Sometimes It's Just to Much

Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Matthew 26:38 NIV

Full time work, activities, illnesses, meetings, being pulled in ten different directions...life has a way of becoming overwhelming. We tend to think people will be disappointed in us if we don't live up to their expectations. We worry what people think when our kids misbehave. We fret over disappointing our parents or spouse.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we over-commit and fill our days to the max? Could it be our fast paced society puts undo pressure on us? Or do we cause this to ourselves?

There are times when my schedule is so full I feel like I don't even have time to breathe let alone take time out of my busy day to spend time with God. I get caught up in the planning or making sure everything is going to work out that I forget God needs to be at the center.

This past weekend we held our annual God's Harvest Festival. This year I felt a bit ill prepared as we were on vacation a couple of weeks before the event. We also planned a 25th anniversary celebration the Saturday before. My time became consumed with a project I had for the anniversary party, I hadn't forgotten about the festival I just became preoccupied.

The week before I became frantic, I began to wonder would everything turn out alright? We had a volunteer sign up sheet with one name on it. I really would have liked it to be full. There was a new game we tried last year and I really wanted to improve it for this year, some how the ideas wouldn't come. My best bet for this night was to leave it in God's hands. That it was I did.

The night turned into one of our better nights. A few of the youth took over setting up the new game and had wonderful ideas. Every game booth had a volunteer, people donated food and candy, and everyone seemed to have a grand time.

Becoming overwhelmed is a part of our lives. Jesus even became overwhelmed. The night he was going to be sent to the cross all he wanted was his friends to stay awake and pray with him. He knew that the anxiousness he was feeling could only be calmed by his heavenly Father. He got his team on board and had them pray for him while he tried to get a grip on what lied ahead.

Maybe when the craziness of life begins to consume us we can get our team of prayer warriors on board and go and meet our heavenly father. Then we can find the peace we need to face the challenges that lie ahead.