Porch #164 🕊️ Cultivating a healthy, soul level transition

What do you want to do with that lurking unfinished business?

Dear ones,

I'm all about quiet. Stillness. Serenity. I feel healthier, more authentically present to others, and more available to the Lord when both my soul and my environment are uncluttered and at peace.

The older I get, the truer this becomes.

There's nothing linear about the changeover from one year to the next, is there. Whether you've been quietly keeping the home fires burning or running hither and yon, this brief liminal space finds us in a beehive of activity. Cleaning up Christmas. Corralling, sorting, reorganizing all the things. Finding the perfect home for a new possession or two. Restocking the fridge, keeping the washer and dryer spinning, wading through accumulated bills, cards, and stacks of stuff on countertop and desk.

Getting back to work and school, creating and routine, and connecting and ministry again.

BUT WAIT.

Before we ramp everything up, can we take a deep breath together, quiet ourselves, and slow back down just a bit?

For what could be healthier and holier than approaching the year ahead with a clean slate. A no regrets lifestyle. A courageous choice to rid ourselves of all those woulda-coulda-shouda's that act like quicksand, pulling us down and leaving us feeling like failures.

If ever we needed to be purposeful about taking care of any unfinished business that tends to loom right below the surface, it'd probably be right about now.

There's no point galloping ahead at full speed into the new year without doing this kind of soul level check up.

• Decisions left unmade hang like an albatross around our necks.

• Resentments that haven't been dealt with and forgiveness not offered isolate us in a miserable prison of our own making.

• Grief that's somehow been compartmentalized and tucked back into the far-off corners renders us incapable of moving toward an authentic spirit of hopefulness.

We're talking about any unhealthy, unsettling, or ungodly situation that's been gathering dust, taking up time and space and energy that could better be used in more productive ways.

The precious, ever-present Holy Spirit shines a light into those hidden spaces and gently helps us clear away the old, the tired, the messy so we can breathe deep and free again. The more stuff we release, the more we understand what we're really craving. A clearer vision of who He wants us to be comes into view. We embrace a big whiff of hope and a fresh sense of possibility and purpose.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:1-6, 23-24.

God is always inviting us to something deeper, holier, stronger, and wiser.

I aim to transition forward with an unburdened heart, a clear head, and open hands. And I know you value this, too … because we’re still sitting here together, pondering.
Linda 🤍

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