Gimme A BREAK!

YS Bookstore

I’ve been on a retreat this week.

Never mind that I worked as many as 13 hours a day while retreat-ing. Never mind that what occupied much of my mind-space this week had to do with counting books and counting money. Never mind that my retreat required air travel and taxi rides and coordinating a busy calendar for my family at home in my absence.

I’ve been on a retreat this week, and I NEEDED THIS BREAK!

Maybe no one has ever come right out and told YOU this, but YOU NEED A BREAK, TOO!

YOU need to schedule time to get away from the routine of life.

YOU need to step outside the boundaries of safety and predictability that you’ve created.

YOU need to be reminded that you are ALIVE (not the robot you sometimes feel like, doing the same thing day in and day out, rain or shine, like it or not).

WHY do you need a BREAK? Because it’s HEALTHY!

Stepping outside of the boxes you’ve been stored in is CRITICAL to your health! Shifting gears mentally, even for a couple of days, allows you to process your thoughts differently, often shedding light that the shadowlands of your mind are most desperate to receive. Looking at your life from any distance, even if only from across town, gives perspective to who you ARE, what you DO and the gap between your reality and the YOU that may be hiding beneath the surface, just DYING to get OUT.

Some of us are so busy LIVING on the outside that we’re DYING a slow death on the inside – going through the motions in a state of disconnect from the E-motions we are MEANT to experience as humans who were created to share in the joy of our Creator (John 15:11).

Letting go of to-do lists and the noose of schedule for a time naturally frees up space in your head, making room for the dreams you keep ‘stuffing’ and the memories you need to re-visit.

Connecting yesterday with tomorrow can only happen when you are fully present TODAY – and most of us, on a normal day, are tardy at best.

You need a BREAK because we all need to be reminded of our value as an individual.

You are wife, mother, volunteer, employee, daughter, friend, leader, boss – but first and foremost, you are YOU! Stripping away your identity-by-relationship forces a good, long look at the you in the mirror – the one person you tend to avoid, overlook and underestimate. The one person who most desperately needs to spend some quality time with you.

During Advent – the season that begins on Sunday and runs through Christmas Eve – Pink Shoes Ministries will be exploring ways to turn toward Christ while unloading some of the excess baggage we’ve accumulated as a result of living in a broken world.

Walk with me toward the manger!

Take a daily break during this busy season and consider a new wardrobe – taking off the ill-fitting shrouds and putting on a mantle of ageless beauty designed FOR YOU by God Himself!

If “Gimme a BREAK!” is the cry of your heart, you are in good company.

Trek Orientation will be posted here on Saturday.

The Journey begins on Sunday.

I hope you’ll join us! (Don’t be late!)