One of the most ironic things about me is my name. Although my mother decided to call me Serenity, meaning “the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled,” I am anything but. I worry- all the time. It’s probably one of the things I struggle with the most. And because of my anxious tendencies, I tend to settle.
For me, I make a lot of my decisions in life based on what will cause the least amount of anxiety. I choose what’s more comfortable, less difficult, and the least scary. Because if I can avoid stressful situations, I can avoid anxiety.
In theory, this seems like a pretty smart idea. Settling even seemed to work out pretty well for me. Until I went to a women’s conference at my church last spring. During the conference, I was bombarded by this question: “What part of your life is holding you back from your relationship with Christ?” A pretty simple question, yet I was terrified of the answer.
Settling comes in all different forms. Maybe you let your parents choose your career path because you don’t want to upset them. Maybe you stay in a toxic relationship because you think you won’t ever find better. Maybe you turn down an amazing opportunity out of fear. Whatever the situation, you settled. I did it too.
I had been settling for a very long time. In the back of my mind, I knew what I needed to do (like for years), but I was so scared. However, at that conference I could no longer ignore what God was telling me.
God was trying to get me to realize that by settling, I was limiting his power. When you settle, you take the easy way out. You accept things as is without question, even when you know deep down that this is not the plan God had for you.
The act of settling is a lot like sinking in the ocean. When something sinks, there is no longer any resistance. The object accepts the pull of the water and drifts into the darkness.
That is exactly what happens when we settle. We drift to this dark place where the light of God barely shines. We hide from the things that scare us because refusing to sink or refusing to settle requires us to step into the light. A place where we are exposed to the world, and it’s terrifying. Vulnerability is a scary thing, but we are in luck.
God has the power to keep us afloat. He never intended for us to settle. He wants us to rise to each and every challenge. But in order to do this, we must let go of our fears and let God guide us into the light.
“Worrying doesn’t change anything, but trusting in God changes everything.”
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