I was spent.
It was the end of a very full week, and I was utterly
spent.
You see, there have been meetings and meetings and admin and
programmes and planning and people and decisions and deadlines.
I’ve found that in the past few days the default
answer on my lips whenever anyone has asked me how I am has been ‘Busy,’ and
then, as an afterthought, ‘Busy, but good.’
I hate the word ‘busy’. I hate when I use it to describe my life.
To me it communicates that there is no time, no
space. It speaks of the fact that all that makes for fullness of ‘life’ is being squeezed out of life
itself; drop by ‘busy’ drop.
But this week, through my own choices, I have lived
as though ‘busy’.
Until this evening.
RiSE unplugged is one of my favourite spaces to be
in. Our usual Sunday morning youth congregation comes together of an evening to
create space and freedom.
Tonight that space was in the form of sung worship
and ‘centring prayer’ – where we find a place amongst the cushions and ask Holy
Spirit to speak a word in our ear. A
word to focus our hearts on, a word to sink into and allow God to speak to us
through.
And Holy Spirit, well, she spoke a word to me in the
midst of that place that resonated so sweetly.
It was ENOUGH.
There is ENOUGH of everything that is needed.
ENOUGH time to do all that God has called me to join
Him in doing when I make good choices.
ENOUGH creativity to tap into so that life flows from
a place of Spirit drenched vitality rather than a dusty landscape of drought.
ENOUGH love welling up within to share life with and
journey alongside people fully and deeply without drawing from my own shallow
well, resorting to living on only the surface of life.
ENOUGH resource for me not have to worry about what
tomorrow might bring, but to live out what I have been called to today in the
knowledge that tomorrow will worry about itself.
ENOUGH space in the world for me, my story and my
words.
I was reminded of Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath
who had only enough oil and flour to make bread for that day. But, in the
economy of God, each time she came to bake bread she found that the jar of
flour had not emptied and the jug of oil had not run dry, and so there was
ENOUGH, day by day by day.
I was reminded that, in amongst the guidance given to
the Israelites about Sabbath life and festival living, they are told to not harvest
the whole of their fields but, instead, to leave the outside portions unharvested
for the poor and immigrant amongst them. Because, when you live in sync with
Gods heart there is always ENOUGH, and you do not need to scrabble around the
edges, removing every last bit of life.
There is space and there is freedom and there is
ENOUGH.
And so, this coming week I am choosing to not be ‘busy’.
I am choosing to re-learn ancient rhythms.
I am choosing that there will be space and freedom in
the midst of a crammed diary.
I am choosing that, when people ask me about life and
how things are, I will speak of ‘fullness’ and ‘wholeness’.
I am choosing to live in the truth that there is, and
will always be, ‘ENOUGH’.
I love this. The world tries so hard to cram in more on us, it is easy to forget that there is rest to be had, if we are willing to take it.
ReplyDeleteSo good. Enough is hard for me, but this helps.
ReplyDeleteGood words. Thanks.
ReplyDelete