And…….Exhale. That is what I have been telling myself a lot the past weeks and months. What a journey I have just been on. A journey of the heart, mind, body, and spirit! Truly something that has assaulted all of my senses with its ups and downs and curves. Here we are though…in Lancaster, PA. Back again to the streets and town I fell in love with years ago. I am working at a shop downtown and learning so much what it means to be a manager and a leader. Its hard y’all. haha
So, we breath in and we exhale as each step is taken. Now is the time for settling down a bit and figuring out what this current chapter brings. What are my goals? What is the desire I have for my life? For my relationship? For my future? Am I living content with what has been so richly given….or am I functioning in a posture of anxiety and fear. I think more often than not it is the latter.
I had a friend just message me a story from a friend of his about a girl in counseling talking about how the Lord had been convicting her so much about the futility of the Hustle and trying to constantly achieve the next thing. She expressed how she was feeling super insecure all the time and anxious about what was about to happen….right as something great had already happened. Literally, great news one day….then the next day back to feeling anxious about what was next and where she was heading. It’s exhausting!
I think we all can relate to her story to some degree. The therapist she was seeing responded with suggesting that her goals were the issue. We so often set goals for the next best thing; constantly living in a state of nothing every being good enough. No house is big enough. No job is fulfilling enough. Nothing satisfies. The Therapist suggested that instead of aligning her life around her goals she should align her life around her values. When we focus on what is truly valuable. What values sustain us and fulfill us…..it makes every achievement something surrounded with gratefulness and contentment. We are spitting in the face of something that has great value and promise.
This might seem like basic stuff, but for me today it smacked me across the face. The past 6 months I have moved twice and changed jobs 3 times….its been exhausting and left my confidence shot and my anxiety high! Taking a moment while I am sitting here an my little shop, I see the fingerprints of God on my life. I see the fruit that is there and the good that has been brought and continues to be produced. I am BEYOND grateful for the provision in my life. I am humbled and grateful for the people who have loved in a way that has blown me away.
Contentment. Exhale. Align with values….with what is valuable….what is real. Have an amazing day out there. You are loved….you are valuable…. believe it and see it friends.
