Picture that one really good day you had recently. You woke up and you just knew, “this is going to be a good day.” Your favorite song comes on while you’re driving to work, someone tells a really good joke, you run into so many familiar faces that automatically brightens your day.
Now picture your bad day. The one where you really just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning, you’re extra annoyed at every little thing, emotions take root in your heart, you choose to put on the sad playlist instead of the one you know will make you feel better. We become stuck in our bad day, wanting someone to rescue us so we choose to wallow.
Why do we do this? Why do we see our selves slipping into a mood, into a rut, and yet we choose to just let it happen.
This happened to me recently, I had a week that consisted of some of the most amazing joys and some of the most darkening troubles.
The troubles won, they took my joy. I retreated from my normal playlist, I distanced myself from those who I knew would lift me back up, I retreated into myself, I hid.
I was fully aware of my self retreat, yet I couldn’t put my finger on the reason as to why I couldn’t just snap out of it. Why couldn’t I shake off this sadness?
I was starving myself, or more so I was starving my soul.
You see the days, weeks, months, prior to this retreat my days consisted of filling my soul with the most amazing joy. The songs I played were those of praise, my mornings consisted of coffee and Jesus, and I surrounded myself with those who spoke words of wisdom and truth.
When I entered my self retreat I noticed that my mornings didn’t consist of coffee or Jesus, the songs I listened to were the ones that encouraged the sadness inside my heart, and instead of surrounding myself with my warriors I isolated myself.
This self retreat, it only lasted a few days but it was significant enough for me to feel my soul begging for sustenance just like your body feels the pain of hunger when you neglect to nourish it.
We can get so engulfed by the ways of the world, by our busy days, by our stress, that we forget to feed our soul.
As a college Christian fighting the ways of the world, feeding your soul is crucial.
1 John 4:4 Says “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Read that again “The one who is in you is greater that the one who is in the world.”
We tend to let the world consume us, and when it does we can feel it’s effects, we can feel our souls begging for the One who lives in us.
So on that day when you want to retreat in yourself, when you feel the world starting to starve you; feed your soul.
Immerse yourself in the One that provides joy, and those good days will immensely outnumber the bad.
Feed your soul and watch the joy in your heart magnify.
