We sense shifts of feelings stirring within, an inner voice speaking to our hearts, signalling a need to pause because we require deep soul refreshment before moving forward again. Can we afford to ignore it and press on regardless?

This isn’t the usual disorientation caused by seasonal change, holidays ending and responsibilities kicking in again. It feels different. God is whispering insistently, calling us to listen with intent as we learn to march to a slower beat.

Yet the tug of busyness (real or perceived) threatens to derail us. Stopping or coming aside seems counter-cultural , especially for those of us who make our home in busy. When I am asked to stop, my heart droops disconsolately like a fragile fuchsia in the breeze.

Rest can feel less like a welcome sign and more of a dismissal. Even as a body signals its need for surrender, a soul can fail to see the necessity to down tools and give attention to its own maintenance.

Shifts

These shifts we sense inside

are but breathings out:

of universal feelings

of life and death

of light and dark

of loss and pain

of pleasure and gain

of love and joy

of listlessness, aimlessness

of gainful employ

We lean into our humanity

and we see its vast sea

unravelling like string

making threads of connection

we cling to as we bob

and sway above the waves

©JoyLenton2016

What we often neglect to note is that we’re being invited, not rejected. We’re being asked to awaken to awe and sense God’s presence in the daily grind.

Shifts - God is in the detail

[bctt tweet=”God is in the detail. He is in the stillness, in quiet, in waiting and solitude”]

God is in small and slow and seasons of fallow. He works in and through everything to bring about His purposes on earth. We’re not to fret when others prosper and succeed; we’re to rejoice when they are blessed, even as we are being called to pausing, patience, pulling back and being faithful with our little things.

We are to keep on believing divine timing is the best timing of all, especially when we fail to see the fruit of our labours. To try to abide with restful anticipation,  because God has not and never will abandon us. He simply loves you and me too much to allow us to wear ourselves out.

Let’s aim to be patient as we stay on the sidelines for a while, seeing and appreciating what is in front of us This Day rather than scanning the horizon for better things to come. This is a time to grow strong on the inside, to yield our dreams, hopes and plans into God’s hands.

Let’s try to discern the important from the urgent, to wait as God makes so much more of our desires than we can know from the limited perspective of Now. And when we are refreshed and rested enough He helps us to sense the way ahead, one we might have missed if we’d pushed on regardless.

In being readied for receiving fresh impetus to live and love, for the new things God has prepared for us, we discover how the shifts that slowed us down actually served as teachers enabling us to move ahead.

[bctt tweet=”We sit with shifts inside that are actually bringing us to a deeper place of discovery”]

Meanwhile, we may sit with fidgety feelings, with frustration or resignation some days. Maybe we wait with quiet courage, willing our souls to be stilled, leaning on the Lord for all we are worth.

**Friend, as I continue to try to yield to life’s shifts throwing all previous routine out the window for several weeks, I would love to hear how you deal with the unexpected, often unwanted shifts life brings you. Please share in the comments below.**