Do you ever feel like you’re in over your head?  “All the time,” you say?

Me too—especially right now!

Of course I feel overwhelmed most of the time, so the phrase “especially right now” should probably be deleted.  However, I’ll let it stand.  I’ve lived an overwhelmed life.

Teaching a fairly large group of people at the university, trying to help out more at Bob Evans, trying to be a good house husband, especially in light of the fact that my sweetheart is caring for her mom two days a week, teaching Hebrew, caring for the dog, trying to be helpful to my 12-step friends, trying to read the Bible all the way through this year, trying to work out more at the gym, trying to start a Celebrate Recovery program at our church: I am getting overwhelmed just listing stuff I should be doing.  (Writing a blog post is one of my daily tasks, so I guess I am doing something after all.)

I suspect that I am not terminally unique in this regard.  Some of you who made time to read this blog may be saying (and with good justification), “Would you like to trade lists?  I think I like yours better!”

Well, I can’t help you much, if at all, with your list, and perhaps you can’t help me with mine.  Probably, trading wouldn’t help either.  However, what I can do is to think a bit differently about my own list.  Who knows?  This may also invite you to think differently about your own list.

So here are three suggestions that I am making to my own fevered soul.  Perhaps they may be helpful to you as well.

Suggestion # 1: Do triage, and do the most important thing first.  This is probably also the task that you find the most difficult to start, keep at, and finish.  When I was little, I didn’t like green beans.  Still don’t.  So, whenever I am served them, I eat them first (except, of course, when I eat my dessert first).

This does not work well for everyone.  Some folks find it best to do some smaller, more doable task first.  This gives them enough of a sense of accomplishment to tackle the next task, and so on.  Whatever works for you is what you should do.

Suggestion # 2:  Give thanks for having too much to do.  I tend to complain about having too much to do—or having what I at least think is too much to do.  But what if I took the attitude that I get to do all this stuff?

I have heard that there is an old Tahitian proverb that says, “May you be banished to idleness!”  I am told that this is the worst thing you can so to a Tahitian.

I had a friend who spent several years in prison.  He said that it wasn’t really horrible—except for the boredom.  Feeling overwhelmed in profoundly uncomfortable.  Feeling underwhelmed is not easy either.

Suggestion # 3: Bear in mind that God may be giving you more to do than you can do in your strength, because God doesn’t want you to do things in your own strength.  Trusting God is a daily task for me.  Feeling overwhelmed keeps me humble and open to trusting the one who is never overwhelmed with anything.  There’s a wonderful TobyMac song (“Beyond Me”) that makes precisely this point.

“Call it a reason to retreat
I got some dreams that are bigger than me
I might be outmatched outsized the underdog in the fight of my life
Is it so crazy to believe

That you gave me the stars put them out of my reach
Call me to waters a little to deep
Oh I’ve never been so aware of my need
You keep on making me see
It’s way beyond me
It’s way beyond me
Yeah it’s out of my league
It’s way beyond me
It’s way beyond me
It’s way beyond

Anything that I got the strength to do
In over my head keeps me countin’ on you
I’m leaving the sweet spot sure shot tradin’ it all for the plans you got
Is it so crazy to believe

That you gave me the stars put them out of my reach
Call me to waters a little to deep
Oh I’ve never been so aware of my need
You keep on making me see
It’s way beyond me
It’s way beyond me
Yeah it’s out of my league
It’s way beyond me
It’s way beyond me

You take me to the place where I know I need You
Straight to the depths that I can’t handle on my own
And Lord I know, I know I need You
So take me to Your great
Take me to Your great unknown

It’s way beyond me, way way beyond me
It’s it’s way beyond me, way way way beyond me

Yeah, You gave me the stars, put them out of my reach
Called me to waters just a little too deep
Oh, I’ve never been so aware of my need
Yeah, you keep on making me see
It’s way beyond me (it’s way beyond me)
It’s way beyond me (it’s way beyond me)
Yeah, it’s out of my league (it’s way beyond me)
It’s way beyond me (it’s way beyond me)
It’s way beyond me (it’s way beyond me)
It’s way beyond me

You take me to the place where I know I need You
Straight to the depths that I can’t handle on my own (it’s way beyond me)
You take me to the place where I know I need You
Oh take me to Your place
Take me to Your great unknown”

My affirmation to God for today is as follows:

“Today, by God’s grace, I am consistently doing the next right thing, so far as I can discern the next right thing.  I am swimming in the deep water today.  The Everlasting Arms of God are underneath me, teaching me to trust and swim.”

It’s a bit warmer today.  Anybody care to join me for a swim?  We’ll break the ice if we need to!