We’ll start out today with another wonderful contribution from the 100 Day community. This one is from Alli Leson. She has been part of our church family since her college days at Rhode Island School of Design. Now she’s all grown up, has a beautiful family and has bloomed into one of the most godly women I know. Enjoy.
When I first heard about the 100 Days of Pursuit initiative, I thought it sounded great but that there was probably no way I could do it. I had just given birth to our second child a month or so before, and the idea of setting aside time to pursue God in a deeper way seemed totally impossible. I was sleep deprived and on call 24/7 for a nursing infant, maybe it would be better to take it easy.
But I read this passage from Joel that Scott included in one of the promo emails:
"Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants."
Later that day I read the same exact verse in a devotional book... Ok God, I get the message. :)
Quick backstory - after my first child was born I had a difficult experience with postpartum anxiety and OCD that left me very nervous to have another child. But God spoke very clearly that I would have another and that it would be a different experience the next time. So after my second child was born, I was definitely in a much better place with my mental health but was still having some bothersome symptoms.
During the 100 days, I started finding little pockets of time that I would have normally filled with mindless phone scrolling or housework. I read the daily email, prayed, read the Bible, or read a bit of a Christian book. I was a little discouraged because it felt like such meager scraps of time. But I believe the Lord brought to my mind the story of the widow with the two coins. Jesus said she gave more than the rich people who gave large amounts because she gave all she had. I didn't have a great volume of time to give to the Lord but I was doing my best to give him every spare moment I had, and I believe he honored that.
I noticed a pretty dramatic change as early as the first week (it might have even been the first day, I can't quite remember) when I had a sudden breakthrough with the OCD symptoms I was experiencing... it was like a weight lifted off me and it started getting a lot easier. Overall, I have been experiencing God's love in a deeper way, growing in trust, and resting in His peace. I'm daily aware of my laziness and flesh, but increasingly in awe of God's amazing love and grace for his children he so treasures. Thank you :)
What a story! I just love this. And it’s a perfect segway into an important spiritual truth that we need to be reminded of: God can be found amidst the most frantic circumstances.
The struggle of busyness
Taking care of two small children while recovering from giving birth can be overwhelming (not that I would know but I imagine). It’s not only busy, but there’s a serious depletion of physical and emotional energy. With added mental health struggles it is natural to feel like there’s no use trying to pursue God. The way Alli put it was that her efforts felt like meager scraps.
It’s not just caring for children that puts us in this zone of extreme busyness. It can be work or college. It can be tending to sick parents. It can be a renovation project at your house. Sometimes it’s not one thing but the coming together of like 20 things at once that suddenly puts us in a place of feeling utterly taxed. In survival mode we just feel we don’t have any time or energy for prayer.
I imagine we’ve all been there in certain seasons. Life feels hectic. It’s like we are in a flow of busyness that we cannot get out of. We feel stuck in it, usually out of a sense of responsibility. It’s not that we don’t love Jesus, but we just don’t have time for Him right now. We feel bad about it inside, but we also comfort ourselves that this is only a season and eventually we’ll have more time for prayer, studying the Word and other spiritual disciplines.
New moms
This is a very common struggle for new moms. Before having children they were maybe used to having their nights free and the whole weekends. They could retreat to the patio in the mornings to spend uninterrupted time in prayer. Maybe she even attended the weekly prayer meeting at church. Oh, also, she read spiritual books in the evenings. The landscape of her life was wide open and sunny. Devotion was pretty easy. But then, after having a baby, the landscape changed dramatically, and it suddenly felt like a windstorm that never ends.
What can we do when we find ourselves in this kind of exhausting landscape? What if we genuinely do not have much time or energy to spend with God? Should we just ride it out and hope for a less busy season in the future that will better accommodate the pursuit of God?
Jesus our example
Our Savior was well acquainted with busyness when He walked the earth. And He knew what it was like to be depleted physically and emotionally. The crowds constantly pressed in on Him. One time as He was praying alone some people found Him and said, “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus was so tired at one point that He fell asleep on a boat as his disciples were laboring to steer the vessel through a storm. He experienced enormous pressure from all sides. This verse gives us a glimpse of Jesus trying to have a good “quiet time.”
