inhaling and exhaling
this past Sunday, Richard (Bethany Community Church) preached on the balance between being internal and being external, taking in and producing out. the analogy he used was breathing - one must both inhale and exhale in order to survive.
this past year, my life has been one long exhale (do, do, do, do, do) which has been unhealthy in all matters of life: physically, socially, spiritually, intellectually, creatively. inhales tend to be abrupt and drastic - entire evenings or weekend days staying in bed, exhausted and unwilling to move. thank the Lord for long vacations!
we are not made to live like this.
i ask for prayers for wisdom and boldness as i make the necessary changes for more time and room to inhale. they begin at work, and thus impact others.
4 comments:
i will pray for this for you. i like the breathing analogy.
If only we could could find the internal and external balance as simple and balanced as breathing in and out. Most of us breathe in and out with no effort; breathing has a pattern, a rhythm. Yet we hardly ever have to think about this life-sustaining process.
"Inhaling" and "exhaling" in our lives requires so much more work, forethought, planning, and boundary setting. We have to be proactive and (god forbid especially for people-pleasing Asian women) have to say no.
Maybe I'll wait for the magic little pill.
i'm praying that there will be a pause for you very, very soon.
Hmmm, Priya's comment made me think. For most of us, breathing (inhaling and exhaling) is very automatic and unconsious. However, I had a roommate who, due to a brain that doesn't function the way the rest of ours does, had to remember to inhale and exhale. Sometimes, if he didn't remember often enough, his face would get red because he wasn't getting enough air, and he'd have to sit and consciously breathe for awhile until everything returned to normal.
So, it made me think that perhaps the life rhythm of inhaling and exhaling needs to be a conscious effort until we reach a point where most of the time we don't have to work so hard at making time for the inhales.
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