Create Space
Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. - Psalm 25:4-5
Okay. I know I told you I was going to take a two week break from writing, but as you probably know by now, it was a three week break. So I’m sorry to keep you waiting for another seven days, but boy did I need it.
Over the past three weeks, even though they were crazy and busy and a lot has happened, I was able to create some space in the midst of all the chaos to breathe and listen and reflect. And I had no idea how much I needed those things until today, when I knew it was time to start writing these devotions again.
To be honest, the week before Christmas, I was feeling pretty drained and overwhelmed. Work was crazy. The holiday celebrations were starting. I had just gotten engaged and was already feeling the pressure to make decisions about the wedding. The last thing I felt like doing was taking time to reflect on my life and my year, much less write about it.
That’s why I took the break. That’s why I decided to enjoy some time off. And that’s why I think from now on, I’m always going to take this kind of break at the end of each year.
It’s really tough to be taught and to take notice when you’re flying through life without really paying attention to what’s going on around you, and that’s exactly what I was doing. I wasn’t making time to listen to God. I wasn’t creating space to take note of what had happened in the last 12 months and reflect on what I could learn from all that had happened in 2021. At least not until the last three weeks. Even then, I still feel like there’s more I can think about, more I can reflect on, more that God wants to tell me.
Nevertheless, I’m grateful for what He did remind me of, what He did teach me, and how He did renew me these past few weeks.
I tell you all of this, though, as an encouragement to you. I want you to have permission if you’ve been looking for it to create space, to take some time to breathe. It doesn’t have to be a massive amount of time. It can be one day, or a couple of afternoons, or an hour once a day for the next week. Whatever this time looks like for you, I hope you’ll carve it out. I hope you’ll spend intentional time listening to your Heavenly Father, asking Him to show you what He wants to show you, teach you what He wants to teach you, and remind you of what He wants to remind you.
My fiancé wrote me a note the other day, and in it he said, “Remember all the promises God made to you and how He has been faithful.” If there’s one thing I want to make a point of doing on a regular basis this year, it’s that right there - remembering all the promises God made to me and recalling how He’s been faithful. I plan to make a habit of that in 2022, and I hope you’ll do the same.