The last few months have been challenging.
Actually the last several years have been difficult. My body seems to want to age despite my demands that it doesn’t. It’s needed lots of maintenance and suffered lens transplants (which are often referred to as cataract surgery). Kidney stone removals have required seven different rounds of anaesthetic. There has been ten years of pain that was recently fixed in one move with a rubber ring. And I carry COPD as well as Diabetes type 2.
Little things like ants invading my kitchen, washing machine playing up add to the dynamic. Or bigger things such as someone in my large family having a medical crisis, and our business expectations being knocked for six.
Diabetes has been a slave master over me for about thirty-five years. I’ve been determined to defeat it… but it keeps advancing slowly with quiet aggression. So, when a few weeks ago I finally agreed to take daily insulin injections, something in me cracked. Disappointment flooded in as I read the instructions and warnings that came with the drug and the needles. Tired I crept to bed and tried to pray. ‘Lord. It’s all too overwhelming.’ I could feel hopelessness, or was it defeat, pushing me down.
~~~I am never overwhelmed~~~
A quiet thought penetrated my spirit.
Of Course God. Nothing is too much or too big for you. I grabbed my phone and posted on Facebook. ‘Nothing is ever big enough to overwhelm God.’
Next morning I woke pondered the promise that God is in me and I am in Him. When I’m in God, resting under His wings, overwhelm can’t access me. For nothing is impossible with God. My life was once again in balance.
In life we do get overwhelmed whether by a battle or a task… or even a thought. There has been a giant strelitzia in our garden that needed to be removed. A task seemingly too big for us oldies. Overwhelming! I’d tried to get someone from Marketplace land to come and take it away but job was too hard for the three who tried. Today one couple dug out three suckers. A small start, but enough to remove ‘impossible’ from the task. Steve has just come in to say he has removed it – done the huge overwhelming task, ignoring the fact he’s in his eightieth year.
As common as it is in our lives, overwhelm is only a word used to describe a feeling. It is not a fact. Overwhelm, like all the enemies works, is largely smoke and mirrors. Once a hole is knocked in it and a start is made, it dissipates. The overwhelming threat at the Red Sea gave way to Moses’ faith and determination as he held out his staff in obedience. The army that threatened Elisha and his servant seemed less threatening when God opened the servant’s eyes so he could see the angelic army. (2Kings 6:16)
‘Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them’.
The impossible task of feeding five thousand on the hillside was easily achieved after Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven. The food multiplied in the disciple’s hands as they distributed it in faith and obedience.
Even Jesus felt overwhelmed when faced with His last task on earth – the call to lay down His life as a sacrificial lamb. But He overcame. How? By crying out to His Father in the garden, fixing his eyes on the goal and thus finding enough courage to take the first step. (Luke 22:41-44)
When I look at these stories I notice a common theme.
- Focus on God
- Remember the God in you is never overwhelmed.
- Ask Him what’s really happening and to open your spiritual eyes.
- Pray and Worship
- Start.
Overwhelm is like hope deferred. It makes the heart sick. I can’t afford to entertain it. Its aim is to destroy and peace, my faith and even my health. So I thank God for His blessings, even an insulin needle a day.