Don't Rush This.

“Don’t rush this.” The whisper is loud.

I found myself yearning for the fall foliage in the trees as I drove myself up north for a short time of rest. My windows were down as I drove backroads in unfamiliar mountain and port towns. As I checked into my destination, I found it peculiar that I began to look forward to my return home just as soon as I had arrived.

Why do I do that? Long for autumn when I still haven’t grasped what summer has to offer? Long to be surrounded by people when I still haven’t fully grasped what it is that He has to offer me in getting away with Him?

I live in the tension of wanting to get away, but when I finally do, I am left with only myself and God. The enormity of all my shortcomings come rushing in like a wave. But instead of resting in the place of covering, my natural bend is to wish away and want for the next best thing, because somehow it is still easy to cover myself when the reality is that God is the coverer of all things and inviting us into a great unraveling.

So I lean in to the whisper, let in the voice that says “don’t rush, it’s safe here.”

For it’s in the power of letting in that we are ever truly capable of pouring out.

The desire to be anywhere but where we are is not a new concept to God. Nothing is new beneath this sun to Him, for every issue brought to Him was in The Book, heralding truth before you and I were ever born here.

He calls us to high places, and in going to those higher places, continues to sink us lower into the depths of HIs love. No matter how far we run, He is there like a full chest of gold, beckoning us back home to rest in the riches of His love.

For rushing faster than what He intended will not get us anywhere sooner.

I find myself wanting to rush, but when I rush I miss what is happening now. When I miss out on what’s happening now because I want to be elsewhere, bitterness, jealousy, and anger all make their way in like tiny rocks in dirt, severing any chance of new roots taking ground for growth. I know I don’t belong to those things; for He is the keeper of my heart and I know I am with Him, He is my safeguard and takes those things from me.

So I continue returning to the place where I know is safe. Deeper Still.

If the place He has for you now is hidden, don’t rush it away through striving for the limelight. If the place He has for you now is growth and intimacy with Him, don’t rush it away through every means necessary to hide away from His face. If summer is here, don’t wish it’s warmth gone for the beckoning beauty of autumn.

If He longs for you to get away with Him, don’t wish for the moment to be over as soon as you have it, bend low and bow. Sink into the whispers of love and let your mind be washed by the power of His presence covering you and marking you as One who is With Him, changed forever, set free from the bondage of wishing for anything more or less than what He has freely given you.

It’s beautiful, this season. Don’t rush it. For the next will be here faster than you can anticipate, and instead of wishing for it to be here now, He encourages us into the sacred knowledge of peace.

Present. All here. All now.