in the wilderness (Hebrews 4). (1)
(1) The New International Dictionary of the Bible by J.D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, 854.
So this slowing down thing...isn't a complete waste of (our busy) time ;) It's necessary for our souls, minds, health, and hearts.
If we were sitting at the table (in my home) and having this conversation, I would share with you that slowing down doesn't come naturally to me and that I have to fight for it. I have to choose it. And that I want to live out of a place of rest and contentment and not out of a place of striving and performing and achieving.
If YOU chose to slow down, what would you learn? What would come up? What would get dealt with? What would bring freedom, healing and wholeness (in Christ)?
I'd love to hear from you as if we are sitting at the table.
You are who I dreamed of when I started this blog and purchased my home xoxo.
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