Coming Out of My Hiding Place

It happened again. 

"The Overwhelm"
"The Paralyses"
"Frozen in Fear"
"A Hot Mess" (This is another blog all by itself....coming soon)

Whatever you call it, it is a real thing. 

It's what happens to me when life comes at me fast, like a tornado that leaves a path of destruction in it's wake and leaves me hiding in the storm shelter long after the storm has passed.  Sometimes hiding looks like too much chocolate, or too much Netflix.  Or too much __________.  (Fill in the blank with your favorite hide out.) 

Important Things cannot get done while you're hiding out in a storm shelter. 

Yeah, that hiding business, it's a real thing all right.

It keeps me from doing the small things that the Bible calls "little". 
(It sounds something like this in my head:  "What good will picking up that one sock on the floor do when my whole house looks like a tornado came through it?"  Sound familiar?)

It keeps me from being found faithful in the Little Things and in the Important Things.
 
It keeps me from listening for that still, small Voice inside.  The Voice that is willing and able to guide me from that place of hiding, "protected" from a the swirling storm that has long since passed...

...to the place of freedom where I am released to act upon Holy Spirit guidance and direction.

It keeps me from looking for The Way out...The Way out of The Overwhelm, The Paralyses, and The Fear that binds me.

Quietly, patiently, and oh so lovingly Holy Spirit waits for an invitation.  For me the invitation goes something like this:

1.  I close my eyes and take a deep breath in. 
2.  I intentionally quiet the noise in my head.
3.  I let that deep breath out and relax my body. 
4.  I repeat 1-3....UNTIL.

Until the noise stops.
Until my belly lets go of the gripping anxiety.
Until I can hear The Voice speaking to the winds and the waves, "Be still."

The winds and the waves obey.  They obey because I obeyed. 

The word obey in the Greek means to attentively listen to the one giving the charge; acting under the authority of The One speaking.

I'm learning that there isn't anything that I have to do today that is more important than Attentively Listening for The Voice that calms the stormy seas in my heart and invites me to come out of my hiding place.

Hearing The Voice, and more importantly, receiving The Message that my heart desperately needs for this day is the key to walking in freedom.

Yesterday's message is not enough for this jumbled, mixed up heart of mine.  I need a fresh message, or fresh manna, for each day.   In Bob Hamp's book, Think Differently Lead Differently, he writes, "...if we try to hang on to yesterday's [manna]...we end up with a jar of rotten food." [In the margin of my copy of the book I wrote the words, "Oh. My".  I do that.  I write in all my best books. Then I had to put the book down and wrap my mind around that nugget of truth for a while.] 

I know I am hearing The Voice when I receive messages that sound something like this: 

"You are fully known, fully loved and fully accepted."
"It'll be okay, Anna.  I have you held securely in the palm of my hand." 
"I love you, Hot Mess and all."