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” (Mark 1:35-37)
Notice too that it doesn’t say Jesus departed to solitary places daily. He may have, but likely He just couldn’t because He was constantly around people. What I’m trying to say is that Jesus—the ultimate example for all of us—didn’t have that much time to pray. But, at the same time, we know that Jesus had a very deep relationship with the Father. So how did Jesus actually stay close with the Father amidst busyness, pressures and death threats?
Alli’s story gives us some clues. She tells us how she stole little moments throughout the day to spend time with the Lord. She was careful not to waste time but to seize it to draw close to the Father. I think this is exactly what Christ did. Some prayers were short and others were maybe 5-10 minutes. He may have slipped off into the woods for an hour during his travels. Jesus was human and humans have limitations of time and energy. But He made the best of what He had. And that’s all He expects of us.
David
There’s a verse in one of the psalms of David that has helped me to understand how to stay close to God in every situation—despite how hectic and crazy.
I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8)
David too was a very busy individual like Jesus. He was a commander of armies. He was popular. He was the king. He clearly went out to solitary places to play his harp and worship. But in this verse he tells us that he set the Lord always before him. He lived His life in view of God. From morning till night He stayed aware that the Lord God was present. It’s kind of like if we worked outside in a busy construction job on a sunny day. We would be constantly aware of the sun shining upon us, right?
There are other verses in the Bible that encourage this. Scripture calls us to “set our minds on things above” and to “fix our thoughts on Jesus.” We are called to abide in Christ from morning till night. The Bible doesn’t tell us we should talk to Jesus every second of the day. That’s not even possible without grossly neglecting a whole variety of important tasks. But we are called to walk with Him. Even on the busiest day we can walk with Him.
Tricks
There are little “tricks'' that can help us to keep that awareness of the Lord amidst busyness. I really can’t tell you specifically what would work for your busy landscape because we each have different circumstances. A mom with several kids to tend to all day can fill the atmosphere with songs of worship. Those who work busy jobs, let’s say at a hospital, can’t really do that. Someone at a hospital though might carry a small Bible in their pocket and read a verse and say a quick prayer on the 75 elevator rides they do each day. A professional painter working 60 hours a week painting houses might be able to listen to sermons with earbuds. A chef laboring intensely in the kitchen for a ten hour shift has no time to read the Bible. But he can pray small prayers for his coworkers as he’s cooking. You get the idea.
Whatever landscape we find ourselves in, we can set the Lord before us. There will always be ways to stay close with God. We just need to remember that what worked last season may not work this season. So don’t get too attached to how you grew spiritually in the past. Ask the Lord for fresh ways to seek Him that work with your present circumstances. He will lead you.
Glance prayers
I want to mention one last greatly underestimated practice. Earlier in our pursuit I talked about “tiny prayers” but there is also an even smaller type prayer we could call “glance prayers.” Have you ever communicated something to a loved one by a millisecond glance? You didn’t use words at all. You just looked at them. The look on your face said it all, right? They knew exactly what you were saying. Whole volumes of communication were packed into a single glance.
It’s a good practice, especially on very busy days, to glance up frequently. You see this sometimes in movies when a character rolls his or her eyes upward as if to say, “Help” or “Wow, you must have orchestrated that” or “thank you.” We can do this all day long. We don’t actually need to look up—because God is in us and all around us—but little gestures like that help us to acknowledge God. Some people sort of pat their heart throughout the day as if to say, “Jesus fill me.” Others might do a slight bow, so slight no one would even notice, as a way to say to the Lord, “You are holy, majestic and beautiful.” You can use any of these simple gestures or make your own.
Thanks Alli for sharing your inspiring story! It’s so encouraging to see that even despite all the daily obstacles you were facing that you found ways to draw near. And the result is that you have experienced God’s love in greater ways. Hallelujah!