Surrender is Slowing Down Without Losing Speed
As someone who loves to dream big, live fully alive and sometimes go at a record-breaking-speed to accomplish and achieve – the thought of slowing down, resting and becoming still sounded like a luxurious but impossible idea.
That was until life demanded it. . .
I got really sick and had to slow down drastically. And what a shock I got when I learned that rest is not merely ‘doing less’, or on some days ‘doing nothing’. You can have a free calendar for months on end and still be a rushed, harried, and life-in-a-tizzy person.
“Some of this aversion to rest was rooted in my misplaced understanding of myself and my calling in life.”
But even once I had overcome my sense of value and contribution rest still felt like a swear word in my vocabulary.
My husband would kindly encourage me to rest and my hackles would rise and tension would come. After many a trial and error, God gently revealed to me a better understanding of what rest might look like in my life.
Here’s What I Learnt:
1) Rest is a generous gift for our benefit.
2) Rest has very little to do with time and a lot to do with the posture and state of the soul (so much wisdom in this lovely book Soul-Keeping – pop it on your must-read list).
3) The more I truly ‘rested’ the more my dreams gained traction and not only did I have the focus to cultivate the life I longed for, but I had the presence of mind to begin noticing that it was in front of me.
4) I learned to ask myself, ‘Why the rush in life, or even the rush in learning to rest?’ We’ve got time and God in His tender faithfulness will always finish what He begins.
“Surrender Is Slowing Down Without Losing Speed”
4 Shifts That Changed My Way Of Being:
1. Daily Affirmation: Time is On My Side
2. Daily Affirmation: Nothing is (Truly) Urgent
3. Daily Scripture: Be Still (Psalm 46:10)
4. Starting My Day with Prayer – sitting in the quiet, secret place letting God minister to me before I go out into the world to hit the ground running.
Give one of these shifts a try - see how your soul gets a breath of fresh air!
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