Has anything ever been stolen from you right before your eyes? Have you ever believed an overarching truth but struggled to make day to day decisions based on that truth? Personally, I know that movement doesn’t equal progress, and yet I find myself living a hectic and busy lifestyle in hopes of achieving some semblance of success. I have been duped into believing the lie that stillness equals slacker and that movement equals progress. I have even been guilty of inadvertently reinforcing that lie in my own children’s lives as I have instructed them to hustle after their goals and dreams.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Pre-Covid, many of us thought that being busy also equaled being productive. The pandemic has taught me, and prayerfully many of you, to slow down. Life needs to be lived on purpose, not for our purposes but for God’s purposes. That movement means progress lie has caused me to fall into the trap of thinking that in order to set myself and my children up for success, then I had to get us involved in a lot of time stealing activities. My motives were good, but my actions were undermining what was really important. I was afraid of missing out on something that could cost us in the long run.
What I realized at the beginning of the pandemic, as a result of our canceled schedules, was that I had been on a merry go round and the movement that I had mistakenly thought was progress, was actually making me and my family exhausted and going nowhere. The cost of that busyness far outweighed the benefits of our hustling and lead us down a rabbit hole.
In March of 2020, the WHOLE country had to quarantine and stop the hustling which resulted in a massive shutdown of our hectic schedules. The Lord revealed to me during that time that I could enjoy just being still, in part, because for the first time in my life I wasn’t worried about missing out on something because everyone else was sheltering in place as well. Our family found freedom in losing all those activities that were spinning us in circles. As a result of hopping off the busyness merry go round, we were able to find something we desperately needed, quality time with the Lord and together. Suddenly, we were able to find discipleship opportunities in quiet and in, sometimes, loud moments with our children. Months later, our family is still finding pleasure in taking back that stolen time.
As the world approaches a more normal atmosphere, may we never be tricked into jumping back on that merry (or not so merry) go round! What do you need to reclaim today that the enemy has stolen from you? How can you use what was lost and is now found, for your good and for His glory?
By Kelly Lester
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