Mid-Life Crisis or Sabbatical?

There's something to be said about the typical "mid-life crisis".  The reality of pushing as hard as you have to from childhood continuing through raising your own children, providing for all of their needs, excelling in your occupation, & serving in all your civic and religious organizations for the first 40 or 50 years of your life ... It's EXHAUSTING!

You know it is, as you're struggling thru it, but you "just keep your head down" and do the work, enjoying life as you can along the way and taking a "breather" vacation week here or there to see you thru, is how you survive.

But what about pushing thru to that midway point & honestly admitting how worn out you are and instead of continuing the insanity declaring yourself on a personal sabbatical.  Sabbatical coming from the word "sabbath"; "to cease or to rest" taken from the commandment for a weekly sabbath. Life, natural human limitations, confusion, the complexity of being human, our uniqueness getting buried underneath it all, forgetting who we are down deep in the nitty gritty of life, feeling dead, numb or unknown.

Pull away before you do something drastic that you regret!  There is much written about people taking a sabbatical from their careers and traveling to Europe or some exotic place to see new things and get away from the daily grind to bring some fresh excitement, appreciation, & perspective.  Getting away from any finger that could poke you in the ribs needing something from you, and just be YOU and enjoy living!

Do you really have to go to a far away place to do this?  Could you do it right from home?  Do you have to wait until a day that may never come when you can drastically quit your job and go to a faraway place?  Could you do it while you work your job, in the normal life you have today, just by being intentional?

First we can cut out "extra-curricular" commitments.  Work your 9-5 job & give yourself the gift of your after hour, hours!  Get away from everything that has been "normal"; maybe even things that aren't "bad".  For instance in my life .. we're used to inviting company over on the weekend, a wonderful thing to do, but even that needs to be put on the shelf; like that's choking out those hours that we need for 'free-flowing"; complete rest and release from all expectations.  If we want to get together with someone, it doesn't have to be something planned out weeks in advance on the calendar.  It can be spur of the moment, no fuss, if it works out, get together.

"Free-Flowing,"  I think that's a key word; maybe one of the governing principles of this time.  God says, "Come to me and I will show you how to rest. I won't lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you.  Walk with me, learn from me, learn the gentle rhythms of grace." Gentle rhythms.  Live like you're on vacation.  Have the time to not be compelled but to have freedom to "free-flow' after never having that luxury.  Do it with a heart turned towards God longing to hear Him & be refueled, restored, awakened.  A heart that doesn't want a counterfeit life... that wants to see Him and represent Him more accurately by this time of purifying; of letting what is false, things that have attached themselves but are not the "best" in our lives be shed.   Sometimes it's only by shedding everything off that we can see what really needs to be put back on.

We turn our attention to breathing.  "Breathing" .. what does that mean to you?  to me it's time to sit, to walk, to read, to write.. more time that I can be home. For my husband it's getting done with his work day and not having a commitment he has to run to.  It's having no commitments so he can grab his chainsaw and shape the woods and trails around our house.  It's time to sit and crank up the volume on worship music from 30 years ago up and soak his soul.

It's asking ourselves.. who are "YOU"?  It's ok to say "yes" to this unique delight and fill ourselves.  It's not wrong or selfish.  Maybe it's what God himself, would have us do; take a time & "smell the roses" of our own self.  To stand back and say, "What is this amazing thing you have created? (me)  Have I ever taken the time to stand back in awe & linger here & appreciate this work of art you have created?  I don't have to produce.  I can just BE.

Maybe it can save us from having a breakdown.. doing something drastic in our exhaustion from life where we never felt permission to take care of ourselves.  Could a mid-life crisis really just be a scream from the deepest parts of the soul that a person just can't take it anymore?.. that there's something deep inside broken that needs tending and it can't be silent anymore.  Something that never felt permission to stop the insanity & say, "no!".. to recognize, "I need a break"  to say, "I'm suffocating here"  Sometimes I wonder if people who destroy their lives and families by having a midlife crisis could have been spared by giving themselves permission to take care of themselves, taking a sabbatical, a holy time pulled away for just YOU & God Himself.

I think that I will choose that road instead.