31 Days of Chasing Light

As of last night I went to bed without an idea and with no intention of doing a 31 Days series this year. We've been on the road visiting family and my sweet girl woke up this morning with a stomach bug. We took to the highway to avoid passing the sickness onto her cousins.

While driving a stretch on I-40 I was thinking about people I know currently struggling through dark days and hard grace. I was thinking about the 24 hour news cycle and all the ugly, scary awful in the world tempting us to despair. A low fog hung over my heart and the sky and I felt the pull toward the darkness.

I began to think about my own life and some dark days I've walked through recently and in the past. Corrie TenBoom's sister Betsy famously remarked from her death bed in a German concentration camp, "There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still." Her words have stayed with me and I've seen God prove them true in significant ways.

I'm beginning to be a light chaser. I'm learning when it is darkest that the light has a way of breaking through the cracks. I'm convinced that we learn to see the light by looking for it in the every day mundane. In fact God's word tells us that the light is in our hearts if we are in Christ. The same creative gift that God used to speak first light has spoken light into our hearts. It's there.

^"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

This month I want us to be light chasers together. I want to chase down the light in the darkest parts of our stories and the most boring parts of our day. If you believe that God is speaking in the everyday and Betsy's words are still true then dare to plumb the depths of the pit with me this month. 

I'll be posting each day and on the weekends I'll offer resources, books, music, etc...to help you find the light. Join me in using the hashtag #chasinglight to share via tweets, instagram pics and facebook statuses how you're pursuing the chase in your daily life.

My Summer in the Rearview Mirror

The summer is slowly fading into the rearview mirror. I took what I called a Summer Sabbathical which meant I stepped away from regular blogging and retreated to the quiet of writing without the pressure to publish or stay on a schedule. It might have been the best idea I have ever had.

Our summer has been all over the place. My husband started a new job. We moved into a another {temporary} house. We went swimming a lot. We traveled some. Mostly we just tried to find pockets of time with the one's we love. It was good. It was what I needed after last Spring's unexpected storyline.

Back in the Spring I decided to step away from the buzz of social media to write and slow down. It was a great choice and along the way I learned a few things. Things which have made me more aware of how I spend my time and direct my energy. I'm easing back into this blogging thing but I thought I would start off by sharing what I learned along the way this summer.

Busyness is a choice. 

I knew this. I really did, but it wasn't until I slowed down completely that I began to question the choices I make on a daily basis to fill my time. I choose to do many things because somewhere along the lines I began to see them as necessary.

As I wound down my pace I recognized much of what I was doing on a regular basis was not tied to God's calling on my life but on a litany of things I think others expect of me. I was astonished at how much margin I began to see in my life when I turned off those outside voices and leaned into the One Voice that matters. 

Balance is key

My summer was a bit experimental. I removed most everything from my plate. Guess what? The world did not fall apart. Imagine that.

But here is the rub. I love blogging. I love being a part of online community. I want to be a writer.

This is where I find myself now. I have hesitated to jump back in fully because I know I struggle with balance. I crave balance in my life and am very sensitive when things get off kilter, but I also find it difficult to strike the necessary balance. I bet a lot of you can relate. I prefer not to spin plates. I like my plates squarely on the table piled high with good food. You too? Pray for me in this, ok?

My voice is bigger than I realize.

I've been blogging for five years and in that time I have stuck to topics that feel safe to me. The stories are sometimes messy but most of the time I try and keep it kosher. I have a rabid fear of conflict.

I don't have a deep desire to be controversial. In fact I get extremely frustrated with writers/bloggers/talkingheads who feel it there place to be inflammatory on purpose. The Lord really spoke to me this summer about the way He has gifted me. I am a discerning person and have always had the ability to cut to the heart of the matter. I have recognized that I need to do this more in my writing.

With that said don't expect me to go wild responding to each new cultural uproar that comes across the news. Part of being discerning is knowing how and when to respond. I pray that I can be faithful as I use my words boldly to point back to the Gospel.

Those are just a few things that I have wrestled with this summer in between jumping off the diving board, tickling a two year old's tummy and applying sunscreen generously. Fall is here and I'm feeling tired and refreshed all at once. The words are flowing, cup of tea in hand and my record player is spinning. Let's do this!

There is much to look forward to in the next couple of months around this space, heck this week is gonna be pretty stellar. Wednesday I am over at Kristen Welch's place for her Works for Me Wednesday series. I hope you'll read because I am sharing the nitty gritty raw place of what it means for me to say "Yes." to God right.this.minute.

Also, I'm going to be spending the day this coming Saturday in The Nester's newly renovated barn with a circle of writers. I'm looking forward to gleaning wisdom from others especially Emily P. Freeman and Christa Wells who are hosting us!

