Being home from staffing has its perks for sure. I can sleep for a healthy amount of time. I can bake (vegan banana bread...I believe I ate half the batch). I can see my family. I can do school in the sunshine. I can skype people :). I can update my blog. And that's just a tiny bit of the stuff I can do.
However.
After being held to such a high standard and realizing that the reason you were staffing was to impact student's lives...once you're home you adopt this feeling of purposelessness (it's a word. I googled it.). Of course, the second I say that I imagine myself slapping the tops of my hands. Because obviously our chance to impact a life is always staring us in the face. Nevertheless, at a class, I'm a staffer and I'm helping others. Once home (as stated by my friend) we're back to being our normal selves: daughter, sister, friend. Nothing is wrong with this. It's just an odd feeling. It's definitely an adjustment. But that's life, you have times where you're flung into a whirlwind of leadership and you have times where you just have to be still. With that leadership comes humility. You realize that you can't do any of this leadership without the hand of God helping you along. You realize you can't answer questions about life without praying that the spirit of God would fill you as you attempt to answer those questions. You realize you can't live on 5 hours of sleep, and greasy food without God giving you strength and energy.
I realized I couldn't do it without God.
While staffing, you are slapped in the face with that realization. It's constantly resounding in your head,
"You are weak; He is strong. Pick up your cross."
At home, you know that you can't do it without God, but circumstances are easier, more comfortable. You don't necessarily always feel that you can't do it without God. You don't have to call on God to complete a task such as washing dishes or making a cup of tea. These times of stillness are a blessing and I'm just having to adjust myself to see that. These are times where I prepare myself in a relation with Christ. So that when the time comes, I'm ready to speak about His name in a way that is educated and loving. Times of stillness are times of thought. Times of stillness are times to commune with God. And I tell myself this over and over again.
"Be still and know that I am God..." - Psalm 46:10
6 comments:
This is so true. We need Him! I've felt the same way when I teach my small group of girls - I can't do it without Him. I get slapped in the face with that reminder too.
PS: i saw one thing and knew we'd be friends - NEEDTOBREATHE.
Best. Band. Ever.
Have a great day girl!
Oh, and I live in AL too!
At time to fight the battles and a time to rally the troops...
Both have their purposes, but one seems more "glamors."
Wow, this is a really great post. Lots of good things to dwell on. God's been working on my heart lately, and this post is just more evidence. It's amazing all the ways He speaks to us, and I fear that I fail to recognize His still small voice many times.
I loved Abby's comment! A friend and I were talking the other day about exactly this, and I wonder: Do we limit God and His Spirit when we think His work is limited to the "big" things, to the times when we are out, answering His call? He does some of His best work, I think, when we are quiet and still, relying on Him through the most mundane of days. Here's letting Him fight for us, while we are still (Ex. 14:14). (By the way, I love your heart! And He does too!)
This is a beautiful post. Beautiful and so true. So many of the thoughts you... well... thought, have been on my mind and heart lately also. There's so much we can do with our lives, and our careers. And though it seems like it's so much work (it IS so much work. We're sinners!), the work part is obsolete, because serving God is what matters, and doing all to his glory!
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