Things I learned in March … hello upcoming sabbatical month

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I love this reminder from the wisdom of Ecclesiastes that there is a time for everything. I’ve been thinking about the timing of things for several long weeks now as I’ve been thinking about my writing. I’ve not been satisfied. I’ve been feeling reactionary and unoriginal. As if too much was flowing in and what was coming out wasn’t quite hitting the mark. I’ve been feeling as if I’m not quite meeting the purpose for which I was called in this little space and so I need to let you know that I’m taking a break. It’s one of the things that I learned in March.

1.    It’s okay to take a break from writing, blogging, and being active on social media. I have a terrific group of women that I write with. Many of them are also involved with an actual online writers group, and when I posed the question about taking a writing sabbatical to them, they were so knowledgeable, supportive, and encouraging, that I knew I was on the right path.

2.    Skylanders is kind of a cool game – very addictive – and not just for kids. I didn’t realize how crazy my daughter was about the whole Skylanders phenomenon (I may have just been blocking it, honestly), but after speaking with the daughter of a co-worker, decided to go for it and bought the starter kit for her birthday. Oh boy. I should have known. She is exactly as crazy about the game and the characters as I would have imagined. Unfortunately, so is her dad. So am I.  Now her dad is actually playing with her. Me on the other hand, I’ve played about half an hour (not a fan of console games), but love taking the characters into unusual places to take their picture. Go figure.
  

3.    Ash Wednesday is always new for me. Although our church does not celebrate Ash Wednesday, I have been coming back to a church we went to briefly for at least seven years now for their quiet, sacred evening service. It is essentially the same every year. And every year it is a new, holy, renewing experience for me. We sing. We hear the word of God. We confess our sins (privately written) and literally nail them to a cross. Those sins are burned and their ashes are mixed with oil to become the marks on our heads in commemoration. We pray. We are in repentance.

4.    I can’t resist a new pen. It’s an addiction. Albeit a fairly benign one – it’s still an addiction. I love pens. Frankly, I love office supplies of all kinds, but I’m really crazy about pens. And even after finding how deep the random pen alcove went and disposing of many of them, I couldn’t resist a new one (that I didn’t have – hadn’t had before) when I came across it. Like I said ….

5.    Sometimes it’s okay to act like an extrovert. Yeah. I said that out loud. And it happened. Briefly. In public. I got to go to my very first writers’ conference earlier this month, and it was an incredible experience. So much so that although I’ve promised to, I have yet to write about it. What I can say though, is that one of the best parts was getting to meet some of my online friends in real life. Women with whom I’ve written on a weekly basis for over a year and a half. We have real friendships fueled by conversations over email, twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more. But had never met. Until the Faith and Culture conference. Then there was so much love, bonding, and running across the room (yes, I did that), that it was a little surreal. And cementing. These friendships grew a mile that weekend. And even more new ones were born. So blessed.

But now it’s time for me to take a break. 

Time for me to reflect, read, and really dig in and listen. I have a pile of terrific reading material, specific areas of the Word where I’m prepared to camp out, friends who are praying, and one amazing friend who has volunteered to cheer and coach me through this sabbatical. This is my time to rest.

I have a few commitments to keep on the blog (like tomorrow – you really need to come back tomorrow because Lisa Jo Baker’s book is launching and you don’t want to miss that!), but other than that, this space will be quiet until May. And I’m pretty excited because I was invited to be part of another book launch (on May 1) that segues so beautifully with all the reasons that I’m taking this sabbatical that it truly feels like a nod from the Lord.

If you think of me in the month of April, I hope you might pray that I remain open to the Lord’s leading and His spirit as I lay myself out before Him and look for direction in my writing and (gulp) my life. My desire is more of Him, less of me; to be poured out for His purpose and to discover what that purpose is; and to have the courage to step out into that purpose with intent, integrity, and insight.

Grace and blessings. See you in May!







I'm joining Emily Freeman at Chatting At the Sky for her
What We Learned link up. Love this one!

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