One of the opening questions I ask someone during our first spiritual direction meeting is, “What brought you here?” I cannot count the number of times the response goes something like this…
“Something just feels off”
“I want more, but I am not sure what that means”
“Something feels missing out of my life”
This echoes the desires I often hear voiced by people through my retreat ministry, and even more importantly by simply listening to the people I engage in conversations with in my day-to-day life. I know at times, I hear myself saying similar things. “Why do I feel off? What is gnawing at me right now?” It seems we are on a constant search for something more.
Ultimately, we feel restless.
Our Desire for God and God’s Desire for Us:
The longing we feel for more or that feeling that something is missing is our hunger for God. As a dear friend said to me last week, “It’s like we have a string tied to our inner core that God is steadily tugging at seeking to draw us closer and closer.”
Let’s be honest. Feeling restless doesn’t always feel good. The gnawing sensation that makes us feel we cannot be satisfied can make us feel crazy, like we are on a long journey that has no ending.
The restlessness I see in our society as people seek to fill this hunger for God in a multitude of ways has my attention. Even as I type this, I am aware of God tugging on my own inner string to draw me both deeper into a relationship, but also inviting me to acknowledge the growing invitations to say “yes” in new ways to God at work in my life.
It is this topic of restlessness that will be the focus of our next series. Over the next several weeks, we will take a look at how restlessness can manifest today, at the causes of restlessness, and at what we can do to calm the restlessness within us.
This week, I simply invite you to pause and notice your life.
- Do you feel a sense of restlessness right now in your life? How is it appearing?
- Take a look at the various areas of your life. Does something feel off in any of them? What might God be saying to you?
Go Deeper?
- Pray:
- Watch:
- Acknowledging the Restlessness Excerpt from Busy Lives & Restless Souls
- Listen:
- To the song “Restless” by Audrey Assad
Who is the Author of My Life? A Day of Reflection for Women:
“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.” ~St. Mother Teresa
Who is holding your pencil and writing your worth?
Who is fostering your healing?
Who is filling in your calendar?
Who is guiding your journey?
To all women reading this, I sincerely hope you can join us on October 18th at the Catholic Life Center! Writing this retreat with my friend, Stephanie, is an experience of letting God author within us. I invite you to come spend a day with other women as we seek to understand the gift of God’s authorship in our lives. We will begin with a look at “Who is the Author?” then move to the sources of our writer’s block and finally discern the “love letter” God is inviting us to write right now in this season of life. Register here!
Online Busy Person’s Retreat:
Last week’s online busy person’s retreat was simply a gift! To see the hungers within men and women to grow deeper in their relationship with God and respond to that desire is inspiring. There are only two spots left for the October 23-26th Online Busy Person’s Retreat retreat (8am-9amCT and 9:30am-10:30amCT). The gift of technology allows us to enter your home, your office, your world, and accompany you as you seek to grown your relationship with God.
If you…
- Have young children at home and feel you have no chance to get away for retreat, we can walk with you as you hold a child or as your child reads or quietly plays in the background.
- Are caring for a sick loved one or the elderly, we will gladly hold space for you to sit with God each day to be strengthened for the journey of care-giving.
- Are unable to drive or not able to get to a retreat house to make a retreat, let us “drive” to you and offer you a time to renew your faith
- Live far from a spiritual director, we can close that distance
- Are feeling lost, alone, or unsure of what God’s invitations are for you in this season of life, we can help you listen and believe in the the promises of God that you are not alone, you are unconditionally loved, and you are accompanied in your discernment.
I invite you to give yourself the gift of accompaniment!
Becky Eldredge
Becky is an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator, and writer. She is the author of the Busy Lives and Restless Souls (March 2017, Loyola Press) and The Inner Chapel (April 2020, Loyola Press). She helps others create space to connect faith and everyday life through facilitating retreats and days of reflection, through writing, and through spiritual direction. With nearly twenty years of ministry experience within the Catholic Church, Becky seeks to help others discover God at work in the every day moments of people’s lives by utilizing St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and the many gifts that our Catholic faith and Ignatian Spirituality provide.
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