Are you surprised, too, that summer’s arrived? Summertime can sometimes make us feel like kids freed from school–ready to stay up late, play outside, eat ice cream, watch movies, and ask each other a hundred times a day, “What do you want now?”
It’s an interesting question – “What do you want?” To answer honestly, you have to be in touch with the true you, deep inside, and what she truly desires. Answering “What do you want?” means trusting your heart.
And that can prove tricky, especially if we’ve been taught good Christians have “desperately wicked” hearts (Jer. 17:9), instead of beautiful, wise hearts made new through salvation in Christ. (Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17)
In Tune with Your Heart
Do you do the word of the year thing? Mine this year is…
God’s using this year to teach me being playfully alive as believers means we happily enjoy ourselves instead of going through the motions .. Playfully alive means living life with your whole heart!
You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life God meant you to live, unless you live from the heart.
-John Eldredge
John is talking about your brand new heart–the new nature in Christ you received at the moment of salvation.
New Things
This past April our family stepped into some brand new territory. One of the guys at my husband’s work was scrambling to find housing, and since we have space, we decided to rent him an upstairs room and bathroom.
The room we rented was for craft and storage before, so that meant a large closet, shelving, dresser, storage piece, and decorations had to be moved.
The whole gain-a-roommate happened fast, so we dumped all the stuff in weird places. For a while I cringed every time I saw the piled guest bed, messy office, landing stacked with who-knows-where-to-put-these-thingamajigs. But, oddly enough, it’s turned into an unexpected blessing.
The whole process has become an unexpected blessing, though, a kind of real-life metaphor for what happens in our lives: God puts things in order before He launches the next leg of your grand adventure.
Through this process I’m learning new ways to be playfully alive. This putting things away, freshening up spaces, rearranging things – this right here is grace come to life! And it makes my work and creativity come alive in fresh, new ways.
Summer Lovin’
Please don’t go reorganize your closets and sweep up dust bunnies expecting to be happy this summer. I wouldn’t wish that on you! It’s a truckload of work, and besides, maybe it’s not your thing.
Maybe your thing is journaling or planting flowers or going to the beach or making up stories or painting or having a BBQ on the deck or singing a song or reading a book or baking a coffeecake or inviting a friend over for tea on a random Thursday.
What lets your heart sing a happy little song? What makes you feel alive? What do you want?
This summer give some attention to the true you God created. Never mind the “shoulds” and guilt, the false “deceitful heart” speak, or what other people think you need to be.
Let your beautiful, made-new-in-Jesus heart answer questions honestly…and then go pursue more of that.
Because the life Jesus came to give you is one where you are truly you–in harmony with what feels alive and free, and living from that place with your whole heart!