When you don't want to do "this" anymore, don't fight it. God did not give us this life to feel pressed upon. It is a gift to be enjoyed. We live in the present. Right here, right now, to live in joy.
I remember going to the doctor with the massive headache a few years ago. I had a boil on my side that really needed to be drained, but the doctor did not want to do it. He slit the abscess a little bit, pressed on it, and said, "Well, it's not ready" and sent me home.
The next day I had to go to the emergency room because my headache was even worse. I thought I was having a stroke. The ER doctor took me through a questionnaire and upon discovery of the boil on my side, released a string of curse words. I will sanitize them with this one sentence. He said, "This is why you are having headaches and your blood pressure is up." He drained the abscess, my pressure went down, and I went home after paying a $600 emergency bill copay.
Not too long after that incident I received a letter from my primary care physician's office stating that the doctor who initially refused to drain my abscess was no longer with the practice and that he had decided to leave medicine all together. No surprise there. That was something that had been on him for quite some time and he should have listened. It would have saved me a $600 copay. And as frustrating as it was to pay it, I learned this lesson:
Leave when you no longer enjoy the living. Or as my grandfather used to say, "leave while the crowd is still cheering".
When we no longer love the thing that we do, it is not a betrayal. It is the realization that there is something else that we've been called to do. Seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be answered. When the call goes out, answer "here I am". And there shall it be. But until you are honest and recognize that joy is no longer in the place you were, you cannot move on to the place you want to be.
We create constructs in our minds and in our world to make it seem like this is a difficult choice. Honestly it is not. We know when we are no longer happy doing something when we make excuses as to why we don't want to go, we are constantly late, we complain the entire time we're there, we pick fights with people, or we behave in ways that are counter to who we know we were born to be.
When these things happen, it's time to go.
Leave.
It doesn't mean that you won't ever come back or that the things that you're leaving behind are going to go to the wayside. Just as you're moving into a new place with new responsibilities and new people to work with and new things to enjoy, those things will have new people to take care of them and new people to enjoy them. Let them.
And when you leave, let them be. Don't regret and don't look back. I'm not saying don't care or don't check up on the people who remained. I'm saying don't mettle and insert yourself in places where you no longer belong. It will be like putting a round peg in a square hole. You no longer fit there and you will fall through.
Your new place is waiting for you. Walk into it with excitement and anticipation. Expect wonderful and be wonder filled.
Have a great day!
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