This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up! Five minutes of free-flow writing shared with whoever wants to read it. This week's prompt is TABLE.
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I've been doing a study called "Rhythms of Renewal" by Rebekah Lyons. The subtitle is "Trading Stress and Anxiety for a Life of Peace and Purpose".
As soon as I saw those words, I knew I needed to participate. The premise of the book is that there are four rhythms to our lives. These rhythms are ways that God designed for us to live and consist of input and output rhythms. The input rhythms are Rest and Renewal... taking things out of your life so that you can put the important things in. The second two are Connection and Create.
The first two were difficult for me to implement, but I did it. I did a weeklong fast from Social Media, which doesn't sound hard, but the first three days were TORTURE for me. Did I know that I was addicted to social media? I knew I was always on my phone, but I had NO IDEA how connected I was to it. As a result, I had more time, I was able to do things that were truly important to me, and I wasn't nearly as mentally overloaded as I typically am.
As hard as those two were, I knew the doozie for me was coming in the "Connection" week because this is something I have always struggled with. As an introvert, all I want is to be left alone and be given space to decompress. However lately, I have felt closed in, isolated, alone and something else that I can't even name. In the aforementioned book, I came across a quote this morning that took my breath away.
"The enemy of our soul wants us to be isolated and alone. He knows that when we're isolated, we're easy prey. Why? When we're alone and vulnerable, we feel afraid. When we're together and vulnerable, we become brave. A brave group of vulnerable people acting together in faith is not easily overcome by anxiety and stress."
Since I've gone through this study, I have met with a few of my friends to decompress these feelings and in the process found out that I am not alone. There are others just like me, longing for a connection that is just a table away.
So, I believe I've found my answer. I need to set the table and be the type of friend I'd like to have.
