The Spiritual Ellipsis - a guest post by Bree Holloway

#Branding - Bree Holloway

When Joy asked me to guest post and mentioned a devotional as an option, I knew almost immediately that was what I needed to do. It wasn't perhaps what I felt properly equipped to do, but God has a lovely way of filling in the holes when I offer all I have, dontcha know. :) 

I've always struggled to keep myself inspired. Naturally, inspiration is not a friend who sticks around for long, but I have this notion that every other writer has figured out their unique way of staying inspired even for the more dry periods and I'm over here twiddling my thumbs. This, of course, is wrong, but I'm human and my ways of thinking can be frightfully twisted at times. Either way, I still for a time had no particular method for keeping inspiration flowing. Because of this, I spent a lot of time on the internet, piddling away the hours looking at cutesy things on Pinterest and reading other peoples' tweets on Twitter. I was wasting my time and then when it came to writing, I wondered why I didn't feel "inspired."

It wasn't until recently that I truly understood the connection. More internet = less time reading, living, worshiping. There ya go. It was the worshiping that I had most neglected, and it was what was most needed, and when I noticed that, the dots began to connect. Because I was still reading for school, that aspect couldn't be drastically changed at the present. Living was debatable - I was spending so much time on the computer that I didn't get outside too much, but I was still interacting with my family and friends (face-to-face) on a regular basis. 

But it was the worshiping that I was struggling with. My actions towards my family were blunt and short; because of the time I had wasted on the internet, I would be behind in my schoolwork and moving quickly to make up with it. I was forgetting to pray - neglecting, really. It had been more than a few days since I'd last read my devotional and/or Bible. 

"But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul." -Deuteronomy 4:29

I sought God, I prayed, and I felt richly renewed; I felt blessed. This isn't to say that spiritual renewal is the "instant fix" to your problems - but it's a precious balm, and the knowledge of healing is a "fix" in itself. 

Isn't it fantastic that our God will find us where we are, and take us to where He needs us to be? (Where we need to be?) It had only been a few days that I'd been off focus, and how quickly I'd fallen! It was a reminder that we all need daily: we must be renewed each morning. We are human - fragile and petty - we must constantly seek Christ and His grace. We are lost on our own.

I don't want to say that the internet is solely sinful. We all know that it can be used for a plethora of beautiful, wonderful things. But like the heart, it can also be deceitful, and draws away from our time with our family and - more importantly - our time with our Savior. 

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." -Jeremiah 29:12-14

Let us seek not only with our hearts, but our minds, our souls, our work. My heart may seek the Lord, but are my actions carrying that out? Does everything I say and do proclaim the life and death of Jesus? I feel like I'm constantly stressing that as bloggers, I want to be part of a community that constantly lifts and prods each other up; that points to Christ in all we do. That perhaps if another blogger drops by she'll see how we encourage and love each other, and want to know why. The Lord is our inspiration, girls. Let's be a strong, God-honoring community of writers, artists, creators of any kind, pointing to our Divine inspiration. I want to be a part of something beautiful like that--don't you? 

Bree Holloway is a young dancer, graphic designer and authoress-in-training. She'd tell you more about herself, but that's better done over a cuppa at her blog, Tea & Bree. Because let's face it - who's story is short enough to sum up in a bio?