Worship through rest

I have been really fortunate this past year and a half to have a woman of grace, maturity, and wisdom speak into my life. For over 5 years I prayed for a spiritual director. I longed to have an intentional relationship with someone who could speak into my life as one who has more experience and depth than I; one who could speak to the deep places in me; and one who could challenge me to grow--without pushing my "performance for acceptance buttons"--in the context of grace and identity in Christ.

May I be honest for a minute? It would have been very easy for me to find someone older and more experienced in ministry than me who could challenge me to be more, do more, try harder, etc. Because I tend to go overboard in that area, I desperately need someone in my life who can challenge me to be still, to rest when necessary, and to not find my identity in what I do. I can't emphasize enough what a gift my spiritual director is.

A couple of weeks ago, as Church 4 Chicks came to its season finale, I met with my friend and we talked about where I am and what life has been like lately. I sat in her office and shared my heart. And in turn, she shared some very powerful words from hers. She reminded me that rest is a gift from God and that it is a form of worship from us to Him just as much as our service is. She told me that when God took us out of the garden, through Christ, He put the garden inside of us. I never thought about that before. She said it is our privilege as His children to be "tenders" of one anothers' gardens. As we meet with one another and speak truth and grace to each other, we are tending our gardens together. As we met, we both agreed that I need some time off to tend to my garden.

With that said, I'll be scheduling some blog posts for the month of December, but I will not be on any social networks. I plan to spend some extra time enjoying the Reason for the Season with my family. I will have access to email, of course, so I'll be available through that to a limited extent. I am really looking forward to being at Hamilton Mill UMC on 12/2 and 12/3 for their Christmas event. I am also looking forward to being on Atlanta Live, Lord willing, on 12/6 and 12/8. There are some other wonderful events coming up both for Christmas and ministry, so I won't be "off" completely! --but I will definitely be taking some time to be intentional to spend time with God and with my close friends and family.

I've heard people say, "I'd rather burn out than rust out," but you know what? Neither of those is my goal. Neither of those is God's will for His children. I'm trusting that as I pull away from some things this month, that I'll have more to offer others from the overflow of what my Heavenly Father has in store for me.

Merry Christmas everyone!!