r.e.s.t.

Rest, true rest, peaceful rest, rest that restores and renews cannot be found outside of my relationship with Christ. It has to be the first thing in my life. It has to be my priority. It las to be my all. Sadly, it is not. 

Rest, true rest, peaceful rest, is impossible to come by when my days, my hours, my moments are constantly bombarded by the cares of this world. It also most certainly cannot be achieved through a constant barrage of all that mainstream media and social media throws my way, every minute of every day; and night. 

Today, I spent some time outdoors, in the beautiful sunshine of Eastern Tennessee; praying that as I felt the sun shining down on me, I would allow my Precious Savior speak truth to me. As the warm sun shined on me as if it were He, Himself shining on me and as I felt occasional breeze kiss my face, I felt it as His gentle caress. In the relative stillness of that time, I asked Him to fill me, to speak to me, to convict me. 

Answers that I was seeking came fairly quickly, though I argued with them because I did not like them. 

Answers to questions like:

*Where do you turn to first thing in the morning, often before you seek Me?

*What occupies too much of your time?

*What causes you the most stress?

*What threatens to steal your peace and wreck havoc on relationships you claim are important?

*What causes divisions/dissension between you and those you love, those you call friend?

*What distracts you or drives you? Is it how many “likes“ or comments your latest post gets, how many views your story has? Do you crave the approval of man or Me? 

*Do you allow man to affirm you, or do you seek your affirmations from Me?

*What clutters your  mind, your life and your  home and steals your peace?

My friend, those are hard questions. 

They are questions that are a hard truth to accept especially when the answers to those questions were:

*Fecebook, Instagram, Twitter, the news

*My phone, social media, current events 

*Wanting to be right at the cost of offending others

*Media, differing views with those I love on current affairs .... the virus, the riots, the state our country is in

*My perceived right to be right and to speak it without regard of how someone on the other side feels

*I crave the approval of man

*I allow or at least seek to have man to affirm me

*I have let my mind become cluttered with the things of earth and though we moved to Tennessee with minimal earthly possessions, I have accumulated too much stuff since being here and to use the catchy term, I need to “Marie Kondo” my life! 

All this to say that I have much more to say. I will be trying to post to my blog as I work through this process. The name of my blog is “My Journey 139”. The 139 represents Psalm 139, my life passage. I urge you to read it if you haven’t! If you don’t have a Bible, you can Google it or I’ll be happy to share it with you! This is my journey and may be painful at times. I desire to serve God first, my family next, followed by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and lastly all of the other obligations I have in life. As with all journeys, there have already been many joyful moments, some very sad moments, some moments of extreme trials and heartache as well as some mountaintop moments and victories! It is my journey to walk with my Precious Saviour, and if you choose to walk alongside me, I’m glad you are here and I pray we can learn from Him together!