1:1 RESTING WITH GOD TO PUT OUR SOUL IN ORDER

1:1 RESTING WITH GOD TO PUT OUR SOUL IN ORDER

We all feel tired. We don’t take care of ourselves properly. We work too hard. We don’t give our wounds opportunity to heal. We need to deal with our sadness, our anger our grief. This makes us over-react because we’ve not dealt with past trauma. Our intimacy with God is lacking. We need to have some quiet time and rest with God to put things right.

We need to tend to our soul. We have to stop hiding all these hurts and let them come up and be healed. I was dangerously tired when my favourite Assistance Dog passed away in January 2021. I had been working terribly hard training Assistance Dogs to help people recover from Mental Health problems and coping with an unwell dog. I was seriously burnt out and this reflected in how some of my staff and clients behaved towards me. They made criticisms and some made a formal complaint. I quit my job of course. It was either that or end my life. I felt shocked that my colleagues behaved like this to me when I was founder member of this charity and had worked my heart out to keep this charity going for 17 years. I felt quite suicidal and got some great help from doing some online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy from my Dr’s surgery. Also Centering Prayer, sitting still and doing nothing, twice a day for 20 minutes helped.

We have to retreat and start to take some space with God. We need to build our relationship with God instead of just doing all this stuff for God. We have to let all our ‘doing’ stop and concentrate on our ‘being’. You may need a Spiritual Director to help guide you through all this. We want someone who can tell us we’re going to be OKay in our deeper spiritual journey. We need companionship and guidance to start going in a different spiritual direction. Then we can submit to someone else’s discipline and that can help us to change who we are in Christ. Who do you have to help you in your journey?

It seems to be the new normal to be over tired when we are working hard or spiritual leaders. Being tired is part of our culture. We need a Spiritual Discipline to get out of this. I find horse riding makes me stop and just be. What is your favourite hobby or sport that is going to help you get over what you’ve been through?

A gentle noticing rather than an assessment will help us recognise how we are functioning. So how is the wellbeing of our soul and our body? How much are they linked? We need to know the truth about this so that it will set us free. God will lead us out of where we are now and to a better place. Don’t let us worry that we are going to miss what God has for us. It is time to recreate a restful place around us where we can partner with or even befriend God. Let’s start to believe that it will all be OKay.

Naming our soul’s desire is not a bad thing to do. How often do you use the word desire and do you know your deepest heart’s desire? Jesus said: “What is it you want me to do for you?” Jesus should be having that conversation with us as it is right here in Scripture. If we know what we really want and are not driven by egos, culture or others’ expectations then we can be more in touch with our true nature. Sometimes it takes a while to get to the heart of your desire. With me I just want to ride my horse, walk my dog and be still in God’s presence and have stability, peace and simplicity in my life. Just want to get rid of all the travelling, the carbon footprint probs, money as an object and feel loved by God, my family, my friends, my enemies (!) and all beings. What is your deepest longing?

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