“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
We have been living in a quarantine, Covid-19 reality for nearly a month now. With so many people working from home, staying home, doing school at home, and so on, it can easily begin to blur the lines. Life is about finding balance. With people being home and with social distancing, that lack of social interaction and connection is being felt by so many people, like a sink hole that suddenly appeared in the middle of our lives. But I have already written about that in a previous devotional. The other side of that balance is the importance of boundaries, of understanding where to develop healthy limitations and appropriate definitions in relationships. For many people being home with family for such an extended period, it can be very easy for those boundaries to become blurred.
Being at home in quarantine for me, my home has become a workspace for me and my wife, a school for both of my children, restaurant, play area, a place to sleep, and so much more. Often times, my day is spent juggling my own work, helping my children get schoolwork done, preparing meals for myself or my family, providing IT support for my wife and her job, trying to get some ministry projects done, doing maintenance around the house, chores, not to mention any number of things that pop up unexpectedly. By the end of the day, everything feels all jumbled and chaotic, and it can be difficult for my home to feel like a home.
On top of all of that, it feels like just about every second of the day has some type of obligation or responsibility attached to it. It’s either work, making sure my kids do school, aiding my wife with her work, and even after all of that is done, the end of the day is filled with spending time and playing with the kids, trying to find some quality time with my wife, and . . . . With so much of our lives overlapping each other at home, it can be easy to lose yourself.
In a ministry that focuses on the struggles of Mental Health, there are two important things that are critical for all people to have: healthy relationships and healthy boundaries. Both things go hand-in-hand with each other. You can’t have a healthy relationship if it doesn’t include healthy boundaries. When you don’t have healthy boundaries, you can lose yourself in your relationships, or you fail to have healthy self-care. These two characteristics (in my opinion) are an essential part of healthy living, and without them your mental health can suffer dramatically.
By this time, you are probably asking yourself, “Just what is my point?” When our lives are spent living on top of each other, we can lose our sense of boundary, causing us to lose our sense of self, and we can then neglect to care for our own needs because our focus is on the needs of the whole. Allow me to offer a quick, pop quiz:
· When was the last time you had some private time to yourself?
· Do you find yourself neglecting those things that feed your soul?
· How easy is it for you to take some time to just sit and to revel in some silence?
· Have your daily activities become rotary, and lost that sense of purpose?
In Psalm 46, God says for us to “be still, and know that I am God.” As much as we are called to be active and to be doing the ministry of God, there are also times when we must stop. You see, when you spend so much time doing, it can develop a momentum that you get carried away with, but getting caught up in that momentum can cause us to lose sight of our purpose, our goals, and even our own identity. That is why life requires a balance between the activity and the stillness. It is equally important for us to be aware of our calling to serve God and to serve others, but also for us to take time to be still and reflect.
Reflection is such an important part of our spiritual development and growth, which is why it is such a tragedy that so few people give any time or energy to reflection. For many people, the constant need for noise, for stimulus, for distraction, can be a difficult wall to overcome. But, taking time for reflection allows us to examine our lives, to see ourselves through the eyes of scripture, to be genuinely honest with ourselves and to go before God with our true selves.
In Psalm 139:23-24, the prayer is as follows: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” This is not a simple or easy prayer. To ask God to truly know who you are, all of your faults and mistakes, your fears, pain, and guilt, can be terrifying, because asking God to seek it out requires being willing to confront it yourself. But, without that reflection and that exploration, all of our baggage will continue to rule over us until we allow ourselves to face it, acknowledge it, and confess it.
These are trying times we are living in right now, especially being home and being surrounded be people and demands and responsibilities almost non-stop. But, make sure you take time to be still, and to know the presence of God. Allow yourself time and space to deal with your stress and anxiety, rather than running away from it. As you continue to care for the people around you, do not neglect to make time to take care of your own needs. Stop, breathe, reflect, and simply allow the presence of God to be with you.
May the blessings of God continue to be with you and may the presence of God guide you and lead you in remarkable and unexpected ways.