Loved

Are you afraid to stop?  Does the thought of slowing down stress you out?  When your to-do list is near an end, do you quickly come up with 10 more things that just have to be done by tomorrow?  What about noise?  Do you treat quietness like a disease?  Is your tv always on or your phone never out of reach?  When you see emptiness in your schedule is the urge to fill it unbearable?  I have to say of myself "guilty"!

There's something in that quiet lonely time that reveals emptiness;  I become aware that I'm not fulfilled.  Because I tend to value myself more by what I do than who I am, I don't like the discontentment I feel. My ultimate goal is to be fixed.  A few short months ago I was challenged by this statement from one of  my hero's, Sheila Walsh: "All my life I've tried to be fixed but I realized I'm not fixed, I'm loved." Those words replay in my head often.  

I have learned that if I pause long enough, through the emptiness, I become fulfilled.  When we admit we are empty, something powerful, something life-changing happens; a quiet still small voice brings all our fears to rest.  There's a voice that calls us to peace.  A voice that says you are not alone.  It doesn't matter what you do, you are loved.

The realization of that love changes everything.   If you never stop and listen, it's hard to hear the reassuring voice of Our Creator.  
 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Romans 3:20 NIV