Dealing With Overload And Overwhelm - Part 2
"This is a matter of renewing your trust in God, recognising that you are not indispensable, and making sure you only take on that which God intends for you, rather than being driven by your own expectations."
Last week, we looked at the first practical suggestion on dealing with and avoiding overload and overwhelm.
We were reminded that if we do find ourselves in this situation, the first step is to take a break.
And now for the next suggestion...
Talk to someone about it (someone you can trust to give godly counsel)
As Christians, God has put us in community with other believers because He knows that we need each other.
When you feel like everything is too much, you’re too busy, and becoming irritated and stressed, go to a friend. Make sure, though, they are someone who will point you to the Lord, and will also lovingly speak the truth as that may be exactly what you need.
I also suggest you go to your pastor or leaders in your church, and let them know why you need to take a break. They may well make themselves available to pray for you and give you some godly counsel.
In Galatians 6:2, it reminds us that as believers, we are all encouraged to….
..."2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Spend the time you need evaluating how you got here, and how you can avoid getting here again
This is really important because stepping back and taking a break won’t necessarily fix the underlying issues, and if you don’t do that, you may quickly end up in that same place again.
This certainly doesn't involve naval gazing and becoming self-focused and deeply introspective. Rather, it involves spending time, and not just once but several times, reading God’s Word, praying, and noting down some of the ways in which you think you got too busy, too stressed, or took on too much. And then also make the time to note down how you can avoid that in the future and do things differently.
This is a matter of renewing your trust in God, recognising that you are not indispensable, and making sure you only take on that which God intends for you, rather than being driven by your own expectations.
In Proverbs 3:5-6, we have a great encouragement for taking this approach. It says…
..."5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
So that’s 3 practical solutions for when you feel overloaded and overwhelmed. For additional help, there are also 3 resources that I would highly recommend, and that have really helped me when I’ve been in that place.
The first one is a little book by Charles Hummel, called “Tyranny of the Urgent”. The quickest way to access it is by using the link above; you can hear the audio of the book for free. It's a very short booklet, but the content is excellent.
The book is a little study on the life of Jesus, showing us that He didn’t just respond to every need, but rather only that which the Father had called Him to respond to. It also shows us how we can easily fill our lives by responding to what seem like “urgent’ needs, but in doing so, easily miss doing that which is actually more “important” than it is urgent. I definitely recommend checking that out if you can as I’m sure it will be a blessing to you!
The next resource is a book called “Margin” by Richard A Swenson, which was recommended to me a while back by a friend. It’s a really good read on the importance of creating “margin” (hence the title), within our lives, so that we’re not always operating at a frenetic level, only just getting through each day, and each week, with a constant feeling that we’re always behind and under pressure.
I’m not necessarily endorsing everything that is shared in the book but the foundational concept of creating margin, even just understanding that, is worth the price of the book. I've included the main link above, and there here is also a link to his book called “A Minute of Margin”, which is a 180 day devotional of excerpts from the book. They only take one minute to read - so have a look at those if you can.
The last resource I want to mention then, is something I call “Big Rocks”. It’s actually a business principle about time management, but it is so helpful in helping us to understand how we should manage the different priorities in our lives. You’ve probably already seen this demonstrated but it’s basically the idea of taking a large jar, and filling it full of little things, like sand, water, and small pebbles. These represent the more trivial things in our lives that we give our time to, such as surfing the internet, watching TV; all the things that aren't essential, but we can easily give a lot of time to. Then, when you try to put the big rocks in, which represent the greater priorities like our time with the Lord, our time with our spouse, and our family, there’s no room for those things because the trivial things crowded out the space.
However, when you flip that around and do it the other way, making sure you first put the "Big Rocks" in place, then you actually end up with more space or margin than you could have imagined, because your priorities are in the right order. And this means there’s still time for the trivial things but in a way that doesn’t cause you to neglect greater priorities.
As this is best seen in a visual format, I've included the link here so you can see this principle played out.
Just to recap, here are the three practical suggestions on how to deal with and avoid overload and overwhelm...
Talk to someone about it (someone you can trust to give godly counsel)
Spend the time you need evaluating how you got here, and how you can avoid getting here again
I hope this has been helpful to you, especially if you have been or are currently in this situation.
And remember, if you are struggling with overload and overwhelm, don't hesitate in taking it to the Lord, for as Psalm 46:1b encourages us, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]
This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.
Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.
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