To Much, Too Fast

So this week I am gearing up for a trip to Minneapolis, MN for a three day training to become a National Youth Gathering Coach for the Florida-Bahama Synod. As I write this I am freaking out a little, looking at the large calendars in front of my, the monthly calendar on my computer screen, and the weekly calendar hanging on my wall and they are filled completely. Friends and family are constantly asking what am I doing on this weekend or that weekend so that we can do some fun activity and my constant answer is, "I'm working." It seem to just be the time of year, the weather is nice so in youth ministry we gear up activities and do some extra longer events, Easter and Lent is upon us so mission stuff is all over the place, and its do or die time for all the summer trips. Of course it doesn't help that I've accepted this additional duty as the Synod's Youth Gathering Coach. I'm overwhelmed and I know you all can completely relate. If you aren't there now, you probably have been!

I keep on thinking to myself, "I've got to much going on." But everything I'm doing gives me life and fulfilment and if I had to pick something to drop, I don't know what it would be. I think we all have heard that God doesn't give us more than what we can handle and looking at the past few months of my life and the ones coming up I feel like all I can do is believe that to be true. I feel completely overwhelmed, yet every morning I wake up, I go to work, I function well, I see friends and family, relationships are going well, and so are the ministries. God is calling me to do these things and I believe he has his hand in all of it. Which means I'm not alone. God is challenging me and he challenges all of us. He knows us better than we even know ourselves...He created us! So of course he knows what our limits are and he doesn't seek to harm us so why would he give us more than we can handle?

I know that at times it feels like life is too much, we have a billion things thrown at us, but that is just he challenge of life and the joy of God's presence in our life (that's right, JOY!). If this was all simple and easy, well then what would the point really be? Nothing God has expected of anyone has been easy. Was it easy for Jesus to accept his fate of dying on the cross for us? NO! Now aren't you glad that God's expectations of you are just a little lower than he had for Jesus?!

So this week as you are drowning in a sea of stress and life, stop, and take a look around you. My bet is you will see God, present in your chaos, walking with you because He knows that you can accomplish what he has put before you, he has faith in you, now all you need is faith in him!