Lastly, I'm about to make a long time dream a reality as I upgrade and rearrange this space. Wednesday I'm having a vintage-inspired photoshoot and by mid-October I hope to launch! All of that right before I journey down to Greenville, SC to hug a few necks and soak up the goodness at Allume. Thanks for your patience and your faithfulness to read my words and encourage me so deeply. I'm a whole lot of grateful!

The Rhythm of Rest

I was a band and choir nerd in high school. Well, truth be told my school was so small that nearly everyone was in one or the other. I, being a person struck with the malady of overachieving, was in both.

On top of those activities I took piano lessons. Music is a great love of mine and though I no longer play or sing regularly the technical end of things remains embedded in my brain. Technique hammered into my head by a metronome clicking away the tempo atop my Wurlitzer.

If you aren’t musical then you might not pick up on this, but if you are then you realize what a difference a rest makes in the flow of a song. The absence of sound at a given moment of a choral number or orchestral piece can be what makes a song great.

Rest isn’t meant to take anything away from our lives. Rest is meant to offer something to us that gives a flow and cadence to the whole of life. If we neglect to pause and fill every waking moment with the noise of busyness we will lose the melody and ruin the song.

Enough with the music metaphor…God didn’t use metaphor to teach us about rest. Well, at least not in the beginning. Because “In the beginning…” is exactly where He first teaches us about our need for rest.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because o it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 
Genesis 2:1-2

When we think about taking a Sabbath it can easily be lumped in with the other nine commandments. “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” can become another good-girl rule to follow.

It isn’t the law that sets us free. It’s grace.

A few years ago we started making naps a Sunday ritual. A typical Sunday in my home is as follows; Church, lunch, naps for everyone. And I’ll be honest and say that if church wasn’t held on Sunday I wouldn’t go because I love to let Sunday be a lazy day of rest. It has become a life-giving rhythm that I do my best to keep sacred. 

The Hebrew word for “rest” in the Old Testament is “nuwach” (noo’-akh) and literally means to settle down and to remain quiet. In the Old Testament the Israelites would complete all their tasks by sundown before the Sabbath so that they could minimize how much they moved and worked the next day.

They took the practice and observance of the Sabbath seriously.

There is no way of knowing if they fully grasped the importance of the practice or if it was simply obeying a command. I do find it helpful to leave the house reasonably clean on Saturday night so that Sunday I am not tempted to do busywork around the house. It will still be there on Monday! I also try and keep it simple. Frozen food, soup in the crockpot, sandwiches, etc…are a typical Sunday menu.

When God gave us His own example of rest in Genesis it wasn’t because He had drained Himself from so much creating.
 
No, He knew fully our finiteness and He also knew that we would be tempted to create and create and do and do until our reserves were depleted and we burnt out. Again and again in Scripture we find His invitation to retreat to the care of His rest (Psalm 23, Matthew 6) but I’ll be honest that if I don’t carve out committed time I will keep creating until I’ve exhausted myself.

One of my favorite times of the week is when I wake up from my weekly Sunday nap before the rest of my clan. I usually grab a book, a cup of tea and a pad of paper. I scribble thoughts, ideas, and goals down to silence the inner voice and I just absorb the quiet. Most importantly I listen for God’s whispers to me. I’m amazed at how often He speaks when I hush everything else to listen. 

I’m not perfect at this Sabbath taking. Some weeks we’ve traveled to visit family or on an adventure only to find ourselves on a long car ride back on Sunday. Other times we decide to have lunch with friends which runs late and throws our afternoon off. I recognize that a typical Sunday Sabbath might not be in the cards for your family life. Some of us work or have husbands who are required to work weekends. Don’t let that keep you from setting aside some portion of your week to observe a personal Sabbath. Like I said, there is grace in all things.

What I believe it comes down to is our hearts pull. Are you pulled to rest? Do you recognize your need for it? Do you take active steps to make it a regular habit or do you say, “Well, if I have time this week I will take a nap, read a book or find some quiet time.” Taking a Sabbath is about flipping that thought process on it’s head to make rest a central part of our week’s rhythms.

I’m begging you to take one day a week to hush the noise of the world. Turn off your phone. Stay at home. Do whatever you have to do to protect that time and I believe you will be blessed and renewed.

{How has taking a Sabbath revolutionized your life? Do you feel the pressure of busyness on Sundays or whenever you try and take a Sabbath? What are some practical steps you can take to manage those pressures?}

Revolutionary Rest

Rest is work.
 
That is the last thing any woman wants to hear in a series about how to integrate more focused rest into our lives as moms. Because the last thing any of us need is more work. The reality is in order to arrive at a place of rest in my day to day life I have to work hard to make a life that leads me in the direction of rest.

