Slow down, you owe it to yourself!

I’ve recently been busy…too busy actually. Filling my calendar and social life to the brim and packing every second with people and things. A few days ago I got to visit my dad while he was in South Georgia. I drove to see him, which allowed me 10 hours in a car by myself. When I left after my time with my dad, I felt a sense of anxiousness. My spirit was hurried and I felt worn down a bit despite my 9 hours of rest I received in the hotel’s queen bed the night before.

I’ll be honest, I believe I have racing in my blood, but cops don’t often like that reason for my speeding. (no i didn’t get pulled over, dad) I found myself rushing back to my home in Gainesville, but I had nothing that was pressing me for time. I hit stopped traffic and was feeling really overwhelmed. I would count cars in one lane and switch just to gain a bit of ground. After doing this a few times, I pulled to the side of the road, popped my trunk, and fixed myself a sandwich and sat while traffic passed by. I was tired of the rush. I wish it was called slow hour instead of rush hour.

Friday morning I texted my grandparents because I was really missing them. My grandmother sent me a video that a friend of hers once shared with her. It was a song about the Fruit of the Spirit. It was a sort of goofy, simple song that I thought was probably made for children in VBS or sunday school and If I am being honest, I didn’t watch the whole thing, but thanked her for it and didn’t think twice about it. The Lord was using my grandmother 639 miles away, and thanks to her obedience, it allowed a revelation in myself during the rush hour traffic. I hadn’t been looking very fruitful in my walk with the Spirit. I was too hurried. The fruit of my flesh was more evident than the fruit of the spirit to those around me.

“To restate: love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry.” ? John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.

Recently, I have been failing God’s greatest commandment…
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

I have been too busy to dwell in the love of God and to be filled by that beautiful gift. Yes I said that, I have been too busy to be loved by God. That has been my own doing and I haven’t started my days with Him. I tried to be sustained by yesterday’s, or even last week’s manna…it wasn’t effective. I’ve come to realize I can only extend love to the depth of what I know to be true for myself. We are told to renew our mind each morning of truths such as that one.

“You are most likely familiar with the “fruit passage” in Galatians 5, which says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (vv. 22-23 NIV). You may have the list memorized. But look over those traits right now and ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree. Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know? Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends? More peace than Buddhists? More joy than atheists? If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn’t you expect to be different from everyone else?” -Francis Chan, Forgotten God.

I am writing this to show up authentic, that it’s okay to be messy and in a tough place. I want to normalize struggle in my life and in the Church as a whole. I think that we give this false appearance of, “having it all put-together” and “thriving”. Those times in our lives aren’t bad to share with people by any means! We just have to be aware that we aren’t always there, and realize why and go down to the roots. We can either be planted in flesh or the spirit, and no matter where we are planted, fruit will grow depending on which one we are rooted in.

There is a reason Paul says;

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  -Galatians 5:19-21

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” -Romans 8:3–4 

I ask that you pray for me to abide in the Lord and be filled by Him daily, to be aligned with the Spirit and grow deep roots in Him. 

-Drew.

“If the devil cannot make us sin, he will make us busy.” –Corrie ten Boom

Fruit of The Spirit -Video from Grandma.