When You Feel Overwhelmed

Clearly, I have not been doing much writing lately. This morning, my dad emailed to ask me if it’s really been a week since I’d written.

I figured since he noticed, I’d better pop in here and say hello. Keep you up to date on life right now.

Ever since we found out that we are moving, life has been a little…hectic. Packing up a house that really needs to be purged as well, when you have about 2 hours of good energy each day, is draining. We have two months (less now actually), no idea where we will live yet, and lots to do.

Emily has become quite the early riser, waking up at or before 6am and gracing us with her presence each morning. I love the snuggle time with her, but it does mean that I lose my writing time each morning.

Speaking of writing time, I usually write on Fridays, when Emmy goes to her Mother’s Day Out program, but we quit that when we found out we were moving. I need the time at home to pack, and we could use that extra money to put towards moving expenses.

Jon has been working double time, spending his days at work and his nights either at class or at rehearsals for gigs that he has. All great things, but it means that he is home very late each night, and our time together (and my time away) has been pretty much zilch.

In the midst of all of this transition and change (two things I notoriously do NOT handle well), I keep being drawn back to the basics. It’s times like these, when I’m drained and exhausted and rest is not in sight for another two months or so, that I have no choice but to lay it all at the feet of Jesus and say “How do I possibly do this? You have to do it for me. Show me how.”

And He does.

I’ve been reading through Luke and in my quiet time this weekend, He brought me to chapter 9, verses 57-62:

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

These men all *want* to follow Christ, but they aren’t counting the cost. They want Jesus to fit into their lives, to mesh with the responsibilities and comforts that they already have. They are interested in following Him, but they have a couple of things to do first.

I’ve been the same way.

Jesus is my everything, but first I need to make sure my posts are written, and my Facebook feed is up to date. I’m nothing without Jesus, but my responsibilities are so taxing that I’ll just push my quiet time back, again. I really want to follow Him and be the girl that’s always in His Word, but I just have so many things to do.

But.

But.

But.

Reading this passage last weekend, I really heard Jesus whisper this to my heart,

Being a disciple of Me, following after Me, trumps EVERY relationship, EVERY obligation, and EVERY responsibility. 

Reading that now, from a note I wrote in my Bible, I would have thought that I’d feel guilty about that. Instead, I felt freed.

When push comes to shove and life overwhelms, I’m reminded that He is all I need. (<– click to tweet) All I want, when it comes right down to it. And yes, there are things in line after Him, responsibilities and roles that He’s given me, but they mean nothing if He’s not the foundation of them.

Nothing.

So, as this move approaches, and the to-do list grows, I’ve committed to four things that I will keep as priorities during this season.

1. Jesus. I’ve gotta start my day with Him, and keep talking to Him. He’s got everything I need. I’m reading through Luke right now, and reading Beth Moore’s book on the life of Jesus. This summer, I’m going to do an email study with the women in my small group, one way we can stay connected despite our move to the other end of the state. Both of these things will keep me in the Word, keep me plugged in to His voice.

2. Family. Emmy gets that things are changing. Mommy’s belly is growing, her toys are finding new homes in boxes (or goodwill bags), and life is just different. She feels those changes and needs stability. I’m working on spending time teaching some basics each day (colors, shapes, letters, etc.), and playing with her, looking into her face and talking to her instead of just working beside her, or asking her to wait “just a minute”. She needs me. Jon does too, as his work right now is incredibly time consuming and requires much from him. I’m trying (not always successfully) to keep the things he needs handy (laundry, lunches, etc.), and support him as much as I can.

3. Health. I need to be exercising and eating well with this baby, even more so than I did with Emmy, because I never lost the Emmy weight. (Which now is really brownie weight, let’s be honest. 😉 ) I’m working to meal plan and cook as best I can on the days I’m not sick, and get exercise in each day, either with a walk or with a couple of Fit2B videos.

4. Packing. The house has to get packed up somehow. And before that, we’ve got a lot of stuff to go through and get rid of. So that’s got to be a priority too.

In the midst of all that, we’re hoping to spend good time with friends and family that we will desperately miss once we move. We’re going on vacation with my family, and Jon’s brother and sister-in-law and their family are coming out here for a couple of weeks, and we are excited to spend time with them too. Plus small group, and dinner with friends, and hopefully just some quality time before we leave. Oh, and we have to fly up to our new city for a couple of days and find a place to live.

It’s a crazy-busy couple of months, and I know my writing here will be intermittent. I’ll write when I can, and keep you updated on big life stuff, but until the move in July, I just can’t promise consistent writing. I know you’ll understand that though, because you’ve got crazy lives of your own. 🙂

My prayer for you though, is that in the midst of the craziness, you’ll cling tight to the One who holds everything and everyone together. He really is all you need.

And now I’m going to go grab my snuggle buddy, who slept in till 7:30 this morning and let her mama do a bit of writing. 🙂

 

Psst! If you haven’t already, make sure you join our community on Facebook and Twitter. Even when I’m not posting here, I’m talking about something over there (like which diaper bag would be best for baby #2), and I’d love to hear from you!