“Raise your hand if you’re overwhelmed. Raise your hand if you think you might finally get down to just whelmed sometime after the second zombie apocalypse. Raise your hand if you’d like a break. Raise your hand if you think that break is just never going to come. Now raise your hand if all the chainsaws you were juggling just took turns slicing off your earlobes because you had your hands in the air waving at me.”

I read this this week while sitting in the waiting room at a doctors office and it nearly made me laugh out loud. Overwhelmed? I am pretty sure I’ve got the corner on that market. The reason I was sitting in the doctors office? I was supposed to have a monthly blood test a week ago on Friday and it wasn’t until Tuesday morning that I realized that I had completely missed and forgot about it. My head is so full of stuff that things are absolutely beginning to fall through the cracks. Things that are very, very important. I have spread myself so thin that no one is getting much more than a partial effort because unfortunately, that’s all I have to give.

So, a couple of things today. First, just say no! This is something that I really struggle with but I am telling you, as much as reminding myself, that it is ok to say no. In fact, it is imperative to your sanity. You cannot be everything to everyone, I am sorry to inform you. I often am reminded of this the hard way, by crashing and burning. I read this in Rick Warren’s “What On Earth Am I Here For?” and it was the permission I was looking for in order to say no with less guilt. “Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t. It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God’s will. If you can’t get it all done, it means you’re trying to do more than God intended for you to do. If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point? Paul said, ‘Let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.’ (Philippians 3:15 msg). Again, it’s ok to say no, even to good things, even to Godly things. “If you find yourself a bit irritated or overwhelmed its a sign that you’re spending less time with God and more time with this world.”

Secondly, I wanted to share an analogy about glass and rubber balls. Let me paraphrase…Everything in your life is a ball. Some are rubber balls, and some are glass balls. It’s your job to determine which are which and handle them as such. Rubber balls, if dropped, will bounce right back up, none the worse for wear. Glass balls, however, will shatter if dropped. So you need to figure out which balls you’re juggling, and how many of each, and make sure that if you’re going to drop a ball, that it bounces back up to you and not shatter to pieces.

I don’t know how your week has been but I KNOW I need to remember, cease striving…be still…know God. That is the only way the rest if this crazy life makes any sense!