Motivation Monday - Why You Should Center Your Soul In The Wake Of A Sinkhole
“Look for the new in what God is doing in you more than you focus on all that is going on around you. Focus on becoming stronger to not go down when a sinkhole opens up in front of you.
Don’t be put off by another Monday. Consider it the start of something new. And watch what God does.
”
It’s Monday. Again. The weekend behind is officially closed for business. It is too close to the beginning of the week to dream about the weekend coming. Monday’s can feel gray and a bit morose with nothing to look forward to but a long week of the same old thing. It’s covid, after all.
Even pretending that Monday is really Saturday won’t change the fact that a whole week stretches ahead of you. And then another, and another. During this phase of the pandemic, not only does each day seem exactly like the one before, but so do the weeks, and the months. And soon you feel stuck.
To be (stuck) in a rut:
To become seemingly trapped or stuck in a mundane,
non changing pattern of life, work, and/or personal behaviour.
When we’re stuck, like on a Monday, we may fail to prepare for what will happen when the snow melts, when the season changes, when the sun comes out, and when the next wave of change comes rolling in.
I once read a story about a man who lost his life in a late winter when a sinkhole opened up beneath his home’s foundation, causing the floor to collapse and simply swallow up the house.
Just as important as the ‘stuck’ syndrome, is the ‘sinkhole’ syndrome. A sinkhole may be triggered by failure at work, a severed relationship, harsh criticism, an ongoing pandemic, or for no apparent reason at all. But if feels like the earth has given way.
We have two worlds to manage at any given moment. The outer world that consists of the news of the day, career, family, possessions, church and social networks. We also have an inner world that is more spiritual in nature, where values are selected and character is formed - a place where worship and confession and humility can be practiced.
Because our outer worlds are visible and measurable and expandable, they not only demand our attention, they are easier to deal with. The news, the weather, the availability or inability of solutions to our real and perceived problems are in front of us in moving colour without letting up.
The result is that our inner world is often cheated and neglected, because it does not shout quite so loudly.
We can effectively ignore our souls for large periods of time before it begins to cave in.
We become spiritually vulnerable.
We become untethered to the Source of stability, faithfulness, life, and joy.
In our increasing addiction to the news of the day, we
become blind to the needs of our own soul. We lose our center.
A soul without a center has difficulty making a decision. When the soul is not centered, one is never sure what temptations are ones that should be resisted, or what sacrifices one should be making. We lose our north star. We do things like binge watching, over-indulging, escaping, or over-working because our internal compass is on hiatus.
A soul without a center feels constantly vulnerable to people or circumstances. Elijahs’ soul grew terrified under the threat of Jezebel and he runs and hides. David runs from his son Absalom and becomes completely exhausted. In both of these circumstances it is only God that restores the soul and re-centers it so they can go back out into the world.
A soul without a center is easily thrown. We didn’t see any of this current reality coming. At least I didn’t! We were thrown off-kilter at first and quickly tried to accommodate the new with more zoom moments, more hybrid work situations, more baking bread and learning new things. However, as the months have turned into years, our short-lived accommodations have not met the need of our souls to truly be planted and standing strong while a world undoes itself around us.
God is still propelling you forward.
You just may not see it.
There may be a sinkhole coming that requires a centered soul to withstand it.
You just may not see it.
Consider these truths:
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
Isaiah 43:19
“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”
Psalm 51:7
“Lord, shape a Genesis {new} week out of the chaos of my life.”
Pay attention to your soul. Center it. Ground it. Nurture it. Look for the new in what God is doing in you more than you focus on all that is going on around you. Focus on becoming stronger to not go down when a sinkhole opens up in front of you.
Don’t be put off by another Monday. Consider it the start of something new. And watch what God does.
I believe in you!
Cathie