Come Close & Find Rest ~ Wendy L. Macdonald

 Sandi’s Writing Prompt for November: Year-end Reflections on January’s “Coming” of the Lord to You

In January our blog topic focused on our Lord’s invitation to “Come” to him. Now with our year nearly ending, we look in our rear-view mirrors and recapture what that “Come” has meant for your life, spiritual growth, and writing this year.

Wendy’s Post:

In January I wrote about two words God gave me for 2022. They were brave and serve. He called me to come closer to Him, fear less, and serve Him and others more. 

Partway through the year, I forgot about those two words. The good news is I’ve lived out those two biggies better than the year before. It certainly helped that most of the you-know-what restrictions have been stripped from our social lives. (I don’t even want to say that five-letter word.) 

It helped that getting started off on the brave-to-serve foot stayed with me. It’s so rewarding and inspiring to bravely serve others despite fearing our imperfect efforts may offend or annoy people. Not only did I not observe annoyance in the eyes of others, I saw love reflected back. When we bravely obey God’s nudges in our lives, we become a blessing and are blessed in return.

Service is something that must be placed in God’s hands, so we don’t over or underdo it. A lack of white space in our lives crushes creativity and increases stress. In order to make room to be brave in one area, we may need to do less in another. 

Now that face-to-face time has again replaced much of the need for online time, I’m cutting back on my computer use and spending more time with believers in person. Being a creative who thrives on having lots of alone time, I need to be careful and selective. 

Burnout is just around the bend of a life overspent.

But how glorious it is to be back in a group Bible study. And how invigorating it is to have trimmed online involvement to what I believe God has called me to do.

Writers produce quality writing if they have the time and energy to bravely serve their audience. Serving God and serving our readers isn’t going to happen if we’re spread too thin. Words need time to percolate in the mind of the writer before they’re worthy of publishing. Ample white space in our day planners is necessary for creating brave and helpful words on the pages of a manuscript.

This goes for our spiritual lives too. Like Mary, who birthed Jesus, we too must have time to ponder before we give birth to written gifts for a world of readers.   

To be brave and serve others well requires us to rest and care for our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs well. All this is possible when we come to God’s well often and drink deeply of His Presence and Word.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 NIV

Blessings as we continue heeding the Holy Spirit’s nudges to come close to Him so that we may pause, ponder, pray, play, and produce in God’s perfect way for each of us. 

Wendy L. Macdonald is an inspirational blogger and podcaster who loves to photograph nature on Vancouver Island. Her byline is: “My faith is not shallow because I’ve been rescued from the deep.” Her main website is wendylmacdonald.com where she enjoys interacting with readers.