Overwhelmed

Have you ever had those times where you kept being convicted of things you need to start and/or do when you feel like your plate is already full?

I have had some ideas the last few months to start some new things in the community and online...and while at the initial thought, it may have seemed fleeting, some of these ideas have really been nagging at me as a need.

Today I am on shift as the on-call chaplain at the hospital. After our monthly chaplain meeting today, I stopped into the hospital chapel for a bit before visiting patients--I am convinced this is the quietest place in this town, and there's something oddly comforting about hard wooden pews. I was again reminded of an idea that I had several months ago, and kind of blew off like, "Really God? You want me to try to do what?" So, tonight I sit here confident in the need for a midweek prayer service at the hospital in addition to the Sunday worship that another one of the chaplain's leads. Not only am I confident of that fact, I know how it is to be structured, when it should be, the hospital audience that it should be drawing....and that I am the one to spearhead the effort. Oy...another activity? Lord--now would be the time for a 25-hour day.

Now, don't mistake me as complaining about any of this as much of it is self-inflicted. We seem to be filling our plates with a lot of volunteer opportunities lately to get our foot in the doors of some opportunities...participating in a benefit walk, going to help out some other officers on Friday, joining advisory boards of other organizations, going to camp for a week to teach a badge, and several other activities. I get nervous looking at the big picture, but I have to remember the outcome of each individual situation is worth the stress ten-fold.

I started a written/paper journal the other day to record some of these crazy insane "to-do" lists along with the laments and emotions that go along with it as it's not appropriate to post here, and in many ways is proving to be rather comforting to put it down on paper and see that it's not as crazy as I see things sometimes. It's all about organization. Boy, I need to get organized!

But for now...rest. Didn't sleep well last night because I slept away a migraine for 80% or so of yesterday. Need to get back in the swing of my normal routine...I've been so thrown off since the women's ministry retreat, I am missing my schedules!!!

I was reminded of these words in Matthew's gospel this evening looking at our couples devotional calendar, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:25-34)

So, do as I say and not as I do--quit worrying!