Is It Well With My Soul? Peeling The Layers

      

 This morning as I was praying with my best friend, I had asked God to show me what it meant to be at a place where it was “well with my soul”.  He's been telling me to keep focused, my eyes on Him, like in Psalm 121.  When I opened my eyes, I looked across my room to see a plaque I’ve had for a few years staring me in the face.  It literally said “It is well with my soul”, and I lost it. I’ve seen that plaque a million times, to the point of where I hadn’t noticed it in months. That morning the Lord had laid that phrase on my heart in the early morning hours. I remember telling my best friend that I didn’t know how to “get” to that place. The place where I can say  “it is well with my soul”, because so much of my life does not feel “well with my soul”.   I begged God to show me how to do that. To show me what He was trying to teach me, to teach us in that moment. 

Later in the morning I began the continued work of projects on the house trying to get it ready for market. I got to a place where I finished painting and then began to rip up carpet. I had not planned to do it that day but decided to just check to see what was underneath for future reference as I knew I would pull it up eventually. I found beautiful hardwoods underneath. I immediately started trying to cut it up and pull up the layers. It was stuck down good and not an easy task. I pulled and cut and ripped. I grunted and pried  up the million strips, nails, staples, padding etc… During that time I found myself walking through full range of different emotions. I felt the anger of abandonment on several levels, forced to deal with these projects alone. I felt enraged at allowing myself to be robbed of self worth. Infuriated that Id forgotten who I am in Christ as I was treated to believe my contribution didn’t matter or wasn’t enough. That I believed I wasn’t worth being treated as a priority. With each pull and tear of layer, each nail, each staple, I felt myself release things Id been holding on to, both verbally and emotionally and spiritually. I would work on an area at a time, and then clean it. I did this until nearly the entire room was clear. I then took time to polish parts of the floor. When it was done I stood in peace and in awe at what God had led me to do and its beautiful transformation. By the end, I was both exhausted physically and emotionally, but felt a sense of freedom, inner strength, and peace I had not felt in some time. I had watched God give me an example of what He was doing, both literally and figuratively. I had watched the layers be peeled away. I had watched things that had been stuck down tight be released and removed, smoothed out and then polished.  Im still learning  and asking God to reveal to me what it means to claim “it is well”.  
This morning, He woke me and reminded me to walk in His “bold confidence” as He continues to peel away layers and refine me and remind me my foundation in Him is strong. I pray with each layer I can recognize how He not only calls me deeper but also higher with each breath as my soul heals. 
I pray today, as you read this, that as the refining and peeling away of layers in your own life in this unpredictable world. I pray that you will hear the peace He whispers to you as He carries you both deeper and higher. I pray you recognize the place that “it is well with your soul”, only possible with He alone as your foundation.  
Psalm 46: 1-3
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way 
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging