An Everlasting Hunger for More

We all are aware of the feeling of being burnt out. We each have experienced this at some compacity whether this was for work, our friendships, or even in our pursuit of Christ. Man, it should never be that way, right?

We should never place ourselves in front of the crippling emotions of being burnt out. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into the arms of the enemy! Our pursuit for Christ should be filled with complete peace, excitement, joy, and an everlasting hunger for more.

Intimacy with the Father is so sweet! Give Him space to speak to you intently and He will.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30

Take rest in the One who created such. When God designed rest, He shaped it so that we would spend it with Him.

Your solitude may look different than mine. I love to pick wildflowers if you haven’t noticed yet.

This past week during debrief we were given a stillness and silence day. These days are rather rare, especially in the western world. A stillness and silence day is as much as you make it. There were three levels to our day, and it was all based around how extreme we wanted to take it personally:

Level 3: Don’t talk to anyone (it was mandatory we would not talk to a fellow squadmate, but you could take it as far as not talking to anyone at all. Yes, this even included ordering your morning coffee).

Level 2: Don’t put anything in your ears (this included listening to any music or podcasts, etc.).

Level 1: Turn your phone off completely… get unplugged.

Guess how quickly I jumped to level 1? Immediately. That may come as a surprise to you but getting unplugged from the world is one of the best things you can do.

Get out into God’s creation! It is one of my favorite ways to be with Him in solitude. 

Silence, solitude, rest… it is a command. If Jesus, the Son of God, can make time to rest with the Father so can we. It is life-giving! We must let go of our outer and inner distractions to be with God.

This can look different for everybody; but I want to encourage you to place every life distracting thing to the side, sit comfortably, close your eyes, and bring your attention back to the Father.

You don’t have to take a full day for your first time in solitude but when you get there, it is so rewarding to come before the throne stripped from all distractions for even five minutes. Sitting in complete stillness and silence for hours may feel uncomfortable and out of your comfort zone, well good. God doesn’t call us to be comfortable!

This day was the most restful day for me from debrief! I was able to sit in a park for two hours with very little journaling and zero speaking; I felt like I was just sitting on a bench with my best friend, Jesus. His presence is so comforting and warming. This is just a small taste of what my day looked like.

Step out of your comfort zone and see what God has for you in stillness and silence.

So, the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  Genesis 2:1-2

Rest is created by the Father; He didn’t need to rest but He did. I can discuss silence and solitude all day and I can encourage you for hours, but it will not make an impact unless YOU take action. Sit with the Father today for He will reenergize you.

Take it from me, it is so beyond restful and fulfilling. You won’t ever regret hanging out with the Lord; He is SO good! How will you step into solitude this month? What action will you take when you begin to feel burnt out? 

with all my love,

PJ