Oh Mary, did you know you would be used as an example of what it means to slow down, take a deep breath, and just wait before the Lord?
Or did you know that you would be used to teach Rebekah Miller what it means to rest?
You know how when God wants to teach you something, He teaches it to you in many ways, and in the end when you finally get it, you realize he was trying to show you this "revelation" for over a month? Yeah. Thats me, here.
This past month, God has trying to teach me how to rest! Well, it may be safe to say that God has been trying to teach me this for alot of my life! It seems when I look back in my life, I am always going, never stopping, never still, whether it be work or play!
My "revelation" started when I took the Gallup
Discover Your Strengths test, required for one of my IBEX classes. I came up as: Activator, Woo, Restorative, Achiever, Communication. For those of you that don't know the Gallup strengths, this basically means I am a do-er, a striver, and go-get-em personality. These can be strenghts, when they are used correctly, and in the right capacity. But in my life lately I have been letting them surface as weaknesses, by never resting. This brings me to the edge of burnout (an edge I have visited a couple times before!)
As I was pondering this, I remembered that earlier that week, in my IBEX small group (which we call "mini-herd time", because we are goats...get it? :] ) , this was one of the things that had been burdening my heart. I shared that I was always tired, anxious, and uptight. I shared how I always feel the need to go, go, go, and am not very good at sitting still for very long. I was encouraged by my mini-herd leader to take a sabbath, a day of rest. She, and my other teammates, told me that it is ok to rest before the Lord, and it's great to do things, and great to strive and reach a goal, but sometimes God is calling us to take a break, rest, wait on Him.!
Then, as if that wasn't enough confirmation of what God is teaching me, I started reading a book for one of my classes, called
Boundaries, by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. The book is all about setting limits for yourself, and learning when to say yes, and how to say no to things that may be good things, but not good for you at the time. The first chapter alone was all about a person who over-commited herself, and then doesn't justify her feelings of burn-out because she is suppose to be "christian, and self-sacrificial, and giving, and hard-working, etc." The next chapter (which I haven't read yet!) is going to teach when and how to set Biblically correct boundaries for yourself.
And if
that wasn't enough, today at church, IBEX recieved prayer from the church elders for injuries inflicted by our marathon training. One word given during the prayer hit me really hard. We were told that healing is a process, and we should listen to God, and let him walk us through it slowly.
Walk us through it. Slow down. Take a break. They went on to say that we should walk with God in this, and let Him speak to us, because we have to realize that we can't do it all on our own, in our own strenght!
To top off my learning experience, God decided to use the pulpit. Today in church, the pastor preached on God being our friend. Alot of times, as Christians, we think its all do do do, go go go, serve serve serve, etc. And we don't look to God as a friend, but as our master, or Rabbi, (which He is, but He is
also calling us to be friends of his!) The pastor compared Mary and Martha in John 15, where Martha is busy serving in the kitchen, and Mary is at Jesus' feet, soaking in His words. Jesus is calling us to sit at his feet! Jesus is calling
me to sit at his feet! He has things to tell me! I just need to slow down, sit down, and listen!
After typing this all out, I was thinking:
Now how does this apply to me, because I'm an IBEX student. Busy is what we do. Serving is what we do. I simply don't have alot of time to sit and rest. Plus, its not really "me" to just chillax and coast through the days. How do I apply this, Lord? But it all comes down to this- I need to take a sabbath! I should know this... it is one of the commandments! But I need to intentionally take some time out of my week to relax, to do something fun, to have alone time if I need it, to have fellowship time if I need that, to have some time to sit and rest in God's presence!
All in all, I am so glad that God revealed this to me before I reached that burn-out stage. I'm not sure how it's going to look, but I am going tobegin
intentionally sit at Jesus' feet, and take a sabbath!
~Rebekah
