Is This IT?

Day 7:

Ministry! So excited! We began this journey called ministry! Okay. Now what?

Life seems somewhat normal again. Routine things still happen. Things are much as they were before. We relocated for hubby to attend school, and now we must find a new church family. People in this new congregation see us as students, which seems to translate into temporary, different from them, not really part of the congregation. Back home, our friends had a high regard for us, knowing what God did. Now we are lumped into the group called “preacher-boy families.” Like others new on campus, we seek a church home. We try to find our way around a new town, new grocery stores, and not really knowing anyone!  The excitement is over, and now what?

Wow, when the spiritual high goes away, the let-down crashes in! Now I realize this is the typical pattern: if there were no low times, it would be harder to recognize the high times. I recall a pastor who illustrated it this way: “Think of spiritual highs much like overtime in an exciting football game. Everyone is tense. Excitement and electricity fill the air. Adrenaline pumps through your body, and anticipation is at its peak. Finally, a winning play! The game is won in overtime, and now you can relax. What really happens is a huge let-down, because no physical body can live forever in such a heightened state.”

God created our physical and emotional capacities, and He knows the rest we need when we leave the mountaintop thrill. Sometimes we call it the valley, but rest need not always be a deep, dark hole. Valleys are often level and fertile places where plantings root and grow. There is refreshment there, and normalcy.  Learn to embrace the normal, embrace the rest times—it’s preparing you for another mountain top.

“This is the resting-place, let the weary rest”; and “this is the place of repose”—but they would not listen” Isaiah  28:12 (NIV).   I believe the rest mentioned here describes God’s provision: a time for rest and refreshment, a place to replenish. Perhaps look at your next “down time” as a precious resting place. Embrace those “take-it-easy” occasions, and allow God to replenish your heart and soul. Identify His fresh manna that carries you through the next day, into that next challenge.

This may BE it for now…

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