Let Your Soul Breathe

What am I supposed to be doing?

This season has been a hurricane of emotions and opportunities.

To start with, the foster care group home I worked at closed down. I felt called and equipped to be there, yet it suddenly ended. I had to say goodbye to all the sweet little ones I came to know and love, with not a lot of time or space to process everything. I also changed my major to Journalism and am now minoring in Business and Digital Media Production. I stepped into growing a gifting God gave me in writing and journalism, despite all the fear that comes with it.

I started a business connecting clothing, creativity and scripture in basically just a few weeks and in the midst of all the aforementioned chaos. With the business comes the need for setting up a workspace that I can grow into. My parents so graciously offered the basement up to me, which brings me to self- renovating the whole space. To top it off, I just started a new part time job serving at a restaurant and am gearing up to move back to campus at the end of August.

I’m working on functioning in thriving mode instead of surviving mode.

Honestly, it’s not going so great.

How do I let go and prioritize with a heavenly perspective? Especially when there’s a lot of earthly things screaming out from inside of me and all around me demanding attention, time and energy.

My very core of my being craves to just check out, disconnect and take a very long nap. But it’s in times like this that we have to intentionally engage with the One who knows all and sees all, and intimately calls us His own. As I’m typing this, I’m preaching to myself.

What does living a life of intentionally engaging with God look like practically?

For me, it means not having to be perfect. It means giving myself grace and space to be human. It means being on my own timeline, not rushing or pushing myself way past my limits and being okay with that. It means taking time for things that allow my soul to breathe a breath of relief, instead of forcing things I think should be done. It means checking in a lot with God and getting his perspective of importance on actions and events. It means not allowing my emotions, fear or anxiety to be in the driver seat, but also allowing them to still be in the car, so I’m not driving through life with no self-awareness.

Feelings aren’t always the truth, but they are a good tool to gauge where we are emotionally and most often spiritually as well.

What does it mean in a practical way for you to intentionally engage with God during times of overwhelm?

Maybe it looks similar to my application. Maybe it's you singing and dancing instead of writing, or going for a hike. Maybe it means letting go of things on your plate. Maybe it's something totally outside the box. But the only way to find out what God personally has for you, is to meet him there in the secret place.

So, with that being said, I challenge myself and you as well to just pause, allow your soul to breathe, put down the list and just Be Still.