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Welcome back to our third week of God-sized Dreams spring book club!  Today, we dig into chapters 3 (calling) and 4 (editing) of Alli Worthington’s Breaking Busy.

I don’t know about you, but Chapter 4 hit me like a boulder.  What is resonating with you as you read?

Before we launch into Alli’s tips on Editing, let’s dig into the work we have to do first to find our Calling. How can finding our calling help us break busy?  It doesn’t eliminate busy.  But it does help us choose wisely what keeps us busy.  Instead of pleasing others and filling a void, we become “busy with a purpose” which energizes and keeps us focused on what’s really important.

I have learned that God plants gifts in us and provides opportunities throughout our lives to fulfill our life’s purpose. But we have to break the cycle of busy in our lives if we are going to have enough room to discover God’s plan – our destiny.  p. 67, chapter 3

To jumpstart your assessment of where your calling lies, if you don’t already know, Alli offers some great questions to ask yourself:

• what activities have you loved since childhood?
• what do you love?
• what tugs at your heart?
• if money were no object, what would you do for free?
• what energizes you?
• what is something everyone says you’re good at?

Did that shed a little light?  Take some time.  Pray about it.  Ask your friends or family.  Rethink what’s possible and put your busy energy toward your life calling.

But if you’re going to have time to focus on what God really wants you to do, you’re going to have to do some editing.

Sigh.  This. Is. Hard.

Every single one of you who is busy right now must read chapter 4 if you read nothing else.  There is so much good here about God’s nudging and the importance of stepping away from things, even those that seem “good:”

I’ve learned through the years that when I am both surprised and challenged by a whisper in my spirit, it’s God asking me to do something that stretches my limited concept of what I can do…
God sometimes calls us to quit things that are good in exchange for His plans that are greater.  p. 80, chapter 4

If you thought breaking busy would be a piece of cake, then boy do I have news for you.

As I read this chapter, I had to make some tough choices.  In areas where I was succeeding and leading.  Because the reality is, if we are filling our life with busy things, even things that look good or even Godly to the outside world, but they’re not God-approved, we have to lay them down.

And the laying down process can be hard for us and for those impacted.  I stepped off boards and stepped away from commitments, and those decisions impacted others too.

Alli gives readers a head’s up about this editing process, God was trying to alter my life and was refining my character to suit his particular purpose. But sometimes edits hurt, and sometimes they cause others to hurt. When you feel the need to edit something out of your life, expecting the process to be easy will only make that change harder. Like most growth in life, editing out the good is not easy, but it is ultimately worth it.  p. 86, chapter 4

We have to trust what God is calling us to.  And trust what He will bring on the other side of the pruning.

Some of the tips provided on making proactive edits (the best kind – reactive edits are when you’re at the end of your rope) included: look for areas in your life that are not fruitful; be proactive, not reactive; and look where God may be calling you.  Who knows what He has prepared in advance for you (Eph. 2:10) that you need to make room for now in order to create a space for Him to move you.

What struck you in chapters 3 and 4?  How did you find what God is calling you to?  What are your tips on editing the busy out of your life?

I hope you’ll join in the conversation here or on Facebook and we’ll take up chapters 5 and 6 next week!  A reminder, Alli offers great resources and here are her videos for chapter 3 and chapter 4.