You want me to do WHAT?

Last week had the potential to be one of the most "peek a boo" looks into this season in life.  You see, my husband was home for the first of two full weeks without any airplane travel; Perhaps the longest stint without stepping foot inside an airport (excluding holidays) since I can remember... certainly the UW Huskies were a reputable football team the last time we went this long.  (Okay, maybe a stretch, but you get my point.)  Now that we are rounding out the 2nd week of him being home each evening, I have really come to learn some things about myself...and I believe all of us can relate.

1.  Man, we run hard.  I have slept a minimum of 8 hours every night that he has been home.  I think your body just gets used to a certain amount of adrenalin and learns to perform at that rate.  So when I knew my "1 on 3" power play was going to get a break... my body claimed the rights to some much needed rest.  And we're not just talking sleep... I mean I'm a heap on the couch right after all the kids are tucked in at 8:30pm!  That's saying something; when my husband travels its just me from the time the first child wakes up to the last one is tucked in...AND THEN there are dishes, laundry, an email response required...and so on.  Having him in town has definitely shed light on how long we go on fumes...and our body doesn't even put the low fuel light on until we're 80 miles past the last gas station!

2.  We feel guilty when we're not running hard.  Is it just me or does that strike you as "messed up?"  I mean, if we're not accomplishing, pursuing, conquering, solving or creating, the tendency is to make some judgments about how we are using our time and quite frankly the words "wasting," and "lazy" come to mind.  I cringe when I think about my old perception of a stay at home mom...until I became one.  "Watching Oprah eating Bon Bons and oh yes, doing crafts all day long w/ their children."  For the record, my kids think craft time is the BEST THING EVER because we have it roughly twice a year.  Why?  I'm too stinkin' busy accomplishing, purusing, conquering and all that stuff!  Always an email that needs responding.  Always grocery shopping, always laundry, an unreturned phone call, an unsigned permission slip clamoring for our attention.  Did I donate to my school's foundation, have I purchased socially conscious Halloween candy this year, gotten the stain out of my son's Halloween costume, rescheduled my son's dentist appointment or reviewed our next year's medical benefits before open enrollment closes?  Did I?  DID I????  And what if I don't? 

Life goes on... we just might lose some friends on FB, kids will get hungry, run out of clothes and miss their field trip.  The foundation will hound us via phone, I will get dirty looks for passing out "thug" Halloween candy, and we will have no medical insurance.

So imagine how attractive, yet utterly impossible it seemed...when my Pastor suggested that we stop "doing" and simply fully surrender and rest; so that we may allow God to do the work in us he promises.  It just sounds backwards, right?  We stop, so God can work in US.  My "Type A" brain simply cannot process. 

I cannot process because by nature, I am a "doer;" just cannot sit still for long.  Sound like an echo?  Do people say that of you?  (I have a feeling I am hitting a nerve for so many... I think I am going to be talking quite a bit about this...)

Slowing down.  I'm not talking about "going for a walk in the forest because God is in the trees."  No he's not.  You can head out there to get some fresh air, some clarity...but the "stop doing" I am talking about is learning how to abide in your Creator...the one who lovingly made you from start to finish and knows the depths of who you are.

So my short challenge for you today is to stop doing.  Try it for 10 minutes.  Not an email, FB check... no texting... just get with Him.  Some sit still....  some pray.... some journal...some worship...just try it.  I found 10 minutes to be really hard when I just sat still...so for me, worship was the only way to do it.  And after 12 minutes passing like the blink of an eye... you're reading what came out of it. 

You stop.  He starts...and the work is always better when He's in charge.