Wearing a lot of balls on my plate...wait?

Wowzer!  Life has been a little bit of a whirl wind for the last 2 months.  I am doing well to remember what I ate for lunch earlier today much less to remember how to answer someone when they ask “how was your weekend?”  Was there a weekend recently?!  Did I miss it?  The only reason I’m able to type this post tonight is because an event on my calendar got canceled.  Life feels like it is going at 100mph right now & I know I’m not the only person who feels like that.   While I can honestly say there isn’t much I can cut out to slow down, what I can say is that this season has been an incredible lesson in learning to how to practice operating in a place of rest even when my life pace is demanding & fast.  I have failed miserably at that many times, but I’m also learning to get it right.

I’m wearing several hats right now, I’ve got several balls in the air that I’m juggling, lots of items on my plate…choose your favorite analogy.

  

Hat/Ball in the air/food item on plate #1

I am 2 months into planning my wedding & also 2 months away from it…That’s right.  We’re planning this puppy in 4 months.  It has actually been one of the easiest items to have on the plate.  Over the last 7 years I’ve heard first hand how stressful planning a wedding can be.  What I’ve realized with mine is this:  Yes, there are a lot of things to think about & make decisions on.  Yes, there are details that pop up that you won’t anticipate no matter how much of a planner you are.  Yes, at least one of your agenda items is bound not to get done by the dead line on your schedule.  NO, it does not have to be stressful.  When I feel my heart start to get pulled toward stress, I remind myself that my wedding day doesn’t actually need to have any of the things that I’m about to worry over.  Centerpieces, favors, the perfect songs, honestly even my wedding dress-I could go with out that & still marry the man of my dreams, my best friend, the person Father has blessed me to  partner with in ministry & walk through life with.  Re-centering myself around that truth keeps me from letting myself get wrapped up in trivial things that aren’t even important when it comes to the big picture of the covenant I’m stepping into.  Stepping back & taking a broad view of your situation is one of the healthiest practices you can have sometimes.

Hat/Ball/Food item #2

I work a demanding & frequently exhausting job.  I love what I do, but I do A LOT of it & I fly solo most of the time & that can wear anyone out.  Long story short, I work for a physical therapy company & my responsibility is to keep 17 of our clinics full of new patients needing therapy.  How do I do that?  I visit physician offices to nurture relationships with MDs & their staff as well as coordinating any marketing/community events that the company decides to participate in.  Here’s what it looks like in a super-simplified list: 

• Visit 210 MD offices every 6 weeks
• Establish & nurture relationship with close to 1,000 physicians in the aforementioned offices
• Keep 17 PT clinics busy with new patients
• Market multiple specialty service lines to MDs on top of the orthopedic rehab that all clinics do.  To do this you have to know your MDs, know what kind of patients they see & what programs will be most relevant to them.  It can be crazy when you multiply it by almost 1,000 docs

Sounds like a lot right?  Because it IS!  I had 3 days in a row last week that I was overwhelmed to the point of tears.  Again, I found myself with an opportunity to practice operating in a spirit of rest.  I reminded myself that my job is not my identity.  Yes, I love to perform well, but no it does not define me.

Hat/Ball/Food items #3-#?

• Serve on the board of directors for an amazing anti human trafficking organization called Switch42:16.  It is a complete honor & I’m so thankful to have been given that opportunity.
• Serve on the Church prayer teams on Monday nights.  
• Host/facilitate a bible study on Tuesdays with some of the most amazing women that I’m privileged to do life with.  I’m thankful for everything they bring into my life on a daily basis.
• Marriage counseling on Wednesday nights.  I’m so thankful for couples who have gone before us & can share their wisdom.  Shout out to Josh & Laura Houston who have been amazing so far!
• Still managing to get myself to the gym 4-5 times a week to get wedding/honeymoon ready.  
• Spending as much quality time with my handsome fiancé as I can.  (And I can hear some of you thinking right now.  "She listed him LAST on her list?"  Yes I did!  Because you're always supposed to save the best for last.) He works 50 + hours a week with a completely opposite work schedule from me (evenings & weekends) so we’re learning a lot of the same lessons right now.  He has done an amazing job of being intentional about our relationship even in this busy season & I’m so thankful.  He's a stud.

While it seems like I have a lot going on, I’ve realized that it has actually been a blessing in disguise because it has forced me to learn to rest in the middle of chaos.  I told someone the other day “If I can learn to operate in rest now, I think I'll have gotten it on a whole new level”.  If I didn’t learn to stay in a place of rest I would break down (learned that one first hand).  I used to cry out to the Lord to take some things off my plate, but what He’s done has been much better.  He’s strengthened & stabilized my spirit to be able to keep its peace & rest in the middle of a crazy life.  Abiding in His love & peace is the most restful thing I can do.  I don’t need to worry about having the perfect wedding, being the best performer at my job, having the best training on being a good wife, being an all-star board member or group leader etc.  Abiding with Him & believing that I am all He says I am makes me great at all of those things & with a lot less effort than I would have to exert if I tried to do it with out Him.  He knows what He’s doing when he says “Come to me all you who are weary & heavy laden & I will give you rest”.  He is the BEST rest-giver because his rest isn’t a cover up for burdens, it actually replaces them.  He takes our burdens away completely & gives us rest.  I couldn’t do this life with out him.  This post isn’t meant to be a “busy-ness comparison” for anyone to feel more or less busy than anyone else.  It was simply a post for me to 1) vent! & 2) share that the important thing to master in a busy life isn’t how well you can multi-task but how well you can learn to abide in Him & rest in the middle of chaos.  Learning to do that will be more valuable than any self-help book on time-management, multi-tasking or “being all you can be”.  His love is what enables us be all we were created to be :)  If you’re still reading, thanks for hanging in there!  I know this was a long one, but it sure felt good to get that off my chest :)  Thanks for listening!