Spiritual Retreat Reflection

I keep saying I am going to be more consistent on here! Maybe this year will be the year! 😉 Weekly sermon prep takes up so much brain power that typically there is nothing left, but I would love to use this space more often as a creative outlet. 

On a gorgeous fall day of October 2022, I scheduled a spiritual retreat for a class assignment. To tell you the timing was divine is a massive understatement. 

For a reason I do not yet fully understand, from about Fall of 2021 - early Fall 2022, I just dealt with a lot of mental and emotional struggles. I am still unpacking all of that and asking the Lord to give me discernment, but it was just a rough time mental-health-wise. 

If nothing else, it put me in a place of desperation, where I was utterly seeking God's guidance and comfort. That alone made the difficult journey worth it, just to feel completely seen and comforted by God during this assigned spiritual retreat. 

The much-needed, sacred time with God was a gift and a healing balm for my soul. I was able to come before God, honest and raw in emotion, wondering what He had to say about it all — and boy did He have something to say. 

The majority of that sacred time with me and God I will keep close to my heart. There is, however, one aspect of our time together that I have felt compelled to share. 

I am by no means a published author, nor do I aspire to be one. I simply wrote down what I felt in this glorious moment, where God spoke to the most inner desires and cries of my heart. 

My prayer is that it blesses someone else and reminds them of God's faithfulness. 

"I sit in this moment that is found a shallow,

I acknowledge grief and pain that has been known.

Your Light… it bursts through the trees

And finds its way to my soul. 

When I strain to keep it, I twist and bend to find it, 

You meet me and make me whole. 

The crisp air a reminder that seasons come and go.

And when it feels like your presence is slow, 

I'm reminded to be still, and to know."