‘Tis the Season to Unsubscribe

Season’s Greetings my friends! It’s the last day of 2023 and I hope this note finds you enjoying a little down time from a busy but blessed holiday. I’m spending my day unsubscribing.

Needing an activity free of thinking, baking, shopping, or wrapping, I opted for opting out of numerous email subscriptions. Exhausting my inbox were petitions for everything from men’s electric shavers (how did I get on that list?) to those beckoning me to travel far and near (these I admit to signing up for).  Some of these calls for my immediate attention I ignore. Most I delete without thinking. Which got me thinking.

Might there be other things over the coming year—beyond the onslaught of solicitations—I should opt out of? Everything is on the table—specifically commitments, habits, hobbies, attitudes, and thoughts that I not only allow but register for, knowing well they are designed specifically to exhaust the inbox of my heart and mind.

Sometimes it is my schedule that drains me. I’m heading into the third year of writing my next book. In order to complete it on schedule (December 2025), I will have to unsubscribe to some activities I love in order to fulfill that for which I am called. My hobbies, too, will need to be suspended—writing requires two hands and one brain; multi-tasking is not possible. Most importantly, I recognize there are attitudes that must go: fear, inadequacy and jealousy are at the top of my list this year. For it is these thoughts and other attitudes such as envy, anger, pride and bitterness that feed a false narrative that we have been disregarded, dismissed, disrespected, replaced or rejected.

If you’re considering opting out of thoughts that hold you hostage know that unsubscribing isn’t always easy or pretty—in fact, prepare yourself for the rude and ugly awakening of truth. For me it required honest, self-reflection (while walking Annie; we’ve covered miles over the past week as I prayed Psalms 139:24). But only by examining one’s heart can one know it’s time to unsubscribe and check the box that reads, “This content is no longer relevant to me.”

Some circumstances are within our control—especially those barriers to joy that we’ve consciously or subconsciously signed up for. We shouldn’t just continue to ignore them.

We need to unsubscribe.

Wishing you a subscription-free 2024!

Ellen