Ode to Renewal

As spring blooms, I find myself breathing fresh air again. 

There’s something palpable to this time of turnover and light. 

Perhaps, like me, winter has been hard on you this year. Maybe seasonal depression turned up; maybe you face a decision with no good answer, no clear winner or right way to go. Maybe you are simply caught up in the grind of life and have lost your verve. 

But then the sun comes back. The air may have a nip, but it also brings crocuses, daffodils, and other early-bloomers back above the ground. 

You take a breath outdoors without the cold cutting it short. *Or you take a breath outside and it induces sneezing. Either way, the world has shifted toward the new life that comes each spring. 

That renewal in the earth is felt deeply to the core of humanity. It instinctively prods us to look forward, to find hope that sunny days are returning with warm weather… and a new ability to cope. 

Like our current season, spring brings another opportunity for us to renew our hearts: Priority.

As a past-IBSA employee, I know that spring fills the women’s leadership team with plans put into action for April. I didn’t work on that side of the office, but I know that the plans that began years ago, during last year’s conference, and over the months since last April, come to fruition in the next few weeks leading to an experience that brings renewal for so many of us within two days.

There’s a certain beauty to the way taking yourself out of your daily grind recalibrates your perspective. You are, hopefully, unreachable to your regular stressors, and able to take in your surroundings. Just as spring brings new life, Priority brings space to our world, allowing us the time to evaluate our relationship with Christ, and in extension, our relationships with our family, our friends, and any others in our sphere of influence. 

While full of opportunities to hear fellow believers in Christ, Priority offers us the chance to listen to our Father; to lean into His embrace and be held while we contemplate our current life choices. 

To pause.

To pray.

Then, to move in the direction of Jesus.

Friend, please join me at Priority next month. I leave you with the lyrics from “Come Unto Jesus”, written by Keith & Kristyn Getty, Laura Story, and Jordan Kauflin. This is how I will approach Priority this year. I hope you can, too.

“Come unto Jesus all you who are weary.

Come to the mercy seat; fervently kneel.

Here, bring your wounded heart, broken and needy.

Come unto Jesus, mighty to heal.

Joy of the comfortless, light for the straying,

hope of the penitent, peace in our strife;

here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying, 

‘My yoke is easy, my burden is light.’

Come unto Jesus.

Come unto Jesus.

Lay down your burdens; 

He is enough.

Come unto Jesus; 

Rest in His love.

Come taste the Bread of Life, broken for sinners;

drink from the cup of His promise made sure. 

Feast at His table as sons and as daughters.

Grace overflowing is yours evermore.

Come now and follow Him, this life forsaking.

All that was gain, count as nothing but loss.

Trade all this world for His kingdom unfading.

Come unto Jesus; take up your cross.

Life everlasting, He offers to us.”

Written by Leah Honnen. 
Leah Honnen is a wife, momma, and infertility warrior living in Jacksonville, IL. She is a homemaker and volunteers at her church, but loves spending time fixing up her pre-1920s home with her husband, John. Leah writes on the lessons she continues to learn in daily life – through infertility, motherhood, music, friendships, and more on Instagram @leahhonnen.