Lessons Learned in a Massage
Do you struggle with feeling that you aren't doing what you are supposed to be doing unless you are running full tilt? Me too! But I recently learned a few things about myself and the Lord during a time when He told me to stop running for a minute and let Him work. #Fatigue #ChristianBlog
A few weeks ago, I experienced a gift. For Christmas last year, our daughters gave my husband and me one-hour massages. Yes, it took us an embarrassingly long time to take advantage of these gifts. But we finally went and we both thoroughly enjoyed the peace in both our physical and emotional selves.
It is amazing how fast-paced life can get and how rarely we do nothing, absolutely nothing. There’s no checking social media or email while you’re having a massage. There’s virtually no talking. It is just quiet. It is also visually quiet. It’s dark. Your eyes are shut. Quiet drops down around your mind like a velvety curtain, almost demanding peace.
Since the beginning of this year, I have been hustling, putting feet to my faith and action to my dreams. It has been exciting and invigorating (along with gut-wrenching and exhausting). But in the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard clearly from the Lord that I need to sit still. Understand, I sit still and am silent with the Lord each morning, I know (and continue to learn) the vitality of rest and I make sure to experience life-giving Sabbaths and spiritual retreats. But this instruction was different. Each day I was waking and asking for my marching orders and the only instruction I heard was, “Be still. Let Me carry you.”
I had gotten so used to my marching orders being new and exciting territory, I didn’t want to do what felt like nothing! I was ready to go, to conquer, to slay the day. A day of “Be still” was nice, but when it turned into a week and then two, I was getting antsy.
Then the massage happened.
Laying there in the black silence, I could feel the Lord’s Presence and hear His voice and I knew my time of constant stillness was drawing to a close, though the lessons would remain. “There’s only one way for you to help with a massage, Ami,” I heard the Lord whisper. “Relax.” This is the one thing you can do to participate in a massage. His gentle urging continued, “Let Me work into you what you need and let Me work out of you all the hurts and injuries, all the knots and bruises.”
Our God is a gentle and compassionate God Who always knows exactly what we need and what season we are in. He is no slave-driver. There are times to run, to pick up our end of the yoke and pull hard with the Lord. Other times there is nothing that He wants you to do except experience healing. And the best thing you can do at that moment is entrust yourself into His hands and relax into your restoration.
“He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:11
For more on “Seeing the Divine,” click HERE!