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Less Schedule...More Freedom

Writer's picture: Rachel ScottRachel Scott


A number of years ago I read Shauna Niequist's book, “Present Over Perfect - Leaving Behind Frantic For a More Soulful Way of Living." In the book she details how for years she strived to curate an ideal and seemingly perfect life, foregoing a more slowed-down pace leading to the life God intended for her. She quit her nine-to-five, suit and high heels job and carved out more time to write, cook meals for her family and be present.


I remember hearing her speak prior to her writing this particular book at a creatives conference in Nashville that I attended. While she is incredibly gifted, funny and insightful, I did pick up on the fact that she seemed rushed and fatigued at the same time. She had just flown in and hadn’t had time to even change her clothes prior to her speaking at the event.

She scurried in and out. God still used her, and her gifts shown through. However, just a year or two later she was writing a book about giving up the “frantic” way of life.


When I picked up my copy, I was smack dab in the middle of the busiest parenting season with all three boys in school, activities and sports; and I was working outside the home on top of it. I recall feeling challenged by her ability to do an about-face in her life and choose a new direction. I didn’t necessarily want out of the season I was in, but I did feel frantic with little to no options to really find an alternative. I loved that my boys had opportunities and they were doing what they loved in exploring their gifts, but it came with a sacrifice of time and putting aside some of my personal freedom.


While I loved this book and found many profound ideas to draw from, I also found it to be challenging to the reality of most of the world in terms of circumstances and responsibilities. There are seasons of life that require us to step into more demand, especially those of us who are parents understand this. Life is no longer as self-focused when you have a family. Rather, our motivation shifts to the well-being of those that we love.


Jesus even famously said in John 15:13 (NLT), There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.”


The laying down of one’s life is marked as love.


Yet, conversely many of us are consumed by schedules and a frantic way of living that is by choice and less about a sacrificial season we’ve been called to. We can easily convince ourselves that everything is important. Saying no and setting boundaries feels foreign as we seek to be super heros in our own lives. FOMO (fear of missing out) is real, and we develop a subconscious mentality that urges “Do more. Be better.” All the while, Jesus is beckoning that HE is enough and to step into HIS freedom.


As we seek to create an impossibly perfect, idealistic life, we end up “losing our lives” trying to save it. We may lose the precious moments with our kids that are a result of wiping our schedules so we can sit with them and take in a sunny day at the park. To connect with friends. To sit down and read just to read. To be creative just to be creative. To cook just to taste something delicious.


“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."

Matthew 16:25 (NLT)


Loved Ones, the overarching call on our lives is to love the Lord with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength. I would propose that the laying down of our lives looks like this: Our busy schedules need to be discerned and picked apart in order to make room for the freedom Jesus wants us to live in. He reminds us, “take my yoke upon you ... and you will find rest for your souls.”


One of the gifts of the pandemic in 2020 was that it forced everyone to slow down. While arguably many of our basic freedoms were taken away, it also made the way for a different margin in our lives. Our daily routines and over-packed schedules came to a screeching halt.


And while at first it was disorienting, many of us found that the slowed down pace in some ways provided us a gift that we didn’t know we needed. It moved us into rest. It reminded us all how to take a sabbath. And that part was good. Covid forced us to look at life through a different lens and allowed us to take up activities that had either laid dormant or new hobbies that have since enriched our lives.


No, I don’t wish for another pandemic to interrupt the world, yet I can draw from a perspective it offered.


Less schedule and more freedom to step into what God has for us.


Your friend,


Rachel

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