Hello, Bridgetown Church, and those of you joining us online, my name is Bethany Allen, and this is the Bridgetown Daily for Thursday, March 4th.

This past week, I had the opportunity to get out of town and slow down a bit. It is crazy how you don't realize how fast you're going until you slow down.

Now, for me, slowing down always involves some kind of inventory, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, I apparently can't help myself.

Without fail with just a little time in space, I usually end up reflecting on what I've been doing or how I've been spending my time and how I'm actually doing at a personal, spiritual, emotional and relational level.

And it's good. It's always pretty good. It's definitely not easy, but it produces something very special in me.

Now, over the years, though I always initially resisted, I've learned that the gift in slowing down, in taking inventory, is that I'm forced to sort out some things that would have never been sorted, had I not had the space to do so.

Time and space afford us and often create for us room to see life more as it is, rather than how we hope it to be.

It affords us perspective and margin, and it can help us more clearly see what we want. It can grant us the ability to set the pace for work and life, rather than it setting the pace for us.

Everyone of us needs a reset from time to time, a stopping point to grow in our awareness of the kind of lives we're living in a place to breathe, to listen to what's happening within and what's happening without.

In my time away, I kept thinking of this beautiful quote by the wonderful Annie Dillard. She says, how we spend our days, of course, is how we spend our lives.

And I think that statement rings even more true for those of us in the kingdom. We know that our days, each one of them, matters. And not just to God, but to the world around us.

Our days are the place where we sow into the reality of the kingdom. And each one, with all its seconds and minutes and hours, carries with it both meaning and purpose.

I don't know where you find yourself today, but I wonder if you could use just a few minutes of time to take inventory of where you are and where you're heading.

And so I'd like to take the next few minutes and lead you through a bit of a soul inventory. I'd like to ask a few questions and prompts that may afford you a bit more perspective and maybe even create space to cultivate for hope for what's ahead.

Now, the goal here is to simply practice numbering your days as the Psalmist once said, so that you may, in all things, gain a heart of wisdom.

So with that, would you go ahead and allow yourself to get into a comfortable position, maybe take a deep breath or put both feet on the floor, just move yourself into a posture of listening and receiving.

Silence your cell phone, turn off the TV and just take a few deep breaths.

When you're ready, slowly allow yourself to become aware of God's presence.

Remind yourself that you've been created within creation and the creator who calls you forth cares about you.

Welcome God's presence into your thinking and your feeling, into your emotions and even into your imagination.

Welcome God's presence to bring clarity and understanding, even to what you begin to think about.

The space is simply for you to become aware of God's presence, of His witness, with you in this moment.

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