Easy + Light

The other day I had the privilege of hanging out at FamilyLife with some of my Arkansas Women Blogger girlfriends. We toured the building, had some fantastic fellowship and to-die-for food. There is so much good that comes from spending time with like-minded friends who speak wisdom and grace into your life. Suffice to say I had an amazing time all-around.

Afterwards I was chatting with one of my favorite gals on the planet, talking about blogging the way that only bloggers can. Words like “widget” and “analytics” run rampant in those conversations, and it’s totally normal to call someone by their blog name instead of their real name. We got to a point, though, where I started getting real with it. Blogging is the best job in the world, and I cannot express how thankful I am to have this little space to share my heart and my food with you guys. At the end of the day it, like anything that consumes our thoughts, can start to become very heavy.

Time out for a moment: if you don’t know Tracey Eyster I can honestly say you’re missing out. Talk about someone I want to drink coffee and eat cookies with and listen to for hours on end – this gal is legit. Hilarious, kind, heart-of-gold, servant of Christ.

So we’re standing outside chatting when Tracey walks up and joins in the conversation. Rather than agree with what I was saying, though, she turned it all back to God. Her amazing advice was this: you can’t get it all done RIGHTTHISVERYSECOND, so focus on what’s important. These small moments with our families are short-lived, and blogging is great but it’s no substitute for our people.

Great advice, right?

Then Tracey’s husband walks up, introduced himself, and then hit us over the head with some more biblical wisdom: in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says very simply, “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.” Bill simply pointed out that when we rest in Jesus, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. That doesn’t mean life will be easy, but it means that we will have peace in our circumstances. The counterpoint to that, though, is that when we strain against the yoke then life, blogging, marriage, motherhood, whatever – will certainly not be easy.

BOOM.

Now Bill said this all very gently and very kindly, but the few words he said – without even knowing the previous parts of our conversation – have been at the forefront of my mind ever since. There’s no doubt in my mind that God brought that truth to me through him, and so now the wrestling match begins. Not wrestling with God, but rather with myself on how to put that wisdom to use in my life.

All I know is that I love God, adore my family, and pinch myself daily that I have a job I love as well. But those heavy feelings, in every sense of the word, are signs of strain and it’s time to pray for just that next step. God has brought me all the way up to this point; he’s never failed and he won’t start now. So it’s time to trust these feet he’s given me, stop straining by playing it safe, and fly.