I've written a couple posts where I talk about the impact Bonnie's book, Spiritual Whitespace, has had in my life. It is a MUST read for every Christian lady!
In her book, Bonnie talks about the importance of resting in Jesus:
"Rest is not a lifestyle. Rest is a living journey - a relationship - into
our most vulnerable places. With Jesus."
Bonnie teaches her readers to look at rest from a variety of angels. In other words, resting in Jesus can look like many things! I wrote a blog post not too long ago about how spending time with our Lord can take on a variety of shapes. Resting in Jesus is also like this.
In her book, Bonnie talks about four ways we can rest in Jesus - what she calls whitespace "drinks":
Enjoy a Creative Cappuccino. Feed your soul with a delicious espresso of creative whitespace poured into the artistic you, etching artful patterns of rest onto your soul.
Enjoy an Adventure Latte. Feed your soul with a generous shot of God’s rest steamed with his presence, sweetened with your pick of adventure for added flavor.
Enjoy a Friendship Mocha. Feed your soul with a sweet treat of friendship is mixed in with soothing relational rest, topped with the whipped cream topping of an open heart.
Enjoy a Soul-Care Espresso. Feed your soul with a freshly ground espresso shot of intimate rest, hand-pulled by the heart of Jesus, just for you.
For this week's linkup on Bonnie's blog, she asks her readers to write in response to the following question:
Which of the four elements of spiritual whitespace is your soul craving the most today: creativity, adventure, community, or soul care?
Me? Right now? I am craving a creative cappuccino. Specifically, I need time to paint.
Every year, I paint a ceramic piece to placed in my Christmas village.
Each piece represents a year my husband and I have spent a Christmas together. But there was one year out of our now fifteen years of marriage that I neglected to paint a piece. It was the year of my miscarriage; the year we lost Angel.
For the longest time, I told myself that was fitting. It was a year of loss, so it made sense that the year of 2010 would lose representation in my village scene. The missing piece would be a symbol of the terrible loss we experienced that year.
But then I found this piece - an unpainted bridge.
When I saw it, I felt God's Spirit move within me. I felt as if He was saying that this piece should be my 2010 village piece; this piece should be Angel's piece.
Bridges symbolize transition and change. They represent transformation and rebirth.
Angel was that for me. Her brief life forever changed me (read more on that in this post: "Because Angel Lived"), and that change should be marked, should be respected and acknowledged, by something in my Christmas village. And that something will be this bridge.
And right now, every time I see that unfinished arch , I yearn for time to paint it! My soul screams out to make time to acknowledge what God did in my life through Angel by painting this memento and ensuring it holds a place in this Christmas' village scene.
I need to make space in my life to complete this project. Spiritual whitespace where I paint and praise Jesus for the little life that was my Angel.
It is time to make time! No more excuses! As Bonnie says, "Give yourself permission to enjoy rest. Not because you have to - but because you want to. And God wants it for you too."
Today's forget-me-not: It is important to make time for rest - ALL kinds of rest.
"Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their [the Israelites'] example of disobedience" (Hebrews 4:11).
Thanks for your encouraging words!
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