Take a DAWG Day
written by Linda Andersen Excerpt from Interludes: A Busy Woman’s Invitation to Personal and Spiritual Rest
Because of the nature of a woman's busy life, she spills herself away in tributaries all day, day after day week after week. If she is to thrive and continue to nurture others, she must replenish her own river of life.
A few years ago, our minister suggested we spend a whole day with God every so often, for the purpose of realigning, reordering, and refilling our bodies and souls. He recommended doing so once a month, which was his practice. I took the challenge, and have been spending between 3 hours and one full day every month on a DAWG Day--a day alone with God.
What is a DAWG Day? And how do you do it? Well, it's very simple. Let me give you a dozen suggestions and ask you to try it--at least once. When you do, you probably won't hesitate to do it again for the rest of your life! I've never stopped.
1. Pick a day, or at last a few hours, to be alone. In fact, pick twelve days (one for each month) and mark the in ink on your calendar.
2. Before each DAWG day arrives, find a place conducive to quiet
contemplation and prayer.
3. Take only a Bible, a journal dedicated to your DAWG days, and a favorite pen. This journal will record what God did in your heart.
4. As you begin your day, write out all your concerns, questions, or struggles.
5. Talk each one over with God, asking Him for direction and answers and insight. Don't demand answers. Begin to listen.
6. Consider dividing your life into categories (for example: Personal,
Occupational, Relational, Physical, Spiritual). Review each area
with God, asking Him to tell you where you need to add, subtract,
change, or rearrange.
7 . Read a bit in the Bible, welcoming God's voice to speak.
8. Write down insights throughout your day as they come to you.
9. Spend time just thinking, walking, riding, or doing anything
soothing to your soul.
10. Give yourself permission to sing, cry, laugh, talk to yourself, or speak aloud to God. Never forget to leave time to cry.
11. Leave plenty of unscheduled time to do nothing but sit in The Presence and listen for what He wants to say.
12. Before you go home, take 2 sheets of paper. At the top of one,
write TO DO, and the other To DON'T.
A DAWG day will refresh you and change you in ways you cannot imagine. It will cultivate your heart and weed out the unimportant and unnecessary, and, most important, the ungodly from your life. It will help you focus and give God room to both unfold His joyous plan for your life and set it in motion.
After a few DAWG days, you'll begin to notice that your life doesn't look quite as much like other people's lives. And as you continue, you'll likely see a whole-life transformation occur. Why? Because you will be opening your heart wide and relaxing your grip on those things that don't belong in your life. You'll be allowing God alone to set your agenda and fill your hours with His reasonable choices. You will finally be living out Psalm 85:8 "I will listen to what the Lord will say; He promises peace to His people, His saints-but let them not return to folly."
It's worth noting that whatever God gives us to do He provides strength for. When I don't have the strength or the time for an activity, I can be fairly sure it's one I, or another person (not God) has put into my hands. Through day-long interludes with God, my becomes more focused, my choices more fruitful, and my spirit more joyful. Yours can too! If you doubt it, take a few more moments to hear Julie's story.....
JULIE'S STORY
Julie was strong, smart, and capable, but she was becoming a victim of her own youth and strength. She kept finding herself trapped in a "fun house' of busyness and activity that didn't seem to be going anywhere or having any lasting impact for God. When anything new came along, she would simply scrunch her schedule to fit it in. But eventually, she reached the saturation point; each activity was overlapping another and each was robbing "life" from Julie. She had maxed out--and she was determined to change. She tells it better than I:
"I took two days away at a quaint bed-and-breakfast inn, taking only my notebook, a mentor/friend, and my Bible. I walked and prayed (alone), and I began to listen...to agree with God...and finally I
gave in and released my soul and my schedule to God. Whatever
He wanted I wanted.
When I got home, I started making calls: eliminating instead of adding. In a matter of weeks, my lifeboat was once more floating peacefully, and I had made room in my life for God to fill my hands. He did so quickly, opening the doors to a secret heart's desire: quilting. I joined a quilting club and saw God open one door after
another in the direction of my dreams."
.
I (Linda) vividly recall a DAWG Day I spent in northern Michigan.
The little tourist home in Beulah overlooked a sparkling lake and a small beach. Life was slower and easier to manage somehow.
Stores opened lter and closed earlier. Dogs went to work with their masters, and sunshine was the main course of each summer day. A few hours in "Beulah" MI was like a week in other places.
My hostess picked her best room for me. I remember the lon, g lazy day and how it unfurled like a flag in a gentle breeze. I had
meandered through it doing first one pleasant thing, then another. And finally, the sun began to sink in the sky, and businesses began hanging CLOSED signs on their front doors.
It was a night to remember. My favorite instrumental music drifted in magical waves around my cozy room, and I, in a chair plumped with pillows, watched night envelop day over a lake. In those moments, I knew the supernal joy of watching Eternal God prepare His earth and His people for bed. Could it be, I wondered, that sleep was the purest form of surrender?
I just sat and watched as shadows deepened against the orange bar of sunlit water, and starlight brightened the encroaching night. Peace on earth. Goodwill to everyone. I could feel it all around. A necklace of shoreline lights began to sparkle, and only a lone fishing vessel remained on the placid, unfurrowed brow of the lake.
I remember feeling overcome--overpowered by the hypnotic stillness that hung in the air. God had spoken. "Rest". "Renew". "Surrender to the restoration prepared for you before the foundation of the world."
I remember the ecstasy of laying my head on the shoulder of God. The songs of the night played on as I watched, and a silken strand of moonlight wove gracefully through the misty fabric of evening shadows. How kind, I thought, and how good of God to make sky jewels for my enjoyment.
The evening was a gathering of moments to treasure and to bring up in my memory time and time again when life would be busier. Nightfall was a reminder of my absolute need for absolute surrender
to the One who loves me with an everlasting love. He alone iwas and is my source of all lasting joy.