205 - Be Where Your Feet Are

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Resources from this episode:

Birds and Bees (code WORKANDPLAY for 20% off)
Episode 195 - Birds & Bees With Megan Michelson
Jen Wilkin - None Like Him

Show Notes:

Be where your feet are. This simple phrase has brought me back time and time again from feeling scattered and overwhelmed to simply being present. It's taught me a lot about my own limits and how God is limitless, and I found a lot of encouragement in that. So today's episode is all about that phrase, be where your feet are. And I hope you find it encouraging.

For the full episode, hit play above or read through below.

This phrase “be where your feet are” has popped up over and over again in my life recently. And it's been just the reminder that I've needed because I am the kind of person that tends to worry or always live in the future.

I'm always planning things, I'm always thinking three steps ahead, and sometimes it's hard for me mentally just to be where I am. Now. In today's episode, I wanna encourage you just to think on those words. “Be where your feet are,” what does that look like for you? What does that mean for you? And while you're thinking about that, I want you to think about your limits and how God is limitless and how all of these things tie together.

So obviously when we're where our feet are, we have to center ourselves on what's in front of us, and we have to bring, reel our minds back in to exactly what we're doing and who we're looking at, the people we're interacting with, or the task that we've been given and really be present. That's what the phrase is all about.

But let's talk a little bit about our limits. Our bodies, our human bodies are limited. They're bodies. We literally have the limit of our flesh and our arms and our feet and our head. Like we, we can't be anywhere else. And while God is omnipresent and he can be everywhere, we as humans can only be one place at a time.

Now, several years ago when I had Nancy Ray Photography, I remember I was just so concerned about my kids and who they were with and the babysitter and I was at work, but they were there at the house and there was just so many thoughts running in my head. I think one of them might have been coming down with some sort of sickness. And it's just, it can feel chaotic sometimes when you're dropping them off with a sitter and your mind is at home and with them, but you're trying to get work done.

And I'll never forget one of the team members, Jen, read this excerpt from Jen Wilkins book, None Like Him. And she talked about how God is limitless, how He's omnipresent, but He created us to be present in one particular space and in time. And we aren't meant to be like God, even though we're image bearers and made in His image, we're still humans, we're still people.

And so that really got me thinking, you know what? God made me with these physical limits. I have physical limits. I can only be in one place at a time. God's omnipresent. We are not. I have to eat and drink. That's a physical limit. I can't just keep living life and doing everything I wanna do. I have to stop and I have to feel myself every single day. I'm limited by the need to sleep. I can't just keep working or keep going. I have to close my eyes and our bodies have to shut down and get rest.

If you really stop and think about that, that's wild that we just kind of go unconscious for like, I don't know, seven, eight hours every single day so that our bodies can recharge and reset. And that's how God made us. Our bodies are a great gift to us, but they have these built-in limits and we need to stop thinking of that as a bad thing. But instead looking at that as a gift. We are image bearers who have limits and God is unlimited and we need to trust him in his unlimitedness, if that's a word.

We also have time limits. There are only 24 hours every day and all of us get the exact same amount of hours in a day. All of our days are numbered. Scripture tells us that God knows the number of our days, even though we don't. He, he knows our birthday and he also knows the day that we are gonna leave this world. Meaning we are not gonna inhabit these bodies forever. And while we are confined and constrained by time boundaries here as we walk this earth, God is not. He's outside of time.

We also have mental limits. I can only learn so much in a day. I can only read so many books in my life. I can only make so many decisions in a day. I can only discipline so much before I start losing my patients and fatigue sets in mentally. We only have the capacity for so much mentally.

We even have emotional limits. We can't be everything to everyone all the time. And we can't keep a happy, positive attitude 100% of the time, especially when there's really hard things going on in our lives and and we have to pause and tend to those emotions and kind of let them flow through us.

Sometimes we have these limits as humans, and that's how God made us. It's beautiful, but we're extremely limited when you think about it. But here's the amazing part. When we stop and name all of our limits, it gives us so much freedom to embrace them. To say, you know what? I am limited by my physical body. I need to eat and sleep and take care of it. And I can't push it without never, ever getting tired. And I'm limited by my mind because I can only take in so much. And I'm limited by these physical constraints that God gave us as humans. And when you embrace that, that's freeing. You can say, you know what? I can't be everything to everyone. I can't do every idea that comes to my head.I can't implement every single thing.

And it teaches us to pick and choose what's important in life. And it teaches us to embrace our limits and be where our feet are and say, this is what God has for me right now. This is where I wanna be. This is where I'm gonna give my focus and my attention where my feet are.

I wanna read this excerpt to you by Jen Wilkin from None Like Him that my friend read to me so many years ago that reminded me of my limits and what a gift they are.

It says, “No, we cannot be in more than one place at a time. When we reach for omnipresence ourselves, we guarantee that we will be fully present, nowhere, spread thin people of divided attentions, affections, efforts, and loyalties. Better to trust that these bodies, which tether us to one location, are good limits given by a good God. When we trust him as fully present everywhere, we are finally free to be fully present wherever he has placed us.”

I wanna read that last line again because it's so good. “When we trust him as fully present everywhere we are finally free to be fully present wherever he has placed us.” Oh man, I, I worry about my kids when I'm not with them. I live out of frustration when I can't come to the end of my to-do list. I am tired when I don't get enough sleep, I get hangry when I don't eat. I get mad when I run outta time or there's an interruption and I can't do what I need to do because I want to bust out of the boundaries that God has given me.

But goodness, it's such a gift to realize God's got it. He's omnipresent, He's everywhere. He's taking care of everything. And that frees me to be where my feet are, to be fully present where I am. So that's my encouragement to you this week. Be where your feet are and trust God to be everywhere else. If you're working, work with everything you've got. If you're emptying the dishwasher, follow through and empty that dishwasher with joy. Are you making a meal? Chop every onion or spread that peanut butter with worship music in the background and give it your very best. Are you playing? Give that game of hide and seek with your kids your all and have fun with it. Are you teaching your children? Let them see that you're giving them your full attention. Are you praying? Even if it's short, make sure that you're in tune with the Lord and are giving him your whole heart.

And if you do nothing else this week, just remember the phrase, “be where your feet are.” Let it echo in your head throughout this week and see how it changes your perspective.

Thanks for listening to episode 205 of Work and Play with Nancy Ray. Everything I've said today can be found in the show notes at nancyray.com/podcast/205. And you can always find me at nancyray.com or on Instagram @nancyray.

Jim Elliot once said,