Am I rowing harder or raising my sails?
When I ask other women how this season has been for them, I get a lot of different answers. Everyone has experienced this pandemic differently, but there’s one response I hear pretty often. “Well…it’s been nice to slow down and not have to do so much.”
And that has been a nice silver lining…but I shudder to think where we’d be if we hadn’t had that little reprieve, because while we might have been doing a little less, most of us are carrying heavier loads.
Leading our churches through nine months (and counting) of this is making our leaders tired. And it is OKAY to acknowledge that. It is a tired that isn’t remedied by a weekend off. It isn’t fixed by getting a good nights sleep. There might not be much we can do about it right now, but acknowledging the tired and accepting that there are good reasons for it will hopefully give us freedom from the guilt we too often experience.
One thing the Lord has challenged Craig and I to this week is to look at HOW I am working. The work is important. For most of us, we’ve streamlined as much as we can. We’ve cut out the extras. What’s left is crucial. But HOW am I working towards meeting these needs God has put before me?
Am I rowing harder or raising my sails?
Am I willing to take a breath from the processes that keep ministry chugging along and ask these questions?
Am I asking the Holy Spirit where He is moving in my midst? Where is He breathing fresh wind?
And am I doing whatever it takes to raise my sails to catch the wind of His Spirit? To do what only He can do – because that’s what we all really long for anyway.
Here are 3 things I’m trying to do to hear the voice of the Spirit more clearly:
1. Not letting up on being in God’s Word. This is the clearest way I have of learning to recognize His voice.
2. Committing to “inquiring of the Lord” whenever I have the opportunity. If He has a direction that’s best, I want to know about it.
3. In this time of pain, anxiety and pressure, I will ask of the Lord regularly throughout the day, “Who needs words of life today?” And then I will bring it.
As we look at mustering up the energy to charge out of the gate into this new year, I am asking God to show me how to raise my sails. Lord, show me how to see more quickly where You are moving, so that I can come alongside You and be your assistant. Blow a fresh wind of direction and power into my sails. To You be all the Glory.
