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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Drowning in the Mess of Yes (Part 1)

May 18, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 4 Comments

**I am excited to be featured at the WOW Weekly Moment this week sharing the first of three posts in a series, Drowning in the Mess of Yes.** 

There have been times in my life when I would have loved to have the flu. Yes, you read that correctly.

Once or twice I have found myself so busy, so overwhelmed, so just plain tired of tired— that I would have nearly enjoyed an illness just so that I might spend a day or two in bed, with my pajamas and a book. Now of course no one really wants to be sick, even if it means peace and quiet. But I am certain we can all agree that we often do not realize how badly we need rest until we are completely maxed out, worn out, and stressed out. Our edges frazzle and fray until we feel the unraveling in every area of life. And, often it does take a season of sickness or utter exhaustion to really get our attention.

But how do we get this way?

Many of the responsibilities we have are necessary. The people we serve need that service. We have commitments we cannot easily get out of. Much of what we do seems good and right and God-honoring. And after all, if we have these gifts— should we not we be using them? Often we think it righteous to be completely exhausted as long as we are completed exhausted serving God.

How do we go from being involved in good things to being 100% overwhelmed?

Scripture is clear that God does not call us to a life of ease, to be on a perpetual spiritual vacation— only doing those things which are easy and require little sacrifice. But many of us have one particular problem and it is not a lack of sacrifice, but instead the inability to say “NO.”

When we choose to say “yes,” to every single good thing anyone offers us, we often miss out on God’s best REST. All of these good things can sometimes add up to being overwhelmed and unable to absorb any outside bumps. This leads to not enough rest, not enough soul time, not enough margin. This is a problem.

In elementary school when we learned to write, our teachers often said, “Skip Lines.” That space between the lines and the margins on the paper gave them space to correct, adjust, and make changes.

Friend, this is what our God wants from us. Room to breathe so we are free to hear Him speak. Room that God can use to move in us. Room to adjust our day to suit His purposes. Margin to insert the things into our days and weeks that HE would have us do. Things He would have us be available for. We often may miss divine appointments and the needs of others, because we are just too distracted with ourselves and our schedule.

When we live our lives from the top of one page to the very bottom of it— with no white space, no breathing room, no margin—- we miss out on the rest that strengthens us.

%22For thus said the Lord God, the Holy

This rest that saves us, the rest that strengthens us to continue, is something that God knows we need so desperately. He created us with humanity woven into our deepest parts, and that humanity cries out for His rest and refreshing.

Are there things in your life you know should not be there? Are there commitments which God did not call you to but that you assumed for yourself? Are there elements of your life that are constructed in such a way that leave no room for God to work? May I encourage us both to do one simple thing this week?

Ask Him.

Open your schedule before Him and ask Him what should be removed or adjusted to make room for Him to be the schedule maker.

When He is the schedule-maker and we check every new commitment with Him first, we will find that His plans are better.

We will find not that everything will go according to plan; but that the God who truly has planned our future and orders all our tomorrows will have His rightful place in our lives.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11

Next Monday— Addition & Subtraction: Making Adjustments to Create Space

Summer Reading List (2015 edition)
Addition and Subtraction— Making Adjustments to Create Space. (Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 2)

Trackbacks

  1. Addition and Subtraction— Making Adjustments to Create Space. (Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 2) | Happy Go Stuckey says:
    May 25, 2015 at 6:00 am

    […] Last week, we looked at our need for margin and rest and the problem with a packed to the very edge schedule. When we first look at Scripture in Genesis 1, we see the example God gives of us of both working and resting well. […]

    Reply
  2. Addition and Subtraction— Making Adjustments to Create Space. (Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 2) | Happy Go Stuckey says:
    May 25, 2015 at 6:00 am

    […] Last week, we looked at our need for margin and rest and the problem with a packed to the very edge schedule. When we first look at Scripture in Genesis 1, we see the example God gives of us of both working and resting well. […]

    Reply
  3. Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 3. | Happy Go Stuckey says:
    June 1, 2015 at 8:40 am

    […] to catch up? Week 1. Week […]

    Reply
  4. Drowning in the Mess of Yes, part 3. | Happy Go Stuckey says:
    June 1, 2015 at 8:40 am

    […] to catch up? Week 1. Week […]

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
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