It is Time

Have you been feeling a sense of unrest, feeling unhappy or feel like what used to work for you is just not working anymore? Well, this could be one of the most important season's of your life...

by Rachel Rozario

Every story has a beginning and mine starts with me, here and now. For the past two years, I have been living on an island off the northeast coast of Peninsular Malaysia called Perhentian Kecil. It’s beauty is indescribable and serenity unmatched - the perfect paradise. In all its beauty, surrounded by the best of mother nature, only one word could describe how I truly felt…

Unhappy. A simple word signifying more than just an emotional void.

Beauty and serenity should have made me happy, right?

My close friend once told me that it's impossible to feel depressed when the sun is out because you’d feel guilty for not being cheery. I sure was swimming in guilt for being an unhappy one in the sun.

"My close friend once told me that it's impossible to feel depressed when the sun is out because you’d feel guilty for not being cheery. I sure was swimming in guilt for being an unhappy one in the sun."

But why wasn’t I feeling happy?

After some self exploration, I discovered that whenever I needed to unwind or just get away from all the noise, I’d run to the highest hill, take a walk in the jungle or forest and I would gravitate to waterfalls or rivers.

That's where I felt calm, inspired, encouraged and fulfilled.

It is my open heaven, my safe place.

Imagine an open heaven as a place where there is unlimited access to joy. Where no pain can touch you. Where no worry can overwhelm you.

That is how I felt when I went to these places. I realised then that this was why my feet loved soil more than sand, why my hand came alive in freshwater more than saltwater and why my mind was at peace up on a mountain rather than in the sea.

With this realisation, I made a decision to leave the island. I recognised that my season on the island had come to its end and I needed to let it go.

"Imagine an open heaven as a place where there is unlimited access to joy.Where no pain can touch you. Where no worry can overwhelm you."

Let Go

If you are reading this and you feel unhappy with the place you are at, no matter how beautiful and rewarding it seems, it may be time to realise that your season on your “island” is at its end and it’s time to let it go.

It may be a sense of unrest or a stirring within you that life has so much more to offer, a tug of hopelessness from being financially unstable, loneliness even when you receive numerous calls and texts every day or a job that brings you no satisfaction.

The truth is, you are growing in your capacity to handle more in the next season of your life and the unrest you are feeling is just an indication that there is MORE for you..this is not the end of the road! There is hope my friend...Its time to let go and move on!

Re-calibrate

In this season of a global pandemic, when the world depends on various means to cope with fears and worries, there isn’t a more perfect opportunity to re-calibrate.

It is a transitional period. Mourning for comforts that were, we are evolving and growing, stretching to heights we never imagined possible. God has given us this opportunity to re-calibrate with Him again. And this time, He wants us all to himself.

An opportunity to re-calibrate

"It is a transitional period. Mourning for comforts that were, we are evolving and growing, stretching to heights we never imagined possible. God has given us this opportunity to re-calibrate with Him again. And this time, He wants us all to himself."

Our homes are now our open heaven and watering hole. A watering hole is a pool where animals come to drink.

As a deer trots to a watering hole to fill its thirst, let us allow ourselves to be wooed into the streams of water right where we are, position ourselves under that open heaven and immerse in the wells of healing, learning, contemplating, reinventing, re-purposing or just resting.

“As a deer gets thirsty for streams of water, I truly am thirsty for you, my God.” - Psalms 42:1

It’s time to let go of our temporary fixes, those things we think brings us contentment and happiness but are paired with heavy boulders of judgement, failures and resentment we accept without question. It’s time to heal and nurse our wounds that we never had time for before while we were so busy running the race of life. It is time to be expectant and look forward to this new season God is shifting us to!

Letting go is a choice. What use is there to hold on to something if it can no longer serve us on a new journey? Yes, it is a leap of faith, yes, we don’t know what lies ahead, but keep moving forward and have faith, for the Lord is with us.