One of the best gifts you can give yourself and others, is the gift of being yourself.
What I mean is the gift of you, in all your unique qualities, talents and eccentricities.
The best of you.
Not you living according to some subtle or not-so-subtle environmental expectations – from your family, friends, coworkers, society.
By always striving to live up to some ever-moving measuring stick of current norms – and sometimes norms passed on from previous generations – we forfeit the opportunity and the unfathomable blessing to live our one wild and precious life (Mary Oliver), as we were designed to live it.
And more than anything else, in my mind anyway, intentionally not living according to the design your Maker thought up when forming you is the biggest sin of all.
You were designed for a unique purpose that only you can fulfill.
It is easy for that truth to get lost in the shuffle when we are so busy trying to keep up with the Joneses, the latest fashions, someone else’s idea of sufficient productivity, or outdated familial guidelines.
But some things are unchanging, and that includes Divine Intelligence.
There is a purpose to all of it, and your soul, although it was made to exist and flourish in this particular time and place, was not intended to follow some arbitrary rules established by popularity contests that come and go.
The reality is, we live in an extremely noisy time.
Unless we consciously choose to turn off, or at least turn down the noise, there is no way to escape being influenced by it.
Since I got married nearly a month ago, and moved into our home, my soul and my spirit have been given the opportunity to rest in a space where I can hear the whisperings of my heart once again. And those whisperings – those ingrained desires – have remain unchanged even though they have been muted by other circumstances for years, even decades.
In our home, I am relearning how to just “be” again, rather than doing all the time. Everyone needs to know this, but especially you ladies – it is okay to just “be.” It is in the precious space of being where our feminine gifts flourish the most.
In our home, I can rest enough, so that the purpose for which I was designed has room to breathe and to evolve naturally, according to its own time.
I am relearning about those things that interest me the most. (Note: your interests that last over your lifetime – that return again and again despite changing circumstances – are hints of the spiritual gifts the Holy One has bestowed on you.)
So these days, I am retraining myself to sit still, and my goals are changing from being proactive and accomplished, to seeking and being receptive to Beauty… to listening for the Eternal Still, Small Voice to direct me to the next step along my path.
Because the One behind that Still, Small Voice is the only one whose barometer of how my life is going matters to me.
Not my family. Not my coworkers. Not some unpredictable, and often shallow, societal norms.
When I look back over various periods of my life, I can see those times I intentionally practiced periods of silence and solitude – of listening for the voice of the Spirit – preceded times of my soul’s imprint flowing abundantly out into the world in new, unexpected ways.
The truth is practicing ‘being’ – quietly, alone, instead of doing, is essential for me to quiet my ego and allow the Spirit to move in me.
And, it is essential for you, too, if you want to learn why you are really here.
So, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus (and even if you don’t), be like him and “go off to a deserted place and rest awhile.”
It is there where you can sense the unique compass for your life, and in what direction it is going.
‘Be still, and Know that I am God.’ (Psalm 46:10)
SPIRIT MATTERS is a weekly column that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact Jerrilyn Zavada Novak at jzblue33@yahoo.com to share how you engage your spirit in your life and community.