when you’re overwhelmed…

i thought we would take a break from our look at the nt book of james in the bible and look at being overwhelmed.  isaiah in chapter 38 of his ot book in the last part of verse 14 (njb) said, LORD, i am overwhelmed.  please come to my help.  and maybe that is where you are.

mary in the nt was also overwhelmed.  luke 1.26-30 (nlt), GOD sent the angel gabriel to a virgin named mary.  she was engaged to be married to a man named joseph.  gabriel appeared to her and said, “greetings, favored woman.  the LORD is with you.”  confused and disturbed mary tried to think of what the angel could mean.  “don’t be frightened, mary,” the angel told her, “for GOD has decided to bless you.” 

she’s just a thirteen, maybe fourteen year old girl who the bible says is understandably confused and disturbed.  without a doubt mary was overwhelmed when the angel came to her and told her this news.  but the angel said, “mary, you’re going to be blessed.”  here’s the principle: we usually feel overwhelmed right before we’re going to be blessed.  so if you’re feeling overwhelmed in any area congratulations you’re about to be blessed.

now this story of mary gives us some insight into how to handle being overwhelmed.  what do you do when you’re overwhelmed?  you do what mary did.  i don’t care if you’re overwhelmed by debt, overwhelmed by fatigue, overwhelmed by stress, overwhelmed by responsibilities.  you do the same things that mary did when she got overwhelming news.  a little hint: you do the exact opposite of what you feel like doing. 

the first thing i do is what mary did and it’s this, let go of my need to control the situation.

typically the more out of control we feel, the more overwhelmed we feel, the more we redouble our efforts.  we try to control it more.  we hyper control.  we micromanage.  we use force, we use willpower to try to make it work. 

we do that all the time.  parents do this with their kids as they start growing up and start showing the first examples of independence.  they say, “we’re not going to let that get out of control so we’re going to nip it in the bud right now!  we’re going to push it down.  we’re going to put them on restriction.  we’re not going to let this get any bigger.  we’re going to control it right now!!”

so much of the stress in your life is caused by this desire to micromanage everything, to control everything, to be the manager of the universe.  the more you try, the harder you try to control the things that are uncontrolled in your life the more overwhelmed you feel. 

just a thought from the front porch…