A Little Breathing Room

A new friend of mine from the Start Experiment and I've been messaging back and forth. The other night she sent me these words of wisdom: "Give yourself a little breathing room - you've got a lot going on IRL". (IRL means 'in real life') This is in response to trying to get my new site up and having everything ready by Monday. It's Tuesday and I'm not ready to introduce it yet (although a few of you have already found your way over there).

This is an old photo from my Project 365 that I did awhile back which perfectly describes how I'm feeling today - stressed and rushed. I'm going to listen to that friends' advice because I do have a lot going on in real life. I'm working through some major changes which will shake up where I'm living, my friends group, my daily eating habits, my morning routine, my career, and pretty much everything else tied into all of that. In addtion to that, my Dad's been sick and I've been helping out with my sister which cuts down a bit of my hustling and dream time.

Right now though, there's not a deadline. There is no finite date. Jon Acuff won't be mad at me and say I'm never allowed to read any of his blogs ever again because I wasn't able to get my new site up how I wanted to by yesterday. That's just ridiculous. He has different things he should worry about. There's a deadline for some of the other things going on in my life which I really need to figure out.  The whole situation is overwhelming like a nightmare of ending up in a Calculus Test unprepared.

The reality is that sometimes, real life gets in our way and we have to attend to some other things first. It's easy to focus on the one thing that we feel like we can control in a time like this. For me currently, it's the layout of my new site. There are other things that I am desperately not in control of in any way. Those things I definitely can't change because I'm not in control, but I am in charge of how I react to this situation.

How am I going to react? I'm going to react by deciding to act on the things which most need to take precedence. I've got things I need to take care of. I've got things that I wish had already been taken care of. What can I do now? I can stop feeling rushed about things that don't really need to take place now and focus on things that need to be taken care of more immediately. It's time to focus on dealing with the real life stuff rather than a layout because at the end of the day, this real life stuff matters a whole lot more than the layout of a blog.

What do you need to stop focusing on? What do you really need to take care of this week?

Consider the Birds

I struggle with a sin called worry. I struggle with a sin called stress. I struggle with anxiety. Over the last few weeks, Jesus and I've been talking about a beautiful thing He did on the cross. He covered my sins: worry, stress and anxiety when he was nailed to the cross. He gave me freedom to live my life and not be a captive to these things. This is kind of an oversimplified explanation of what this means in my life, which I hope to come back and explore in the future.

In the meantime, it's finals week. It's a week where the libraries, coffeeshops, and really any spot on campus gets flooded with people hacking away at a paper on their laptops, readings are being furiously highlighted and many study early into the morning with coffee cups glued to their hands. One common fear binds us all in this. We won't make the necessary grades. We won't do well. We worry, we stress, we give our lives over to anxiety instead of giving it all to God. My WILgroup for ASC has been discussing this a lot lately. Here's some verses that the girls, especially me, are clinging to:

"Look at the ravens. They do not plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds! Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that what's the use of worrying over bigger things? ...Don't worry about such things. These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world, but your Father already knows your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need." - Luke 12:24-31

My lovely WILgroup leader, Jana, sent me this the other day on facebook:

"Isaiah 41 starting around verse 21 it talks about idols and at the end it says " Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked. See they are all foolish, worthless things. All your idols are as empty as the wind"
-so do not put things above the Lord..those things are of Satan and they are meaningless without God...whatever you do-do it for the Glory of God...so if you are going to study hard to get good grades...do it for HIS glory...not your own..and do not let it consume your thoughts because whatever you think about is what you will care about and what you care about will stir the affections of your heart...I urge you to pray before you study and have the Lord do what he wants with that time..."

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:6-7

"For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore... do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own troubles." - Matthew 6:32b-34
^"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39

"I'm leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart, and the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid" - John 14:27

"Come to me all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

"I will never fail you nor forsake you" - Hebrew 13:5

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9