Upheld in Seeking Quiet

Restoring Your Soul

Restoring our souls takes time. And planning.

It takes strategy.

When we rush through our days trying to accomplish everything on our lists, we might forget to nourish the soul. It’s easy to get caught up in the to-do’s. Who doesn’t get that? But if we neglect our souls, we soon find ourselves in the wilderness.

A couple of questions to consider:

1. How can you plan a strategic withdrawal from your everyday to nourish your soul?
2. How can you build silence into your life?

Strategic Withdrawal

I’m still working through Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Invitation to Retreat. It is definitely not something to speed read.

Retreating is a deliberate plan for action.

I know we all hear the warnings about coming apart if we don’t come apart, but most of us tend to ignore them. If we can just accomplish these so many tasks today, we can go to bed satisfied that we have fulfilled our purpose for the day.

But have we?

At the end of the day, are we in communication with God or our own soul?

Time Alone

For most of my life, it has been my mantra to accomplish the maximum tasks in a day that I could. But it didn’t fill the need in my soul. I thought it should.

Perhaps this is why strategic retreat is at the forefront now. These are things we know, and a lot of voices remind us, but the truth is that we just must DO IT.

Time alone is not really alone. Our Father God goes with us wherever we go. He has promised that to be so. Are we aware of His presence?

I encourage us all to build the quiet into our lives. Even if it is five minutes of silence here and there, let’s do it.

Let us let God refresh our souls.

“And He said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while’” (Mark 6:31 NKJV).