Are You Overwhelmed? A New Outlook for the Overwhelmed

Are you overwhelmed?  Busy? Stressed out?  Worried?  Sometimes the solution will surprise you.  How can you find a new outlook for the overwhelmed?

Y’all, I have been BUSY.

The kind of busy that makes me want to sit down and cry because I feel so overwhelmed with things to do.

Do you know that feeling?

I have to be honest and tell you that when I feel this way, I tend to develop tunnel vision.  I focus in on what I need to do and tune almost everything else out.

Ask my husband.  It infuriates him.

He will stop me and say, “Are you even paying attention?”

Because he knows I’m not.

My mind is on what I’m working on, and the rest of me is going through the motions, a bit too unaware of the needs around me.

My kids have eaten late lunches every day this week because of it.  (It’s WHAT TIME????)

A New Outlook for the Overwhelmed

Today, I read some words of Christ in light of how I’ve been living, and let me tell you:  they spoke fresh conviction to me.  But, man, did they encourage me, too.

In Luke 12:35-37, Jesus said, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.  It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”

Now, I know that we usually look at passages like this and talk about the imminent return of Christ, but I want to look at these veres a bit differently today because:

We encounter Christ every day whether we realize it or not.

Y’all, he comes to us all the time, but we’re not always watching for him.

Why do I say that?

Because he did.

He said, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” (Matthew 25:35)

People asked, “When did we do that?”

He replied, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

And whatever we don’t do for them, we don’t do for him either, according to verse 45.

Ouch.

Because most of the time, it’s not that I don’t want to help.  The problem is that I never see the need.

I’m too busy, too preoccupied, too focused on other things.  Unlike the servants mentioned in Luke, I’m not watching for my master and looking for ways to serve him.

I often miss him completely, and when I do, I miss so much more.

You see, we often think that stopping to serve will slow us down.  It will add more to our already over-filled plates.  It will be the burden that places that last straw on this camel’s back.

We are wrong.

It will be GOOD for You

Look at Christ’s words in Luke again:

“It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”

It reminds me of a verse from Proverbs that says, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. “ (Proverbs 11:25)

I need to be refreshed today. Do you?

The thing is that my expectations need to be exchanged for truth.

I expect to feel refreshed when I get some “me time.”  I imagine a pedicure or a beach trip or even a cup of coffee with a friend is what I need.

Those things can be great, and they can give us rest and refreshment.

But….

So can serving.

So can looking away from the spy glass that is focused only on my to-do list and expanding my vision to see what God is doing all around me and watching for him to say, “Join me here.”

And then doing it.

I know that if you are like me today, you can’t help but think you have no time or energy to do more.

But don’t we know that God’s ways aren’t ours?

Don’t we know that he says, “The first will be last.”?

Do we believe him when he says he will serve us?  Could anything be more refreshing than that?

Once, as I was reading the account of when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, I turned in my chair and bent down to pick something up; and in my mind, I imagined Jesus there at my feet to wash them.

Y’all.

It was the most humbling thing I’ve ever expereienced.

Can you even imagine?

Do you want to miss that?

I know I don’t.

Ask Him for Help

Join me today in asking the Father not to let us miss him day to day.  Ask him to open our eyes to see the needs of the least of these and give us wisdom and mercy to meet those needs. Ask him to refresh us as we also refresh others.

And thank him for…

Setting the perfect example of service.

Promising to fill us as we empty ourselves.

Giving us grace so we can give it away.

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It’s Encouraging Word Wednesday, and I hope you’ll join us by adding a link or two to your recent faith-filled posts!  Be sure and visit one or two other bloggers and encourage them today!