“The apostles gathered around Jesus and…so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:30-31
Have you ever taken your body or soul through a detox? It’s funny how sensitive you become to foreign contaminants once you’ve been clean for a little while. For the better part of this year, I have been adjusting my diet to better reflect the foods God made in the form he made them. Then, this past week, our family had a number of overly busy days in rapid succession, causing me to “bend just a little” each day on my diet. I was still eating foods on the fringes of my plan; except the “sometimes” foods had taken up residence as the star players. This, coupled with a physically demanding schedule, signaled some low level alerts to my body and soul.
I felt queasy, rushed, overly taxed, and just a little “off,” longing once again to come away with Jesus into the physical and emotional “quiet places” he has been cultivating with me.
As humans, we have this tricky tendency to swing the pendulum of our souls to extremes: we work really hard until we can’t anymore and then crash into some form of escapism. Sometimes, it is the popular delusion that a week-long vacation will somehow correct months of an unsustainable existence. More often, it is the daily retreat onto phone screens or televisions as we mindlessly scroll and stream, because it’s all we feel we can muster the strength to do.
How ironic is it that many of us who want nothing more than to follow Jesus keep forgetting how to sit at his feet?
What if Jesus is present in the so-called demands of our daily lives with an extended hand beckoning us back into the joy of our salvation: where wonder replaces worry and duty bows to delight?
What if we accomplish the most for the Kingdom of God not through our initiatives for God, but our intimacy with him?
Have you lost the focused presence of your pure and sincere devotion to Christ in the wake of a million other “to do’s"?
Are you busy trying to “do good,” but missing gazing upon the One who is Goodness itself?
Do you feel queasy, rushed, overly taxed, and a little “off”?
Here are 3 warning signs that you’re due for a body or soul detox, along with some practical encouragement you can start this week! The way back to wonder is simpler than we think.
3 Warning Signs You’re Losing Your Wonder:
1. Your calendar is full, but you are starting to feel empty.
On many occasions, my spiritual father has urged me to “continually be filled with the Holy Spirit, because we leak!” Sometimes, we leak through sin. But did you know we can leak just as quickly through faithful service?
In Ephesians 5:18, when Paul writes, “be filled with the Holy Spirit,” it is a present imperative. Literally translated, it reads, “be continually being filled.” Our Living Water isn’t a one-time prayer or baptism tank, but a daily oasis in a desert world, urging us to taste and see God is good, all over again.
If we are always running and always serving and never refueling, it won’t be long before our bodies and souls begin to sputter like a car running on fumes. You were not created to operate as a machine. If your schedule has no room for rest, reflection, or replenishment, it’s time to pull over and re-fuel.
2. Your spiritual walk has become dull, dry, or disposable.
As creatures of habit (and often, imitation), we can get stuck in a rut in our time with God, unknowingly bowing to unstated rules and regulations for what we think Bible Study, worship, or prayer need to look like.
I had a long period in my life where I quietly resented my quiet time with God, but wasn’t willing to admit it to myself. I was attempting to copy the way I heard other people met with God, but the time of day and rigidness of schedule were like prison bars to my heart.
Finally, I graciously heard the Lord say one day, “Why don’t you stop leading a time with me you don’t absolutely love?” All at once I could see that there were certain things that made me feel alive and — go figure — God wired me that way because it is how I am meant to meet with him!
I went for longer walks with God, adopted a simple conversational prayer practice, and gave myself lots of flexibility in my time in his Word, and I could breathe. Nothing chokes out wonder quicker than inauthentic disciplines that fail to connect with our hearts.
Well, nothing except one thing.
When demands on our time and soul increase, many of us find unhurried time with God to be the first thing we jettison. Somehow, intimate connection with our Creator becomes disposable, revealing more than we’d like to admit about what we feel we really need. After all, I’ve endured many busy days, but have had relatively few all-nighters where I gave my body no sleep. Likewise, I can’t remember any weeks of 'accidental fasting’ where I just got too busy and stopped eating. Oh, but the ways I have let my soul starve itself of God’s presence when pressure has come near.
3. You have begun to neglect the things needed for your best health.
3 John 1:2 says, “Beloved, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” Sadly, when we get busy, many of us do exactly what I did this past week. We eat junk. We rob ourselves of rest. We are “just too busy” to exercise. And we stockpile stress.
We are body, soul, and spirit. What we do in one arena greatly affects our whole person. There is no world in which we can deny what is needed for our physical or emotional health and claim to be walking in God’s design for our wholeness. God is a Good Father and will never orchestrate our lives in such a way that we have no time to faithfully steward what is needed for our full humanity to be healthy.
If any of this resonates, breathe deep and read on for some ways you can immediately recalibrate. As you do, I’m praying for and cheering for you!
How to Reawaken Wonder:
1. Schedule Space to Come Alive!
A few months ago (as part of my detox), I started calendaring daily “Sabbath” time, in addition to my once a week Sabbath day. These are places within my day where I’ve scheduled a Father-Son date with God. I put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” and take time to do what makes my soul come alive.
For me, that means walks in nature, studying the Word, reading, and playing music. I don’t bury it in a rigid list of “to do’s,” but simply protect the time on my calendar. I have been far from perfect, but am watching oxygen fill my lungs as I simply make space, giving myself permission to be his kid!
“What refreshes, restores, replenishes, and gives you rest? When could you schedule some daily time for this (even if it is just a little)?”
2. Don’t Wear Saul’s Armor!
When you think of “quiet time” with God, does your heart leap for joy? If not, I say this with a TON of expectant anticipation for you: “Refuse to lead a life with God you don’t love!” Copying things from someone else’s devotional life that are dead and dry to you is as futile as David wearing Saul’s armor into battle. Let it go and be free!
“What makes me feel connected to the heart of God?”
“What helps me to hear his voice and tell him my heart?”
“What tools or resources help me understand and grow in His Word?”
Don’t worry about being perfect. Just start!
3. Treat Your Health as a Necessity, Not a Luxury!
We cannot experience wholeness or health with God while neglecting major areas of our own physical or emotional health. Here’s a few questions to super-charge you in “enjoying good health!”
“Are the foods I’m eating filling me with energy or lethargy? What needs to change?”
“What would healthy movement or exercise look like for me in this season?”
“Am I protecting my physical rest: getting enough sleep, honoring the Sabbath, managing stress, etc?”
“Is there anything I’m over-committing to that I am not sure God desires for me?”
“What habits sap my soul?”
“Spiritual power is always linked to communion with God.” — Jim Cymbala
Beutiful