While everyone is talking about setting goals and New Years resolutions I want to make an outlandish suggestion. Let’s quit it all.
I guess I should offer some explanation and let you know first that I am not suggesting you do anything that I am not doing first. I am quitting it all. Perhaps I can convince you to quit it all too if you stick with me for a few moments.
The last half of 2015 was the most intensely busy I ever remember my life being. It was filled to the brim with deadlines, projects, school commitments, appointments, and family life. It seemed to come out of no where and even my calendar pages gave no indication of how immensely packed it would end up being. It was just life, some yeses and lots of blindsiding circumstances. But it was good. It was stretching me in all the right ways and I made it through with less stress than I thought I should have had.
I didn’t handle it all perfectly but I certainly grew in the process.
But somewhere in the midst of it all I had a revelation and it was that I felt very divided. I didn’t feel like I was giving anything my best. I felt as though I was doing everything just to get it done but that I was barely able to stop and catch my breath before the next thing needed my attention. I really wanted to stop and reevaluate but there was no time to stop because the next thing was already upon me.
It was about this time that my mentor told me her plan for the New Year – to lay everything down and ask God what she should continue with and what she needed to quit. My eyes must have gotten huge because it had never occurred to me that I could just quit EVERYTHING.
I began to ponder this idea, pray about it and wonder about all that I have been involved in. The stretching was good but perhaps the stretching was to get me here, to this moment of laser focused vision.
So, as this new year has begun I have been examining everything I do, every thing I am involved in, every task I have taken on. I am asking myself questions like “Am I just doing this because I always have?” “Does it make sense for me and my family for me to keep doing this?” “Is this God’s best for my life?” “Am I dreaming big enough or am I just bogged down with all these things I think I am supposed to be doing?”
I am quitting it all.
I am laying everything down. All of it. Every action, every appointment, every responsibility, and asking God to clarify if I should pick it back up or leave it where it lies.
Don’t get me wrong. This quitting it all is not an easy task. It takes a lot of effort and thinking through the benefits and consequences. Some of the things I decide to lay down affect other people and that is hard. I don’t want to disappoint but I also don’t want to live my life trying to please everyone around me. I will probably have to have some tough conversations about the things I am quitting but I can only see good coming from them.
I only have one life and so do you. I want to live it well with intention and purpose and passion. Feeling divided is so very unpleasant and I don’t care to live my life that way.
I think God’s best for us involves both starting and quitting. Starting when He tells us to and quitting when He tells us to. Sometimes it is all a matter of trust and obedience.
Everything is on the table for Him to tell me to quit – even this blog. I’m holding everything very loosely and I mentally go through each thing and asking for wisdom and clarity. I don’t expect that this quitting will be quick but rather slow and intentional. I plan to work through it for as long as He leads me to.
Hi Kristin. Praying that the Lord will lead your heart in the right direction. I get tired of being overly busy myself, but it’s hard to combat because it’s largely how I’m wired. Always gotta be doing something, reaching for something bigger, ya know? In the process, I often worry that I’ll look back and regret moving so quickly through life. Sometimes I wonder why I push so hard – even when things aren’t actually taking up space in my schedule, they’re always fighting for attention in my head. Sometimes I think that’s the worst part of busyness. It’s not really the going and doing, but the planning, preparing, deciding, trying, balancing, coping-with-disappointment. Those are the things that push me to quit. But they’re often the same things that push me into the doing in the first place. Like you, the thought of really ‘quitting it all’ has never occurred to me. This was a thought-provoking post. Best of luck to you as you move forward.
Lisa Hurley recently posted..Hope for Years with Rocky Endings
Hi Lisa, Thank you ever so much for your prayers! I get the mental struggle that all of the tasks we take on do can be. It’s very much a journey isn’t it? And there are so many seasons. Some we are supposed to be doing many things and other seasons are for rest. It’s figuring out which season you are in that can be tricky. Be blessed in your journey!