Is there something you’ve been avoiding?

Have you been avoiding something you know you shouldn't, postponing, pretending it's not there?

I'm reading the book Sensible Shoes (more about it below), and at a certain point, a mentor tells her student: "What you've been avoiding is exactly what you need" and also: "Our areas of resistance and escape can contain precious information about our inner life. Pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you."

🟢 Maybe you're avoiding being alone with your thoughts, always keeping yourself busy (and this can be quite undetectable). For example, when you are in a waiting room, are you able to just… wait, and not be distracted by your phone?

🟢 Or maybe you're postponing a tough but much-needed conversation.

🟢 Or maybe you're being busy like Martha, when you should be at Jesus' feet like Mary, and you feel resistant to being still when there are so many things to be done.

Again, pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you when you find in yourself any kind of resistance. Maybe what you've been avoiding is exactly what you need.

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 139:23–24

"Lord, you are my Creator, and there is nothing that I can hide from You. Help me to be discerning of what Your Holy Spirit is telling me, and help me to surrender to You every part of me. In Jesus’ name, Amen."


Sensible Shoes by Sharon Garlough Brown follows four women (Hannah, Meg, Mara, and Charissa) who meet at a retreat center and begin a journey of spiritual formation. Each carries her own struggles: exhaustion, grief, rejection, or pressure to succeed, but through friendship, spiritual practices, and mutual support, they discover deeper truths about God and themselves.