Operation Overload!

Phil Ryken, Senior Pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, blogged recently in Reformation 21.org on the issue of overload in our lives – that sense of too much to do, to think, to handle that we all increasingly feel. He describes his own struggle with it,

“I’ve felt that way a number of times recently. I felt overloaded when we made a few small domestic renovations and our home was in something more than its usual disarray. I felt the same way when I went to delete the messages in my inbox archive and discovered that more than ten thousand emails had accumulated since the end of last summer. And I felt that way when I went to count the books on my “recently acquired, really important to read books shelf”—or shelves, actually, plus some piles on the floor—and discovered that I am now 157 books behind (not counting the pile beside my bed at home).”

Ryken describes overload as the inevitable effect of progress in our lives. The more we accomplish, the more responsibility we take on, the more we have, the more cluttered and pressed our lives become. He quotes the words of a pastor of the 1800’s which could easily be spoken today,

“The more we watch the lives of men, the more we see that one of the reasons why men are not occupied with great thoughts and interests is the way in which their lives are overfilled with little things.”

Ryken offers some great antidotes to overload which I will summarize here:

First, whatever you do, make time for communion with Christ. That’s how things come into perspective.

Second, embrace your finitude. As he says it so well,

“Rather than feeling anxious and distressed about everything you’re not getting done or always complaining that you need more time, take satisfaction in the many daily reminders that you are not God.”

Third, chose wisely. The hardest choices are between good things and best things.

If you want to read the whole post; go here

Let’s not let overload become our overlord.