Rest is not something that naturally happens in my life. Left to my own devices I will pile more and more onto my plate until I simply can’t go any further under the weight of it all.

I will keep telling myself in the midst of writing my to-do list that I can’t let go of anything. Between the things I want to do, have to do and just plain do I start feeling suffocated. If I am truly honest I take my to-do list and I make myself believe it is a have-to-do list. Sister, you are not the sum of the things you marked off your list today.

You are more. You are meant for so much more.

As I’ve journeyed into the art of learning to intentionally rest and find rhythms for my life, family and work that give instead of take, I’ve discovered a few core things to meet that end.

There is one keyword to keep in mind. Intentionality.
 
I am beyond imperfect at the practice of intentional rest. In fact, I’m imperfect at everything I do, but guess what? I’m loved by God. The perfect One who calls me away from my to-do list and into life in Him. The One who knows me by name and calls me away from it all to lean back into Him like a swaying hammock and be held. That’s a nice mental image, isn’t it?

But we don’t get to just lay in a hammock all day. No, there are things to do and the dishes don’t wash themselves. Intention. The purpose with which you intend to do something. If we don’t find ways to move our lives toward that restful place with God we won’t ever make it there. 

I want one thing clearly understood. Rest isn’t just making time to read a book or watch t.v. or even sleep. Rest is the deliberate slowing down of the noise in our brains and lives so that we can hear from God. 



There is a competition for our attention between the pull of busyness and the noise of everything we believe we have to do. Want to be counter-cultural? Stop “doing” things. Stop committing to more and more. Limit your children’s extracurricular activities. Don’t sign up for one more bake sale, book club, Bible Study, small group, or volunteer opportunity.

I’m not suggesting the commitments I listed above are bad. What I am suggesting is we often fill our schedules to the brim and continue to wonder why we feel physically, spiritually and emotionally empty. Gluttony is more than eating too much. 

I’ve realized it is easier to complain about our marriages, children, and lack of time than to actually tackle those areas with intention. Why is that? I think, for me, it is because I don’t want to do the work those things require so instead I tack on another task thinking somehow I will accomplish more. Less isn’t more. More is more, right?

WRONG.

A few weeks ago I did something that downright revolutionized my life. It is so simple to do and I recommend it to everyone, especially the busy mamas out there.

Grab a sheet of paper and a pen. Write down your priorities for this season of your life. Your priorities can be as general or as specific as you want them to be. My list has about ten things on it and range from a passionate pursuit of Christ to focused attention on improving my writing. Feel free to read my whole list.

After you’ve written down your priorities. Make a list of the things that take up your time. Once that is done line the two lists up beside each other and mark through each thing on the list of things that take up your time that don’t help you meet your priorities for this season of life.

It might be painful. You may find there are things on your current list needing to go which you truly love. This doesn’t mean you give up something you love forever. It does mean you possibly give up something you love in order to cultivate something that you love more. 

The next step is to regularly ask yourself if the things you are doing line up with your list of priorities? That small act will encourage you to avoid adding things that don’t help you create a life that keeps you refreshed and leaning on Jesus.

I am sure someone is reading this and thinks that I am oversimplifying it all. There are definitely times when we have to do things that we don’t want to do for a certain purpose or over-arching reason. There is always grace, but I would ask you to be as honest with yourself as possible about what you can cut out of your life in order to make room for rest. Every little bit will free up some space to rest.

I’ve been at this intentional rest thing for a few weeks now and I can already sense a freeing of my spirit. It has caused me to recognize how much I was making decisions out of fear that I wouldn’t get things done.

One thing that has emerged from my self-reflection is that I’ve discovered that I was already cutting things out of my life, namely, joy. Yes, I’m beginning to think we are always pruning something away from our lives even in busyness. The unfortunate thing about this realizations is I am nearly certain I was pruning joy away from my life.

I know “intentionality” is a buzzword these days. It’s a buzzword I am okay with if it means I get more of the life I love. If being intentional leads me to a more God-soaked marriage and work that overflows from my life instead of sucking it dry then I am all about it.

Jesus, has never been anything less than intentional with me. His pursuit of me from the Cross to the grave and straight on into eternity is with purpose. I want to pursue life in Him and this one life I am gifted with the same intentionality.

{Take some time today to prayerfully make a list of priorities and compare it to the plates you are spinning these days. Does it match up? What can you cut out? What areas can you refine to fill you up instead of drain you?}

(in)motherhood ladies, if you missed the first two posts go back and give them a read!
Rest for Your Souls
GET OVER IT! {Mama-Guilt that is}  (Over at Heidi's place!)