You cannot give what you don’t have.

This seems to be my new motto for my life. It comes up a lot and encourages me to live in wholeness and healing – a healing and wholeness that can only come from God.

The other day I wrote a blog about being a workaholic. The day after I posted it, I said “no” to workaholism and “yes” to resting. I wanted to know more about who God is and I knew that in order to do that, I needed to step out and trust Him.

I am so thankful to have a Heavenly Father than always shows up. It was a filling day of enjoying things that bring me life, and enjoying them with the One who gives me life. I enjoyed the company of my mom and my brother, Sean. I spent the rest of the day alone and stopped by the St. Louis Zoo and saw the new Polar Bear exhibit (I was on the World Race when it opened). My favorite of all was spending the majority of my day walking through the St. Louis Art Museum. It’s one of my favorite places in St. Louis. It holds thousands of works that exhibit a creative freedom that I wish to possess. The place has a freeing atmosphere for me. Full of life, peace, history, possibility.

I have to be honest though: It wasn’t full of God’s Truth. Some of the works brought up feelings of spiritual need for these countries. Statues of the gods from India, China, Nepal, etc. The headdresses and rituals performed by some of the countries in Africa. It made my heart hurt. It brought up prayers in me that I know the Lord heard. God used the Art Museum, in my time of rest, to re-focus my heart on what is really important: sharing the Love and Truth of Jesus and what happened on that Cross when He died and was raised. Resting in the Truth of the Gospel is the true rest we need. Resting in the unconditional, intentional Love of our Heavenly Father is rest that sinks deeper than a day of napping and Netflix binging could ever do.

You can’t give what you don’t have. Don’t let yourself get to the point that you need to take days to fill back up. Learn from my mistakes and set aside that time of rest BEFORE you desperately need it. That way you can still give because you’ll have something to give.

Thanks for walking this journey with me. I appreciate you reading these words and joining me for this wonderful process of saying “yes” to what God has for us.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Polar Bear Exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo. Bears are my favorite animal (with turtles being a close second). It was unfortunate to see the cuddly (others say ferocious) brown and grizzly bears exhibits being renovated. 

These two pictures make me feel like Elizabeth Bennet going to William Darcy's house. Lucky for me, this place is the Art Museum and it's free to everyone. 

A Picture from the Art Museum: "Afghan Refugees at Jalozai Camp, Peshawar, Pakistan" by Simon Norfolk, 2003

-This was one of the works that kept my attention for quite awhile. Often, the paintings and pictures from the Museum are from other centuries. This caught my attention because these men may still be alive. My heart hurt for them. It's almost as if I felt the Lord's heart breaking for them, wanting them to know who He is. He stirred me to pray for them. They probably have no idea that their faces are in a Museum in the Unites States 7,000 miles away, 10 hours behind. But God knows and I believe He allowed this painting to be put in my path so I could experience His love for them.