Overwhelmed – What do You do?

Stacked - watercolor - Rebekah Bell (miniature in a series about being overwhelmed)

It’s been a busy few weeks for me.  I thought I was handling things well, but the past couple days I have just needed to stop.  No the pain isn’t bad, but it’s there at the end of the day.  The fatigue has caught up with me a few times.  Too many things demanding attention and I’ve not been managing my energy as well as I can.  I wouldn’t say I’m in a “flare” but definitely walking the line.  So here I sit with my to-do list crossing off everything that doesn’t NEED to be done, and a few things that DO.  Frustrating to say the least.  Especially knowing I will let people down, I have already let myself down.  I’m sure you all have been here, sitting where I am today.  So where do we go from here?   Where do we turn to keep this from spiraling down into a flare, or depression? 

First, we need to look in the right direction.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Next, think “Big Picture.”

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” 

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

Believe that God can and will restore you.

“Do you not know?

    Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.”  Isaiah 40:28-31

I hear Jesus calling me when in Matthew he says “Come to me…”  So I will be spending my day with Him.  And it will not be a wasted day, it will be a day of rest and restoration!  What will I do?  I will read his word, I will pray, I will journal and I will do some art.  I will take care of my little one and play, pick kids up from school, make meals for my family and in Jesus' name, not let this day take me down!

“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” 2 Tim. 1:7