by Shawn Martin
A couple nights ago I was talking with the Father about finding time for ‘rest’ each week; ‘me-time’. A time to unplug from everything that fights for my time and energy. All distractions gone; just quiet and the Father. I was hard-pressed to find any. Then just now, I picked up a copy of some powerpoint presentation I’ve had on my desk for months but haven’t read. Near the end of the copy, is a page titled, “Develop Your Own Self Care Plan”. The first two of three points were to spend plenty of quiet time alone and recharge your batteries daily.
Is this brand new information? No. I’ve heard this dozens of times over the years in the field of service I work in. But the timing of the last 48 hours is what makes this a clear prompting from the Father.
I would suspect most of you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. My last bi-monthly letter mentioned how summer time is busier than any other time for my family. Besides everything else, I’ve got a list of 46 projects that need to be done to our old farm house. It’s so overwhelming that I just don’t even want to start. There’s a room in my house that has been slated to be my 'study'; my 'man room', for a number of years. Finally, this February I got the green light from my wife to remodel the room (Visualize Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting). The plan was to have it completed by mid-April. About a month ago the sheetrock was finally hung, mudded and sanded. And I even hired that out cause I just didn’t have the time to do it myself. All that’s left is painting and laying in a floor – and I’ve done nothing for a month.
Do I have a lot on my plate? – sure. Can I cut back in some places? – possibly. But the truth is that for months on end I have not focused on taking care of myself, emotionally. I sleep. I eat. I shower. But I’m not recharging my soul. I’m not making time for the things I desire, that excite my spirit. And over time that adds up to a mountain of complacency that spills over into all my relationships. I snap at my kids, I resent my wife, I go passive at work, I don’t spend time in the Word, I don’t spend time with the Father. And when that happens, the Enemy has very little trouble at taking me out in one area or another.
Walking with God is a commitment and involves time, daily. And while I’m not diminishing the importance of reading the Bible and praying with the Father, what I do believe is that if you don’t take care of yourself (emotionally and physically), you can’t take care of others. Everything else suffers. I can read my Bible daily and all those other disciplines I wrote about last time, but if I’m not making time for me in ways that rest and recharge me – then I’m offering God the very minimum of what’s left in my energy and emotion tanks. The result is unfocused time in the Word and distracted time in prayer. And the hazy fog continues to follow me as I get further disconnected from life.
What are you doing each week to make sure you can attend to yourself in quietness where there is just you and the Father? Does the thought of sitting in silence for any period of time make you squirm in your seat? As tired as I am, I could turn around and spend more borrowed energy planning some me-time activity, but for those of us who need more hours in the day, it begins, ironically, by spending some of that precious time doing nothing; being quiet. I know I have the ability to find 5-10 minutes in a day to get quiet. More would be a luxury, but any time is a start. At first you’ll find that your mind still seems to be racing with distraction – stick with it. You’re just sending your body into shock. Inactivity is foreign to it – stick with it. As you allow yourself time for rest and reflection you’ll begin to be able to offer more of yourself to the Father. As you free up more of yourself to the Father, the deeper he can work on your heart and that will transform every other area of your life.
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