You Weren’t Created To Live In A Closet

Taking breaks, both mental and physical, are really good for you. I highly recommend you schedule one if you haven’t in a while. Even if it’s just for five minutes.

I took a 12-month writing break. On the blog, in print and around the web. I was really discouraged. About life. Purpose. Ministry. Friendships. Family. Church. People. And Cheerios. Ok, not really cheerios. just making sure you are paying attention! In a nutshell, I was burnt out. And ready to throw me into a closet, literally.

Ever feel like it’s time to escape from the world?

It’s a crazy feeling, isn’t it? When you are walking around in a fog, so tired and exhausted because you are spent, emotionally and physically. You feel like you have nothing to give to the big and little people of your life. Unfortunately, there is no escape button. We are here, and this is life. It’s filled with emotional rollercoasters, emotional human beings, and well, emotions in general.

Where do you hide when life gets to be too much?

How often do you escape to Netflix, a good book, a fun craft project, some online shopping or a big bowl of popcorn and/or ice cream? We are all guilty of hiding from real life, especially when it all gets to be too much.

Sometimes all that hiding backfires on us. When we’re ready to come back to reality, we can be a little more wrecked than we were to start with! The hiding and the ice cream and the lack of activity can put a few pounds on to the ol’ hips. And that starts the whole rollercoaster over again, doesn’t it?

Have you ever ran to the closet, literally, to hide?

That’s what this girl did recently. I ran. I hid. Literally, I hid in a closet. One day I walked into my closet, ready to get my Priscilla Shirer War Room on, just hoping that in the darkness, the quiet and the peace I found there would transfer over to me. It didn’t. Mostly because I chose a closet that needed some serious organizing.

Eventually, I cleaned out that closet, but my cleaning frenzy dominoed to one closet after another. Before I could scream “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” the entire house was organized. I was up for cleaning anything if it meant I could avoid doing the work God was calling me to do and focusing on all the stuff inside that I had to let Him fix before I could move forward with my life.

My house was tidy, even if my soul was one big disorganized mess.

I wasn’t created to live in a closet. You weren’t either!

Eventually, we have to stop hiding. In my case, I decided to come out of the closet. Because, you know, they are all tidy and organized now, so there isn’t really any need to spend time in there. Plus, after some quality downtime, I feel like I’ve got my ‘zing’ back. BTW, I didn’t realize that I lost my ‘zing,’ or that I ever had ‘zing’ to begin with, if we’re being honest. But my fave 11 year old is way hipper than me, and apparently, zing is a thing. Seriously, don’t you want to be filled with zing?

Here’s what I have figured out so far…I am still a work in progress. So are you.

We will always be a work in progress until we meet again in heaven. So wouldn’t it be better if we stopped pretending we had it all together and just admit that we’re messed up to some degree? And wouldn’t it be even cooler if we could pray for one another in the middle of our messes?

We’re all broken and damaged and in desperate need of a Savior.

You’re messed up. I’m messed up. This world is messed up. And it’s freeing to admit that we don’t have it all together. Even if some days we try to pretend that we do!

Your Grace Challenge

1. Grab a journal or blank piece of paper and write down all the things that hold you back from being all that God created you to be.
2. Meditate on Psalm 56:3 “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” and 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Would the size of your list change if you could commit these words to heart for those grace stealing moments of life?
3. Write down the names of all the people you compare yourself to. Write down a phrase or two about why you feel inferior to them. Once you’ve finished listing all the peeps that drag you down, take some time to lift them up to the Lord. They aren’t perfect either, remember?
4. Take some time and pray for yourself today! Ask God to free you from the burden of comparison and shower you with His grace. Ask Him to show you how you can be all that He created you to be. Meditate on Galatians 6:4-5 “But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”