I think society at large is in a season of busy and in desperate need of a nap...
We live in a time when we feel everyone around is going all out, all the time, doing all the things for all the people in their lives. We live in a time when our calendars are maxed out every single day, and we have allowed it to all seep into the needed quiet margins of our lives. We've somehow managed to either convince ourselves, or allow others to convince us, that we need to jump on that same bandwagon and stay just as overwhelmed and as busy as we think everyone around us is.
It's a time when we have noise everywhere - tvs, radios, movies, social media feeds and videos. There's noise always coming at us, and noise constantly from within us as our mind spins, and manages, and multitasks every minute of our days and weeks... If we aren't careful, we find it suddenly turns into years that will have passed without taking the time to stop, to slow, to be silent...
We all need to allow our lives to nap. We all need to protect our souls. We all need quiet. And we all need to take the responsibility and initiative to actually intentionally schedule silence for ourselves, and for our families. And we need to not feel guilty about it.
Silence....Some of us long for it and seek it out. We know the need, the importance, and we long for and desire the comfort and retreat of that sacred time. Some of are are scared to death of it... you run from it and refuse to put down and turn off the noise and constant input.
Silence... the place where you recharge, where you ponder, where you pray, and where you can clearly hear the quiet whisper of God. Silence fills your soul and heals your wounds and sets your course back towards the true north of your life's destination and journey. Silence allows the frayed tapestry of our lives to be slowly and delicately mended. Silence can be both ones best friend and ones worst enemy, depending on how you view it.
I'm one that personally loves and embraces silence. Silence recharges my batteries and fills me. I am an introvert by nature, but I work and live in a quite extroverted atmosphere. So there are lots of days I am left just physically and emotionally exhausted. It just takes a lot of effort, and love, and patience, and outpouring to fully surround myself, and love on, and live into, lots of other people well. It's something I enjoy, but it's something that does require a lot from me. When we fill and fill and fill others, we have to be sure we don't end up too empty ourselves. We need to love ourselves enough to know when, and how, we need to fill ourselves, and not allow the societal guilt attached to that seep in and tell us we aren't worthy of loving ourselves well.
Loving ourselves well. It sounds easy, but I have found it's not.
I find when I am intentional about myself I wrestle with feelings of selfishness and guilt. I find society doesn't always understand the need for Sabbath, and doesn't always realize that everyone's Sabbath is going to look a little different. It's not just the childhood perception of the 12:00am-12:00pm hours of a Sunday that I once believed it was. I don't honestly think many in today's society really knows what Sabbath even truly is and doesn't find the importance or intention God set for it to be in our lives.
Rest and recharge and soul care are so so important. I have spent most of the first forty years of my life exhausted and completely empty as I worked around the clock and over committed in every quadrant of my life. It took a great big wake up call to open my eyes to the fact I needed to do a better job taking care of me, myself, and I - so that in turn, I can better love, and live, and breathe into everyone around me, especially my family and close friends. I am far far from perfect, but I am trying to be conscious, and aware, to continually grow and feed this need in my life.
Each and every one of us need to breathe deep the value of this concept and intentionally define it's personal definition for you yourself, and in turn how it needs to be defined and protected within your families. We need to individually buy into to the reality that we are all collectively feeding into this cyclone of social insanity all around us. We live in the misconception that we are not in control of life's chaos... and in some ways we aren't, but in more ways than you can imagine, we are. We are in control of many of the lines that get written on the calendars of our lives.
We are in control of most of the things we schedule and set as a priority. It's usually just a lot harder to say no, than it is to say yes. When we say yes, yes, yes to anything and everything and everyone, and overbook and overwork - we often end up saying no, no, no to opportunities to silence, to fill, and to care for our own selves and our own souls. We also say no to amazing opportunities to serve others, to see other, to give to others, to minister to others. We need to choose our "yes's" and our "no's" more carefully so we aren't left having to say "no" to the things that we should or could be saying "yes" to.
We do not need to do everything, go to everything, be in everything, have everything, sign our kids up for everything. We need to learn to wait, to listen, to be patient, to prioritize, to be ok saying no, to be ok setting and enforcing borders for both ourselves and for our families. We need to be ok with setting limits to what we can and can't commit to, and what our families can and can't commit to.
We need to be the ones to set the standard, set the example to those around us. We need to be bold, and brave, and choose ourselves sometimes. People are watching us all the time. Our children are watching us, our peers are watching us, strangers are watching us, our family and friends are watching us. Show them you love them, by showing them you love yourself. Show them how they can be better when you are living life more filled and intentionally "less".
Show them how caring for your soul is actually caring for theirs. Show them "less" is actually so much "more." Show them you are worth it... and so are they. Allow yourselves, your families, your lives the naps you so disparately need and are longing for. We cannot single-handedly change the world, but we can change ourselves, which will in turn cause a ripple effect of change far into the world.
Stop, slow, silence.
Say no to controllable chaos, say yes to soul care and opportunities to fill and serve yourself and others. You will make yourself, your family, and the world a better place by it.
{ previous post, 13th Anniversary, click HERE }
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