Well…that was awesome! – Sue Bidstrup / Great Big YES!

My friend, Liz and I decided to plan a Holy Yoga mini retreat for some friends. When I say this, what I mean is we got absolutely giddy about the idea and started planning every detail down to the cucumbers in the big water jug on the counter.

We thought about what we would want for resting and relaxing. We wondered out loud…what do women need?

Liz and I had been dreaming about something like this for years. Before I even knew about Holy Yoga. But it didn’t materialize until now. Because now was the perfect time. See, here’s the thing I know now…all the planning in the world won’t bring the Holy Spirit in…all the lemon water and organic salad and crisp sheets and brand new journals and pens won’t bring Jesus…We can plan every detail to earthly perfection and it can still feel empty or forced or fake.

But when you invite the Holy Spirit in…when you ask Jesus to show up…when you speak His name in gratitude and enthusiastic expectation…you will be blown away by His presence. He knows what we need and He brings it. I can’t possibly know what every woman who was at that retreat needed so how can I plan for that? But I know the One who can provide for them exactly what they need. So I call on His name.

We prayed. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to come in. I think of the worship song, “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here…come flood this place and fill the atmosphere…your glory God is what our hearts long for…to be overcome by your presence Lord.”

Oh the years of trying to plan every detail of every thing…in my home, for Great Big Yes, for my marriage, my children, my social life, my writing, everything I was doing…the desire for control and the attachment to outcome kept me in chains.

Holy Yoga has taught me that God is God and I am not. What a relief. I have been set free.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” Galatians 5:1

The retreat was a mountaintop moment. But what now?

We didn’t want to leave…it was so good…He was with us. We are like Thomas, “But we don’t know the way….”

And we hear Jesus assure him and us…I am the Way. Follow me.

I don’t have to know the way, I don’t have to have every detail perfect, I don’t have to know what’s coming next, I don’t have to solve anything, change anything, fix anyone, rehab my entire life…I need to get to know Jesus better.

He is the way.