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In Faith in Real Life

When Life Feels Like Too Much: 4 Rhythms to Recenter Your Soul

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Have you ever felt like life is just flying by you?  Work is cranking out endless tasks and responsibilities… The kids have countless events that they need chauffeuring to…  There are multiple required social events on your calendar filling up your weekends… And some how you need to find time to just simply go to the bathroom in all that mess of a schedule.

This happened to me the other day.  I was in a rush to get as many things into one 24 hour day as possible.  I was running from one event to another and found that it was making me grouchy, irritable, and just down right testy.

Stillness

I had to hit pause.

For about 40 minutes I simply sat still and watched life around me.  Instead of watching life go by I did my best to be fully present in the midst of it.  I sat and journaled and prayed and listened to some music.  In those 40 minutes I felt more refreshed and rejuvenated than before.

When life is flying by you and feeling out of control try these four things…

1. Pause

As difficult as this may be, there are times when you need to simply just unplug.  This might mean the dishes in the sink pile up for a little bit.  Or the lawn doesn’t get mowed today.  These things need to get done, but not necessarily right now.   Your pause could be 30 minutes, 2 hours, or even a full day.  It all depends on what you are willing to carve out of your schedule.

2.  Reflect

Our minds are moving a million miles an hour, thinking about thousands of different things.  It is a gift to stop and process what has been happening in your life the past few days, or weeks.  It could be as simple as answering two questions: Where have I seen God lately, and What has God been showing me through these past few days or weeks?

3. Pray

Prayer is our intimate connection with our Creator, our Heavenly Father, and our God.  Prayer is an act of depending on God in all things.  When I am running my life and going a million miles an hour, my greatest temptation is to believe that I can do it all on my own.  Prayer reminds me that I can’t.  I am desperately in need of God’s help and presence in my life.

4. Journal

There is something life giving about writing in a journal.  It has been a habit that I have added to my life for the past 8 years.  I have filled a few moleskin’s with the thoughts, prayers, and tears of what’s going on around me.  Writing is slow.  It causes you to think, and process.  Writing things out quite possibly can also help you figure things out.

What would you add to the list?  Leave a comment below.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Whispers of God

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When you sit still, assuming you do sit still, what does God say to you?  What are the heartstrings that are being tugged on and pulled at by God?  

Yesterday was Monday.  AH!!!  Glorious monday.  Let me tell you… Monday’s are great.  See, I know that I am probably the only person alive in the world who enjoys mondays.  Monday is my day off.  Yesterday we filled it with family fun!  We used our membership to the zoo, and went and spent several hours meandering around the Philadelphia Zoo.  This was great fun.  I have some funny video that I took which I will post up here later.  Make sure you come back and check that out.  So, Noah was waving to the monkeys, saying, “Hi monkeys…  See my cool hat?  See my cool hat?”  Then we went into the reptile room and noah was running from display to display looking at all the animals…  loving each one… “WOW!!!  Oh WOW!!!”  We went to one particular display and it was for some snake… I hardly paid attention to what kind it was, but that’s not the point.  THe point is I was trying to point out to Noah the different animals and show him how God created each one differently. So, we pull up to this display and it is probably no bigger than 2 feet by 4 and 5 feet tall.  It simply had stone in it…  There was not many places for this baby to hide.  So, when we didn’t see the snake in the display I thought for sure it wasn’t there.  

I was trying to rush Noah along in order to see more, and get more in during our short stay at the zoo.  I quickly scanned the tank and realized there was nothing to see here, so… let’s move along.  As I’m trying to coerce Noah to move to the next spot, He says, “Daddy No!  He’s here.”  “Look, here… under the rock.”  Sure enough, when I got down on my knees and adjusted myself to the right posture, I could see the snake that we had come to see.  Noah was in the right position and was not in a rush.  He found what he came for.  

I know this is more of this.  However, I can’t quite it.  I can’t stop thinking about this.  What do you hear from God?  What is God showing you?  Let me rephrase that question.  What is God trying to show you?  See some of us need to change our posture.  We need to change our position.  We need to take our feet out of the starting blocks, set aside the track spikes for a pair of slippers, or sandals.  Put those hiking boots on and slow down.  

I think it’s time to get back on our knees and be quiet before the God of the universe.  To be still and go to a lonely place, just to be.  Just to hear from God.  Take time today to savor the precious love of Jesus.  

~Peter

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