Give God Something to Work With
Lighten up. Enjoy every moment. Don’t be so serious.
None of this is as easy as it sounds.
At a recent social gathering, I found myself barely tuning in—not wholly engaging. Instead, I was going over my mental checklist of my next set of responsibilities. I had been doing that a lot—barely engaging in real life, just moving down the list of what I had to do. I found I couldn’t fully engage because all I could think about was what I needed to do next. I had made my life all about tasks and left no to time for joy.
Last December, as the New Year approached, many of the posts I read on social media seemed serious and even kind of negative.
“Don’t celebrate if you don’t feel like it.”
“Don’t make resolutions if it feels like too much pressure.”
“Don’t let people make you go out.”
The intentions behind these posts are good. Establishing clear boundaries and knowing your limits is important. However, sometimes you just have to make yourself do things.
It is absolutely important to take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is definitely OK to set healthy boundaries.
However, make sure your boundaries are healthy and not a means of fencing yourself in. I think sometimes, we allow ourselves to hunker down and hide from the world in the name of self-care.
I know because I have done it. A few years ago, our schedule became overwhelming and unmanageable, so I made some difficult cuts. I ended up taking it too far, and over the course of the next few years, I said no to almost everything. No became my go-to word.
I hated being a no person, but it became my automatic response to everything. Can you . . . ? Can we . . . ? Do you want to . . . ? No. No. No.
I enclosed myself in a bubble of self-care and stayed home. But my bubble of self-care quickly morphed into a bubble of anxiety, and my constant no became my security.
One day, Psalm 144:15b popped out at me: “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.” I proudly proclaimed to be a Christian, but that was not how I was living. It was time to make myself reengage. It would probably cause me anxiety and might even be painful sometimes, but I had to do it in order to move forward.
In the midst all those New Year posts that felt negative, I found a post from Chrystal Evans Hurst that encouraged me. She wrote, “Step out and become hopeful to dream again. Stop waiting for opportunities to just happen and put some action with your faith. Give God something to work with.”
Give God something to work with.
Our faith is not supposed to be a passive faith. We need to have an active faith, even when it scares us. It is so important to judge your own circumstances honestly—not everyone needs the same things at the same time. Sometimes it is absolutely appropriate to take time for yourself to stay in, recover, and rest. But that can’t be all we do. Sometimes we will have to show ourselves tough love. Sometimes self-care looks like getting back out there.
Our God is a great God. We need to cling to him as our ultimate source of self-care. During a period of respite, we need to make sure we keep relying on the Lord. There is simply no other way to get through life.
Even though I will not be giving up my to-do lists—I need that visual representation to help myself feel less stressed—I will work to be more engaged. I will allow myself flexibility. I will start each day with the Lord so that he is part of my plan. I will make myself say yes more than no. I will give God something to work with.
is a writer, blogger, and middle school teacher. She and her husband live in Georgia with their three children. In addition to teaching and writing, Dana loves to read, paddle board, and sometimes run. She blogs about faith, family, and enjoying the everyday life at danaherndon.com.
Photograph © Alekon Pictures, used with permission
