Take Time to Breathe, my Friend

Wow! The past five weeks have truly been a whirlwind of events in my life yet God knew what I was heading for long before. A few months ago, I committed to a small group study for five weeks. It just so happened that it started the week my life started to take a new direction, a scary one. And while I am still on this ride, I had no idea that "Breathe" would not only put me in a room with some prayerful and Jesus-loving women, but he would remind me that life is too short to be overwhelmed by the things he has so graciously brought into my life.

"If what we are doing takes more than the 24 hours we have each day, we are not doing God's work," a paraphrase, no-less from one of the girls. Last week, Michelle reminded me that if I am not enjoying the things God gave me to enjoy, I am missing out on the "good life." We all are.

Now, I have to say, when I realized the study was about the Sabbath, I thought I was pretty good at keeping Sunday open for God and family. Not making plans to work, or do anything that was too stressful. You can imagine by looking back at the last few weeks, the study on the Sabbath didn't seem like the study I needed but boy, was I wrong. God knows me and knew exactly what I was up against.

The Sabbath as most people would interpret is Sunday. it is the day God rested after creating the earth and all that is in it. It is the day he delighted in what he created. And yes, this is true but it is so much more than that. God designed us to stop and enjoy creation. Not just on Sunday but everyday. In our society today, we believe that busy is better and tired is natural. Think about it. How often do you respond to someone when they ask "how you are?" So often we respond with, "Tired." And yet, we do nothing about it. God did not want us to be tired, or overbooked, or so busy we forget to pay attention to important things.

Now of course, anyone reading this and knows me, knows I am busy! I like to do a lot of things. Most of which I commit to because I want to do those things. I often will say, there isn't enough time to do all the things I enjoy. But the problem is when the things you enjoy become an item on your to-do list, you may be missing the goodness of God. I realized by studying God's word, that he wants some of that time and we need to leave a margin for the important things. God wants to do things in my life, but if I bog myself down and never take time to listen or chat with him, I will never know. Listening takes effort, it takes closing out the noise, getting rid of the clutter in our head and taking a pause, quietly, in a moment or two. It is stopping in the middle of the madness, and taking a walk, a time out, or just closing your eyes and opening your ears to hear Jesus speaking to you. I don't know about you, but I need God to do some things in my life right now. So, let's stop to listen, to be still, to breathe.

"Chronic overloading is not a spiritual prerequisite for authentic Christianity. Quite the contrary, overloading is what we do when we forget who God is." -Richard Swenson