My Social Media-less Life

This year, the Lord told me to make sure to schedule some time off to enjoy my life, my family, and my friends.

It started off small; I planned a weekend away with my two best friends. From there, it kind of snowballed. My mom and I are planning two trips to see her parents (“They aren’t getting any younger,” is a constant refrain in my head), and I now have a couple of trips planned for myself and my own interests… well, three to be exact.

I’ve got to be honest, I’m really excited for these trips. From 2020 through 2022, I didn’t really take a lot of time off because I worked a lot, and I was helping in a ministry at church where it was me and one other person. Obviously, I don’t get physically paid to help in that ministry, but I love to serve in my church and for me, it’s a high priority.

Recently, I started feeling some guilt creeping in. “That’s a lot of time off. Are you sure this is what you’re supposed to do? People aren’t going to be very happy that you’re gone so much and have to move their cleanings around. And what about the ministry? That will be hard to manage too.”

This morning, the Lord finally broke through all the doubts and guilt and said, “Erica, I am the One that told you to go on these trips. I am the One that told you to enjoy yourself. What you need to do is not worry about them. Everything will work out in the end. Your job is to simply trust Me, be obedient, and learn how to rest.”

In recent years (especially since Covid), I like to think that I had gotten pretty good at resting, but as life seems to get busier, I noticed I’m just really good at being in the moment and… being in the moment and resting are, in this case, two different things.

Can I be living in the Lord’s rest and still be busy on the outside? For sure. But if I’m simply living in the moment, I’m not fully living in the rest that God wants for me. Because that moment might still be a busy one.

So for this season of my life (this year), I am going to be doing things that some people may not be happy with, but I’m learning what it means to rest, and trust the Lord in a different way than I’ve ever done before. Trust me, it’s not as easy as it sounds, but I know the payoff is always worth the journey to trusting and being more like Him.