Photo by Giuseppe Milo

By Jerrica KF Ching

With the cold and wintry months upon us, I am sure that many of my AAWOL sisters and readers have taken precautionary measures to keep their bodies healthy and flu-free.  We all know those signs of an incoming cold, right?  Muscles become tired, heads become feverish, throats cough, noses sneeze, and then we are faced with the choice to keep on pushing through in hopes we will be magically cured overnight, or we stop and recharge and give our bodies the rest it needs.  Our bodies give us signals of ailments to come, which allow us to plan (or not plan) accordingly to all our bodies to heal.

Just as our bodies give us signals that something is not going right, God also gives us signals when the work we are doing is not going according to His plan.  So how does God signal us with our bodies?  For me, I feel that I am going according to His plan when I am feeling peace and contentment.  It isn’t a specific body part that coughs, sneezes, aches, or tingles, but rather a sense of being that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, and I am fulfilling my calling.  There have been many situations in my life where I felt like I wasn’t settled, or something was amiss.  It’s that feeling you get when everything about the situation is something positive, yet you don’t feel positive about it.  Other signals include constant frustration or irritation with something I feel like I am lacking, or constantly feeling like I am on the go and running towards nothing.  Have you ever felt that way?  It’s that sense of being lost with no map and no flashlight.  The questions, What am I doing?, What am I doing here?, or Am I doing the right thing? constantly are popping up in your brain.  These signals can then cause panic, and our bodies definitely know how to tell us when we are panicking.  Our muscles tense up, our breathing increases to rapid rates, and we are suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of dread that cannot be rationalized.

I don’t think I pay nearly as much attention to how much I smile or have that sense of contentment, than I do to how many times I had to take ten deep breaths to prevent myself from sobbing or having a sense of dread.  We tend to focus more on the negative because negative feelings are outside of the norm.  But what would happen in our lives if we all looked closer at the positives?  What would that do if we all honed in to those moments of being at peace and in God’s presence?  To be completely enveloped in God’s love and warmth, and to recognize that he is always enveloping us in His grace is something not many of us have mastered.

My challenge for myself, my AAWOL sisters, and all of our readers out there would be for this holiday season to focus on tuning in to the bodily sensations that God sends us to remind us that we are loved, unconditionally. Imagine how much joyful this holiday season would be! Amidst a busy and stressful holiday season, may we be reminded of the true reason for the season, and may we see more of God’s signs of that in our everyday lives.

Jerrica KF Ching lives in the beautiful state of Washington and works as a Mental Health Primary Care Provider serving children, adolescents, and their families at Columbia Wellness.  She graduated with an MA in Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling from George Fox University and is working towards becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist. Her research on racial colorblindness has recently been published in The International Journal of Social Science Studies.