Archive for Change
The Day My Clothes Spoke to Me
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A new year. A new opportunity. A new day. A new beginning. Ah, the inspiration of it!
I spent part of New Year’s Eve cleaning out my clothes’ closet. I took everything out of my closet and laid the stuff in stacks around my room. Then I began. Toss. Keep. Give away. Store in a different place. Reorganize. Somehow the arrival of the New Year beckoned me to start over again. To think in new ways. To look for new strategies.
Magazine articles about decluttering and organization called to me.
I was in a ruthless mood. If I didn’t love it, it went no matter how much I wondered if it might come back into style in a year or if it might fit me better later.
The process became spiritual.
I picked up a blouse. I thought of my mother and her changing memory. The blouse represented a shopping trip we’d had. I felt saddened and a deeper realization of my time with her changing as she ages.
A dress touched my memory of days gone by and folks I love who I don’t really see anymore. Tears filled my eyes as I allowed the memory to fill my heart.
Another outfit took me back to a season of my life. Ah, those were good days.
The blouse I would wear for my anniversary this week. More smiles.
Ah, there was that item that needs hemming and one that needs a button.
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Remember, Reflect, Refocus, Resolve: Preparing for the New Year
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My heart is filled with a quiet anticipation and traces of ambivalence. Another year is ending; a new one beginning. The very passage into a new year carries an innate sense of need to evaluate oneself. This self-evaluation, if done in truth, brings one face to face with the depths of one’s own depravity and the heights of one’s own glory for both are true of the human heart and life.
The end of the year beckons us to remember. What have we done well this year? Where have we gained ground? Have we grown spiritually, emotionally, and mentally? Where have we failed? Missed the mark? Wasted the treasure of life?
True reflection on one’s life can be painful, especially when we must admit that we didn’t keep any of those 2011 New Year’s Resolutions! Yet the purpose of our reflection is to refocus not to condemn.
How can we see and hear more clearly what God is saying to us at the end of a year?
While typical New Year’s Resolutions are things like spend more time with my family, organize more, lose weight, spend less money, etc., the commonality seems to be this need to refocus our lives.
How do we refocus our lives?
Intentional introspection requires a quiet spirit submitting to the voice of God who will lead us to remember, reflect, refocus, and resolve.
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Navigating Uncomfortable Waters
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I like comfort. My personal choice is easy, painless, risk-free, non-confrontational living. God, however, seems quite at peace with asking me to be uncomfortable. In fact, He is somewhat insistent on stretching me, requiring me to face my own unhealed stuff, and gently reminding me that comfort does not always equal His will or purposes in my life or in the life of those I love.
I have found that God is not hesitant to ask me to walk through wilderness, desert, north winds, and mountainous terrains of my soul and spirit. The lessons I have learned as I have faced the uncomfortable places have greatly transformed me.
I think that most of us who are believers in Christ can identify many situations where God has asked us to be uncomfortable. From my salvation on, I can think of times when God’s invitation was to allow Him to change me IN AND THROUGH the uncomfortable place.
Why would God choose to work that way?
God, who knows each of us so intimately, much more than we know our own selves, has a plan for us. Scripture tells us that He intends for us all to be “conformed into the image of His own dear son.” This transformation requires change. Most of us resist change. We cling to what we know, even when it is not working.
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How God Speaks to Us Through Our Emotions
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What emotions are you feeling right now? Can you name what is happening inside your inner world? Could God be speaking to you through your emotions?
Are you annoyed, ashamed, confused, hurt, depressed, jealous, anxious, fearful, stressed, angry, or sad?
While it may sound like a simple task to name what emotions you are experiencing, I haven’t always been able to do that and I’ve found in my work as a therapist, that many, many folks are not able to accurately name what is happening inside them.
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When the Truth Crashes Through
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The words hit me. I felt their impact as if I’d run full-force into a brick wall in the middle of the night. My soul reverberated from the impact. It was as if layers of dried up mud had suddenly cracked open and began to fall off my heart and mind, piece by piece, bit by bit, chunk by chunk.
I had come face to face with truth. Oh, the truth had been there all along, but I had not known it. I’d not been willing or able to see it. The dried muddy layers of denial and resistance and repression which I’d used to protect myself from pain suddenly were cracked open enough for the truth to begin to penetrate my heart and mind.
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