ENCOURAGEMENT FROM PAIN

I stopped my exercise schedule over the holidays. It's not that I wanted to, but just too much stuff was going on.

Then I ate lots of sugar in those delicious Christmas cookies and all kinds of food I don't usually eat at all those parties.

Then my quiet time got messed up, because I was running and running. I'm not exactly sure where I was going.

That's when I figured out I was exhausted.

I crashed and burned.

But not from the Christmas season alone.

Because I had ignored who I am.

At that moment I made some decisions. I had to change.

I spent a quiet day reading, meditating and praying. A true Sabbath.

Some of my junk came up-worry, fear for love ones, for myself.

But there was something else. Peace. I had not felt it for a long time.

I haven't arrived yet, but at least I'm on the path. I know where I'm going. I feel hope. I feel alive.

Because without pain, do we ever change?