Overloaded

After recent travels, I have been home for three weeks. In those three weeks, I have not had a single day that didn’t belong to someone else. I was running children, fulfilling tailoring and quilting contracts, teaching leadership courses, participating in workshops and doing all of the normal wife and mother things that wives and mothers do. I commented to one of my adult children that I feel like I’m drowning.

My load is so heavy that the waterline is at the gunnels and it feels as if the slightest rocking of the boat is going to put me under.

 

One of the most common responses to the oft asked, “How are you?” is “BUSY”. We say it either as a badge of honour or the mark of a martyr. The truth is, when busy fills up our lives, there is rarely any room left for those things that would refresh and restore us, those things that would give us the energy and stamina to keep moving forward; not just surviving, barely keeping our heads above the water, but thriving and living purpose filled lives.

Luke 12:27-28

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you…

I don’t know about you, but I think that one of the reasons that I allow myself to become so busy is because I want people to like me. I have trouble saying no, because I don’t want to let people down. I say yes, because then I am the person who will help.

There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but there is a problem when I allow those things to drive me. Before I know it, I have taken on too much and then instead of living a life of Spirit-filled gentleness and contentment, I am stressed, overwhelmed and discouraged because I don’t know how to lighten the load.

Psalm 107:28-29

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble and He delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

Psalm 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God.

God doesn’t call us to be busy. God calls us to wait on Him; to trust Him; to rest in Him.

God tells us to share our burdens with Him (Matthew 11:28-30). When we turn over the weight of our burden and allow God to share the yoke, we discover that not only is our load made manageable,

but we are better able to go together with God and not get swamped by the things of this world that will always weigh us down – if we let them.

Today, instead of trying to carry the burden of just surviving on your own,

I encourage you to Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him (Psalm 37:5) and share your burdens with Him.