There is nothing like the feel of the sand between your toes, the sun on your skin, and hair being blown into your face from the ocean breeze. The smell of salt water penetrates your nose and every pore. The biggest difference from just laying at the pool and sitting at the beach is the rhythmic sound of the waves. This by far is the best part. If I didn’t have kids to watch I could sit in a chair and nap to that sound.
Rhythm changes everything.
Like so many others, my favorite season has always been fall. This love began well before pumpkin spice was added to everything and my favorite drink from Starbucks became a thing. Fall is the start of school and the rhythm of routine that follows. I know exactly what needs to be done each day. There is no putting off laundry day or cleaning day because I am squeezing it in amongst all the kids activities. I know exactly what time I need to get up, compared to the “plans” I make for rising early in the summer to accomplish things.
Rhythm requires initial planning and then it becomes routine. I hear this is the same for running, if you do it long enough you will begin to love it. I have never made it past the first day so I am not speaking from experience.
However, not long ago I was three pounds from my goal weight. A goal weight I had been working towards for over a year. Let’s be clear I had about 10 pounds to lose but didn’t want to do the work to get me there. When it comes to working out and giving up the foods I like, I just am not that invested. One of my big problems was I wouldn’t each lunch. I would get busy and just not have any desire to make anything. When two o’clock would roll around I would be starving but knowing I would be making dinner soon I would grab a not so healthy snack. My solution was to premake salads for the entire week for lunches. I do this for both my husband and I. In the first two months he lost ten pounds I lost… drum roll please…. NOTHING. I tried to not let that bother me. I kept making the salads and going to my groups workouts twice a week. Then one day I had lost a few pounds and then a few more. I did my best to keep up the rhythm throughout the summer but some weeks was easier than others. Besides what does it matter? Before I knew it, I had gained a few back.
Rhythm changes everything.
Last week I did not make a post on Labor Day. It was a conscious decision to not have to worry about taking the time to write the first week of school and then to be able to enjoy our vacation over the weekend. No big deal. But then it was. I was out of rhythm. Not only was I not writing, but I wasn’t in His Word daily. I was not being filled like I had been in the rhythm of before. When I got out of the rhythm of hearing God’s word I was allowing Satan to creep in. Satan is tricky. He doesn’t come at me with flashing lights that says here I am, but instead in the silence. He knows exactly what my struggles are and he targets them.
So instead of diving back into my rhythm after vacation I was filling my time with busyness. I was sleeping a few extra minutes and doing a million things. A few days later, I realized that not only had I not spent time with God, but I hadn’t written anything. This was when Satan started whispering:
- “It doesn’t really matter.”
- “No one is reading this.”
- “You are not qualified.”
- “It was fun for a while, but it’s a lot of work.”
This then trickled into my relationships. How do I tell the people around me I am done? I am giving up on all of it. This is not something I can do anymore. God will understand too, right?
Then God showed up. Thursday night, after being very short with my husband, I went to our church’s women’s night REFLECT. I was early as a volunteer and talking to different friends when a woman said, you are the one from the video. She then began to explain how her granddaughter has an eating disorder and how much the video with my youth had meant. (More on this story and the video link in BE STILL) I shared my youth’s recovery account where she shares her journey for her granddaughter to follow. The next day I texted this youth to encourage her to keep sharing her story, to keep posting on the account, and to remind her that just as Joseph said in Genesis to his brothers that God intended it for good to save many lives. As soon as I hit “send” I realized God was talking to me too.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35
If Jesus, the son of God, needed to find time to pray. So do I and so do you. Are you out of the rhythm of spending time with God? If you find yourself struggling for answers, being short with the ones you love, or just being down in the dumps… start right now. Today is the day to start the rhythm.
Rhythm Changes Everything.
