This is true of every month: it’s a reset. Our budget resets, which is truly the most exciting part of the month for me. I bought all the books that have been sitting in my Amazon cart for weeks. I registered for a grounding retreat in October and signed up for a couple’s cooking class in June. I made restaurant reservations for our date nights, updated the month’s goals (read 5 books, run a half marathon distance, etc), and RSVP’d to the birthday parties. Come the first of the month, I am a machine.
Easter Sunday 2019.
I listened to The Enneagram Journey podcast recently where Suzanne Stabile interviews Annie Downs who is a 7 on the Enneagram. Annie talks about how she and her assistant (who is a 3 – my type) make a great pair because she wants to have fun and her assistant wants to have the MOST… of anything, so together they have the most fun. “This is me!” I told my husband. “I want the most. I want the best. I’m insatiable.”
It’s in my nature to push harder – for better, for more, for our biggest life. But at my core, I realize that I want is what we are all wired for: an abundant life. The abundance promised to us through and in Jesus.
In the same podcast episode, they talk briefly about a verse from the story of Hannah. I love the story of Hannah so much – she’s raw and real and desperate. Her sister wife tries to bring her down; her husband tries to placate her, and she manages to shake free from both of their expectations. She doesn’t minimize her own pain. In her heartbreak, she goes straight to God, and what she prays for is essentially: life. “And God began making the necessary arrangements in response to what she asked.” (MSG)
One of the posts Jess Connolly shared on Instagram recently was a story of how she was working out with her husband. She felt so defeated and discouraged, but she saw her husband working hard. She told him, “You’re killing it! You’re so strong!” She spoke life and encouragement and as a result, she herself experienced abundance.
There’s abundance in what we already have and in the power of our words – to articulate, to pray, to encourage, to speak life.
Easter has passed, but I’m still thinking about this benediction that Shauna Niequist wrote:
And now, my dear brothers and sisters,
as it was said in the very beginning,
let there be light.
And more than that, let there be life.
Let there be resurrection.
Let there be hallelujah.
Let there be dancing where there was once only mourning.
Let there be daylight where there was, for so long, only dark.
Let there be cool, clear water after a drought, nourishment after starvation, love after aching loneliness.
Resurrection after death,
spring after winter,
dawn after what seemed
an eternal midnight.
May we come to not just understand with our minds, but absorb into our very bones this beautiful, transformative pattern, like a drumbeat, like a song we’ve known all our lives—
life, death, rebirth.
life, death, rebirth.
life, death, rebirth.
May we believe in Christ’s resurrection so deeply that we begin to see the possibility of resurrection everywhere we look.
May our spiritual imaginations be renewed, and may we have the bravery to consider that things we have long pronounced dead for all time might yet come back to life—
possibly even our very own hearts
barely keeping time in our very own chests.
Let there be life.
Let there be life.
// Last week, I wrote about bringing back the blog. This post is part of a new blog series called RESET reflecting on growth and spirituality through new months and different seasons. If there is a topic that you want me to cover, email me at ruthie[at]no17blog[dot]com or leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!