Welcome to Day 29 of Resetting the Rhythms of Life! We are almost finished with this series … only a few more days to go. I pray that the time you have set aside for prayer, contemplation, and rest has been refreshing and fruitful. I pray you have been able to hit the reset button in the various aspects of your life.

Perhaps you were able to make progress in all four areas we explored during the past four weeks. Or maybe you stayed with one theme or another. Here’s the good news: No matter how you utilized this series, God is delighted! He is so happy that you took time to renew your prayer life—your relationship with Him. That you reclaimed time with family and friends. The Lord is overjoyed that you took action to care for yourself, your temple of the Holy Spirit, so that you feel reenergized to tackle the work He has for you. And that you paused to consider a refreshing new outlook on home and how you abide.

The purpose of this entire series has been to invite God into your present moment—no matter what your present moment looks like. Because that is where He already is … waiting for you … ready to grab hold of your hand and walk with you through it all.

All of us have moments in life that are simply hard. These moments feel incredibly heavy and burdensome. Perhaps we are weighed down by chronic illness, financial stress, family tension, or depression/anxiety. Maybe we’re exhausted by the daily grind. Feeling behind may paralyze us instead of motivate us to get organized. We may not see a way out, and we find ourselves at a standstill.

We can run away, or we can run toward God.

Let’s Be Honest

In this very moment in time, what is hard? What is still overwhelming you? What do you wish was different?

It’s OK to admit, “This isn’t what I want. This isn’t where I want to be.”

Or, “This is hard. This is harder than I thought it would be. This is wearing me down.”

There is great freedom in releasing our reality, instead of holding it in and pretending like everything is fine.

Out of the depths of our pain, our weariness, and our disappointment, we can cry out to God! We can wait for Him and hope in Him. God is overflowing with steadfast love for us. And He has the power to redeem our messes, our difficulties, and our struggles. (Psalm 130)

Let’s Invite Jesus

As we have done this month, when we invite Jesus into our weariness and overwhelm, He comes into our heart and sits with us in the mess, in the pain, in the struggle. We feel His presence enveloping the hurt, soothing our souls, and loving every fiber of our being, even the broken and weathered ones, especially those that are far from perfect.

Of course, living in the present moment, or in our present reality, can be challenging. In this day and age, we are even encouraged to escape, with the onslaught of social media channels, emphasis on “me time” and “treating yourself,” and the newest trend to avoid “adulting.” But the only thing we will find in our escapes is escape itself. No matter how far we go, we eventually have to return to reality, and this back and forth from escapism to reality can make our current struggles even more difficult.

But when we have the courage to stay in reality, to take a deep breath in the present moment, we find more than the pain, more than the hardship, more than the suffering. We find God, patiently, lovingly there … right where He wants to be.

Let’s Press On

When we have the courage to “hunker down” in our own reality, to take a deep breath in the present moment, to meet God in our stress, weariness, and struggle, what we discover is more than the overwhelm and imbalance. We discover that the hard stuff doesn’t have to go away or be healed before we can find peace, experience joy, and bear witness to God’s love. He calls us in the midst of it. We can give God our fiat, our yes, before we have it all figured out!

We do this by walking with the Lord, receiving what He offers. And we do this by remembering we are not alone. For what it’s worth, I am walking with you. I am praying for you. I am saying yes to my being real and living in my reality, as you say yes to being real and living in yours.

So, let’s press on … let’s bring the overwhelming and imbalanced parts of our lives to the Lord … let’s continue to ask for the grace to renew, reclaim, refocus, and refresh the rhythms of our lives … let’s trust that God’s not finished with us, yet!

Tomorrow, I will offer a survey for you to fill out on this series. I would love your feedback. See you then!

This is part of a 31-day series on resetting the rhythms of life. To read more about this series and see each day’s posts, click here. Photo: Unsplash