I want to be overwhelmed.
We spent last year in a near-constant state of chaos. We were so busy settling in with a new home, community, school, jobs, friends, hobbies (yadda, yadda, yadda) that sometimes we felt like we were barely hanging on.
So this summer I told myself (but no one else) that this school year was going to be different. I was looking at late August as my New (School) Year’s Resolution, part II.
I had it all planned out. The school supplies were purchased in July. I had an awesome day planner that would not only schedule my days, but my hours and my months. I would plan our dinner menu 30 days at a time.
Are you laughing yet?
You ought to be. Because you know where this is going, don’t you?
I feel like a hot mess already and I’m this close to waving the white flag and hoping that NEXT school year I can get my act together.
I know I’m not alone. My friends have shared the same thing. But we aren’t only feeling overwhelmed by the first-world problems of shuttling kids to various activities. We feel overwhelmed by different burdens: the pain of loneliness, the burden of debt, the grief of death, the anxiety of what-if, the fear of change, the struggles of poor health.
In my tired moments, my prayers sound more like, “God, please make my life better.” In my better moments, I know this world is full of all sorts of trouble—some of it caused by my own decisions, some of it out of my control.
I know that trouble is light and momentary, though it may not seem like it. I know that I am not overwhelmed by the world because I know the One who has overcome the world.
That truth doesn’t necessarily make my schedule less busy or take away the struggles, but it does put them in perspective. That truth stops all the frantic swirling in my brain and sends peace in the middle of the noise.
As you forget the world’s version of what it means to be overwhelmed—with work, finances, relationships, schedules—let yourself be overwhelmed by the One who did everything—every single thing—so you could be brought back into a relationship with God.
Be overwhelmed by the Creator of the galaxy, who knows the name of every single star and put them there to show his glory.
Be overwhelmed by your Brother, hanging on a cross, saying, “It. Is. Finished.” You are at peace.
Be overwhelmed by your Father’s love, the one who has been anxiously looking for—and then running to—his prodigal child.
Be overwhelmed by the One whose voice strips the temple bare and yet still whispers, “Be still.”
Be overwhelmed by the one who gently tells you, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
