Devotional | On Boundaries by Jodie McCarthy

In this new year, I keep coming back to Psalm 16 and the verses that say:

LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Psalm 16:5-6 (NIV)

We knew this year was going to be busy, so we said no to a number of commitments at the end of last year. We told our home group we would not be attending. I pulled out of being heavily involved in my creative community. My girls stopped their swimming classes and my husband (Simon) stepped down from church music for this season.

All these things were good things, things we enjoyed doing, but we knew heading into this year that we needed to pull back. This year my eldest has started a new school and Simon’s work commitment is intense. So, before the year even started, we prayed and made these changes.

In sport, boundary lines mark the limit of an area. In tennis, we talk about a ball going out of bounds, when it leaves the marked area. Boundaries are about limits.

In my life these limits are my capacity. My capacity to nurture and support my family, my capacity for my chosen profession of writing, and my capacity for any extra commitments.

When I start from a place of being grounded in God, I allow him to set the boundaries for my life. Then I find that I have the capacity to do all that I am called to do, and I have the strength to say no to the things I am not called to in this season.

But the catch is, it is a constant conversation with my Father, not a set and forget situation. Sometimes he moves the boundary in a little, and I have a season of rest and rejuvenation. Sometimes he expands it and I am expected to stretch and grow.

The psalm continues:

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Psalm 16:7-8 (NIV)

I am in a fluid situation where I need to be attentive to the voice of God in my life. I need to listen to his spirit within me and know that he will counsel and instruct me. It is a time when I must release my fear of missing out and be reminded that my Father has established my boundary lines for a reason.

What about you? Where are the boundary lines for you this year? Has God called you into a season of expansion, or a season of restoration? Are you fighting the boundaries he has put in place? Or are you able to say that “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places”?

I enclose my prayer for the new season for those of you who, like me, are in a season of rest and restoration.

Peace be with you,
Jodie

A prayer for a new season

As you finish this season a little tired, a little weary, a little over it all.
As you look forward with anticipation and trepidation to the uncertainty ahead.
As you take the rest you require, yet your own exhaustion surprises you.

May you be gracious to yourself,
As your mind flows with an avalanche of thoughts previously unheard.
May you allow yourself the time you need to adjust,
And let change come to you at its own pace.
May your hands unclench and release the past.
And may your spirit be open to the promise of the future.

May you find peace in the new rhythms of not doing.
May you find rest in the quietness of your days.
May you find the healing you didn’t know was needed.
And in this space of the in-between,
May you find hope in the dreams that rise up.
And may this time of renewing give you the strength
To follow them.

Amen