Apples of Gold

As a small child my daughter, Kendyll, had a sparkly personality. She loved to have fun and seems to have inherited her dad’s sense of humor. At times she would become overstimulated. If her school work overwhelmed her she would freeze and need encouragement to even attempt tackling it. This also manifested itself in some not so pleasant social interactions. Fortunately I discovered a simple solution that worked the vast majority of the time. I would bring her close to me and talk with her for a few minutes and then I would tell her to close her eyes and turn around and say “Bye-bye Attitude Woman” and that when she turned back around Kendyll would be back. I’m not sure why this was effective and I don’t recommend trying it with your adult friends but it saved the day at our house. It seemed somehow to press the reset button for Kendyll.

Electronic devices seem to get overwhelmed too. How many times have we restarted our phones or computers? I remember a time that we were having frequent issues with out home internet and customer service told us to try resetting it. We did-it didn’t. The next advice was to unplug the device, count to 30 and then plug it back in. My understanding is that this process allowed the device to reset and then restart. This technique was effective though still somewhat frustrating.

We live in a world that places constant demands on our time, energy and finances. Sometimes the days, weeks and even months begin to blur together as we function at an abnormally low, capacity, going through the motions like a mindless robot. Just like Kendyll, and our internet router, we sometimes find ourselves in need of a reboot. When we operate under constant stress our priorities tend to get out of order. Sometimes we just don’t have anything left.

The author of Hebrews has some encouragement for us:

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Hebrews 12:12

It is amazing how many things can be recalibrated simply by unplugging them and allowing them a minute to restart. When we get overwhelmed we often lose sight of hope. Proverbs 13:12 tells us that Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

My to-do list lately has exceeded the time allotted each day. Trying to find time to accomplish all that is expected has been on the stressful side.

Not too long ago my mother reminded me of one of the first sermons I ever preached called, Too Busy To Behold Him. She was well aware of the load I was carrying and said you know you should read that again. She was absolutely correct and if I had the TIME I would look for it!

We often treat life like a Buffett. As we walk through so many things look delicious. I’ll try a little of this, and a smidgen of that… Before we realize it we have piled our plate with a mountain of various delicacies that we cannot possibly consume at one time without getting violently ill. Pepto anyone?

I’ll be the first to confess that I am doing too much right now. Each area that I am responsible for is valuable and worthy of my time and energy but keeping up with all of them is not optimal. As follower of Jesus when we find ourselves in this situation we need His help in determining what should go and what should stay. We often find ourselves doing things that someone else could handle just as well, if not better than we are, especially with an overloaded plate. How often do we find ourselves at the buffett trying to cram more in after we are uncomfortably full? Inevitably some of our hoard winds up in the trash rather than being enjoyed by the person in line behind us.

So if you are in this busy boat with me our Savior has something to say to us:

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. Matthew 11:28-30

As we wind up 2023 and approach a new year with a new calendar analyzing our load is a good idea. If our load is too heavy we are probably doing things, even good things, that are not assigned to us by the Lord. Some things are only for a season and when that time is past we sometimes cling to the familiar or expected longer than we should.

As we step into 2024 may our hearts agree with the words of F.E. Marsh:

The will of God-nothing less, nothing more, nothing else.