Devotion for February 23, 2021 from Tori Valcarcel, Ministry in Context Student:
Finding Peace in the Process
Many days have passed in the last year that have left me drained, frustrated, and upset that I hadn’t done more (or anything). I like to imagine that everyone has some things left on their to-do lists at the end of the day, although if you don’t, please let me know your secrets! However, at a certain point of un-finished-ness, I get pretty fed up. Certainly, living with depression during a global pandemic doesn’t exactly spell out a recipe for productivity, but it can be pretty disheartening to feel constantly behind, never quite on top of things.
We all have something like this- maybe it’s your to-do lists, too, or perhaps you struggle with never taking time to rest, or you feel like maybe no one actually knows the real you, or so on and so forth. The point is, we are all works in progress. We are human be-ings, literally in the process of be-ing!
If COVID times have given me anything, it is the gift of finding peace with this process more often. It isn’t an everyday thing, of course. I stress and struggle and gnash my teeth as much as the next seminarian. But, and this is the important bit, I have found more and more times each day to lift up a prayer of thanks for the messiness, the in-between, not yet finished, the process of being. I find a little bit of space in each breath, each walk with my dog, each hug from my brother, each song that I sing the wrong lyrics to, space that is full of peace, no matter how fleeting.
How have you found peace in your process? What are the pieces of you that feel unfinished, not quite what you want them to be? What ways has the Spirit been moving in your life, reminding you that you are Beloved- in progress, in process, just as God made you?
I pray that we find those moments easily and often, as we journey together.
Yours in Christ,
Tori (the new ministry in context student from PLTS at Holy Trinity and Christ the King)
A small moment of peace with Moose. (Pictured: A winter sunrise above an empty field. A dog is standing in the lower left, looking towards the sun.)