March 23, 2025
Well, the flu bug has hit our household these past few weeks. So far, three of the four granddaughters have had it, along with my daughter. I'm praying that our oldest granddaughter, Wayne, and I will be able to avoid catching it. The flu hit sweet Liza the worst. She hardly moved from the sofa for about seven or eight days.
On Tuesday, we were sure she was ready to go back to school. She, on the other hand, was not quite so sure. There were tears and I might have heard the phrase, "I just can't," several (or more) times. I could tell she was feeling overwhelmed and very anxious about going back, even though we knew it was time and she could do it. It's really hard to step back into class when you have missed so many days. You tend to feel like the "new kid" again. She finally made it to the car and eventually to school.
I was thinking about her this morning and decided I'm really not that much different from Liza. I allow situations and circumstances to overwhelm me. I looked up the definition of overwhelm and it said "bury or drown beneath a huge mass." Well, have you ever been there? I have to say I have. Sometimes it's because of circumstances, but sometimes it's just a mental overwhelming. Both of these situations can overwhelm me but I have to handle both in basically the same way. One step at a time trusting God.
If I try to run ahead of God, I usually trip and fall. If I think I can take care of things without God, I'm fooling myself. I can hear a voice in my head reminding me that when you bite off more than you can chew you sometimes choke. Overwhelmed is not a fun place to be whether it's due to a circumstance or something mentally taxing. They both can make you feel like you are buried and drowning beneath a huge weight that you can't seem to lift. If I'm being truthful, I have to say there are times when I know I can't lift the weight of my circumstances or the weight of my emotions, but I do know someone who can. God. He will never abandon us or leave us alone.
Every single thing that happens in our life, He can use to either grow us stronger, make us more compassionate, lead us a different way, or just make us more and more like Him. Life could be a little easier if we just remember that every single thing we face God already knows, and He can hold us up under those heavy weights.
I was looking through all the definitions of "overwhelmed" and another stuck out to me. It said "giving too much of a thing to someone." That is true if it is giving too much of something to a person but not God. If we give it all to God, He can handle it. When we try to carry and do it all alone we will have too much. God doesn't want us to be buried, drowning, or choking. He wants us to be trusting, obedient, and dependent on Him. He wants to overwhelm us with his love, protection, and care. He can carry our load when we definitely can't. If you read 2Corthinians 4:8-9 in the New Living Translation it says, "We are pressed on every side by troubles (circumstances) but we are not crushed. We are perplexed (emotionally or mentally) but we are not despaired. Therefore, we do not lose hope." (Italics are my words.)
We do not lose hope because we are held up, encouraged, comforted, and loved by a God who is our hope. We just have to allow God to overwhelm us, not our circumstances or emotions. There are a lot of hard things that some of my dear friends are facing. Really, we could all say we have faced hard things. I read something that said our life is not hills and valleys, it's really like railroad tracks. The good and bad times in life are running together. Some days are more difficult than easy, and sometimes there is more good than bad. Happy and sad times.
When life is hard you can always find something to be grateful for, and when life is good you usually have something hard also, it's just that the good makes the hard things easier to handle. Our job is to realize when we feel overwhelmed, we are carrying things we are not meant to carry alone. God's word tells us that no matter what we are facing we can be confident that we are not alone. He is there!
I'm happy to report that Liza had a great day at school. Now we are just facing the mountain of make-up work. Our mindset and encouragement to her will be the same. One step at a time, one assignment at a time, one day at a time. Don't let it overwhelm you.
It's the same for tackling life circumstances and issues, with only one addition. One step at a time, one assignment at a time, one day at a time trusting God and allowing Him to overwhelm you with His love, protection, and care. May we learn to not grant the issues of life the power to steal our joy and peace but face them walking with God. I pray His tender love and peace will continually overwhelm us all.
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Jill Johnson, a staff member at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, finds spiritual applications in her everyday experiences as a wife, mother, grandmother and Georgian. She is available to speak to your church's women's gatherings. Reach her at jjohnson@gabaptist.org.
