"He makes me lie down in fresh, tender, green pastures.
He leads me beside the still and restful waters.
He refreshes and restores my life..."
Psalm 23:2-3 AMPC
This past week I had a three day personal retreat all by myself at a cozy little hotel at the beach. This time of spiritual rest and refreshing was exactly what I needed. I am so blessed that my husband and our church leadership recognized what I needed as well and provided this getaway for me.
Lest you think, "How lucky is she? She gets to get away from life and responsibilities whenever she wants!" The truth is, this is only the second time in my sixty two years of living that I've gone away by myself like this. Yes, I've been to many retreats with other women, but only twice have I gone away all alone. I can't just take off for a few days at the beach every time I feel depleted. (Although, if anyone has a cottage at the beach they'd like to donate for this purpose I wouldn't turn it down!) So, I've had to learn to take times of personal spiritual retreat right where I live. But, if you can take some time away, I highly recommend it! I've decided to make this a three part blog series. This week I thought I'd share some symptoms of spiritual depletion/weariness. In part two I'll share some suggestions on what to do on a personal spiritual retreat and in part three I'll share how to build times of personal spiritual retreat into your normal everyday life.
Signs of spiritual depletion.
First of all, I think that those who are in any kind of ministry or occupation that involves caregiving are most prone to physical, emotional and spiritual weariness and depletion. From mothering, to caring for aging parents, from nursing to teaching, from counseling to pastoral ministry, when your full time job is caring for others than I would assume that it's more common to experience times of emptiness, depletion and weariness. It makes sense that those who spend their lives pouring into others would, on occasion, struggle with their own emptiness. In my life, I've learned some preventive measures that usually help me to not become completely depleted. However, there have been a few occasions, these past few weeks being one of them, when I felt like I needed a more intensive time of getting filled back up and refreshed than I normally get through my daily devotional time. (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, January 19th, at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)
still following,
Praying your getaway did much for your journey in life, and thank you for sharing what you garnered from your retreat. It does sound like it would be a great experience. I believe it would definitely be needed for those in the pastoral profession as is there really any downtime even when enjoying downtime. ~hugs~ for your insight. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. I understand spiritual depletion - I was there while care-giving. Times of retreat are so special. I'm glad you could get away alone for rest and refreshing.
ReplyDelete~Adrienne~