New Shoes

I love the confidence I feel in a brand new pair of stylish shoes. I like even more my feet to be comfortably encased in my pretty new shoes.

I’m noticing that change is a lot like a new pair of shoes. Attractive and uncomfortable until the feet and the shoes yield to the other to support a comfortable journey for the shoe-wearer.

In a spiritual direction session I was bemoaning the changes in my life; the laying down of familiar rhythms of job and service. I left my nursing job of seventeen years and yielded to another teacher the Sunday School class I taught for twenty years. I am experiencing changes in relationships as our children are successfully launched and our parents retired. I’m noticing changes in what I am drawn to, as previously fulfilling activities are not appealing to me yet new opportunities are not very productive.

When my director prayed with me, she invited God to steady my trust in Him as He pruned away the old fruit to allow for the growth of new.  These few words lit a candle in my soul.  The discomfort with the way I was wearing change shifted to an understanding of a pruning process.  This new knowing is infusing this season with hope as I wait and grow.

 My season of pruning is uncomfortable, yet I am attracted to new fruitfulness.  Tentative tendrils of growth are unfurling towards what I’m not sure. It is enough to know that the vine of my life is in the Master Gardener’s hands and He is nurturing my fruitfulness.  According to Jesus, this will be for God’s glory and to show that I am His follower. 

 

 

Changing shoes for the next leg of my journey is exciting and scary. Some days I long for a comfortable fit, but mostly I embrace the invitation to surrender to God’s pruning shears and remain in Him.

When Longings Disturb My Soul

Tossing and turning in my bed, I tried to get comfortable and shut off the list of good intentions I ignored the previous day. The same accusations played on the turntable of my mind. You failed at body care, you did not practice your writing, you didn’t work on your vocational goals and you aren’t disciplined enough in your pursuit of God.  You are an imposter.

I counted my blessings.  I redesigned a dream house. Sleep remained elusive.

 

 

I asked God to help me pay attention to my thoughts and feelings. I noticed the accusing thoughts were around commitments I made to care for my health and to explore longings of my heart.  It occurred to me that I was experiencing stress caused by tension between what I believed to be true about how I was living and God’s truth, the riches of His grace lavished on me as His chosen, adopted, forgiven, redeemed and blessed daughter.

My response to my version of truth was instinctual.  I just have to try harder to live according to my vision of what I want my life to be. 

And how has that worked for me? Not well at all.

 

In frustration I wonder why I can’t be content with life as it is, comfortably routine. Why can’t I keep my desires buried? Why do I pay attention to that restless longing for more of God and more for my life?

 

More questions infiltrated my sleepy fog. What if my longings are from a good God who desires good things for his girl? What if I depended on His power to walk in His truth for my life? What if I could extend grace to myself for the mystery in my unanswered questions, trusting my good God for what is around the bend in my future?

When the light of morning woke me, the questions of the night still simmered in my soul. During my morning jog God stirred these practical promptings into the mixture:

 

Could you take a few small steps daily towards growing in these longings I’ve deposited in your heart?

Would you be willing to embrace your desires, that deep thrum in your soul, and trust my goodness to help you satisfy them?

Tackle a hard thing every day.

 

Notice your journey instead of fretting about the speed you are traveling. Or asking when you will get there!

 

Another expanse of grace opened for me. Small daily steps will move me towards satisfying the longings God places in my heart.  I will follow His heart and mine into my day, depending on Him to show me the way.