To start off, I’m not dead, and neither are the people I nearly T-boned.
From the last day of September until Monday night, I was averaging 4 hours and 36 minutes of sleep per night. 32 hours sleep over the course of 7 days.
While there are 168 hours in a week, I spent 136 of them, 81% of my time doing stuff: homework, projects, singing, studying, sometimes eating, working, meetings, consuming gallons of coffee, spilling coffee, and never once thought to take a break for a minute.
I was in what I like to call “auto-pilot” or robot mode, as I was driving through the parking lot of the movie theater when my foot slammed my car brakes out of nowhere.
Less than a second after, a car slams their brakes in front of my car, they all give me a special signal indicating they were upset, and continued on their way.
Exodus 33:14
And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
I looked over at my girlfriend after instinctively slamming the brakes of my car, and after a few seconds to catch my breath and my words, I said, "That must've been God!"
I seriously thought there was no way I saw that car coming, and that God must've been like, "Hey Britt, why don't you slow down a little bit and enjoy this time of rest?"
I mean, I was five minutes late to a movie, not a job interview or a class. I'm not quite sure why and how I was so worked up that I didn't see the car, but for real......that HAD TO have been God slamming my brakes because no where in my brain did I register to hit my brakes.
How cool is that?
Ok if it isn't cool, I'm just thankful to be alive and share this awesome story with you, and to share my main point:
Psalm 127:2
"It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep."
“Breathe. Take a second right now......in through your nose…...(inhale)......and our through your mouth…(exhale)."
This entire school year, and especially this past week, I've had this "It's fine, I'll get to it later" mentality as I briefly thought about something only to keep trucking along and forget about it later.
- Laundry
- Projects
- Studying
- Writing this devo
- Chapel
Then I was required to go to chapel to sing with the choir instead of studying, which is what I spent the past few weeks doing: homework and studying and stopping for coffee breaks...barely stopping for God except when I needed Him most and when I got a BibleApp notification on my phone whenever I was on a lunch break.
Entering into chapel, I had just finished my second cup of coffee but was still struggling to stay awake until I heard God speak to me AGAIN.
The former dean of the chapel and pastor at Wartburg, Reverend Dr. Ramona Bouzard, said this in chapel:
“Breathe. Take a second right now...in through your nose…(inhale)...and our through your mouth…(exhale)."
Again, it wasn't like the voice of Morgan Freeman from a bright light above me, but just with Dr. Bouzard's words......"Breathe"......I found myself questioning why it was that I had waited all this time to think about God over everything else I had going on.
All of my burdens felt as if they lifted off my shoulders and onto my lap as I, for once, felt there just might be a chance I can do this [college] thing!
Exodus 34:21
"Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day, you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest."
How in the world did God create the Heavens and Earth in 6 days, and chillax with his animal friends on the seventh? I barely make enough time to eat/sleep, and God took an ENTIRE DAY to do nothing but rest in what He did.
Two nights ago on Monday, after eating for the first time in 26 hours to eventually fall asleep on the floor of the gym in my belaying gear as I was supposed to be working the indoor rock-wall, I got back to my dorm only to find friends to de-stress with.
We watched this hilarious comedy movie and ate food, and didn't for a second check our phones, open a textbook, nothing. We just enjoyed the movie, the time set apart from our crazy college life, and enjoyed being with each other outside of our activities and classes we have together.
I knew the night in the theater parking lot, this past Monday night, and today in chapel, and tomorrow, and......I think you get it now......that God is going to take care of me, and because of that, I NEED TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF.
I can't rush through my life without God because He's the one putting it all together.
Neither can you. Trust me. Life without God is like life without coffee, ice cream, and puppies.
And if you don't like any of those 3 things, you definitely need Him in your life!
With all of that stuff said,
Live life to the fullest, love the time you have, and love yourself every once in a while.
You deserve it because the world deserves you.
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