Too much to Handle
"Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."
I Peter 5:7
Why does it always seem to happen to ME? :-)
After church Sunday evening, we decided to go out for an ice
cream at an area Baskin-Robbins.
Paula was driving, I was in the passenger seat and Jacob was
in his car seat in the back. That seating arrangement is
going to be important in a minute. Watch closely.
We arrived at the window to receive our ice cream cones and
Paula handed me hers to hold while she paid for the order,
then mine - well, for me to eat.
Then, the fun began.
Instead of turning around and handing Jacob's ice cream cone
to Jacob, Paula decided to hand it to me. Of course, with
three cones, only two hands, and no free place to sit
anything down, I had to attempt to balance it all.
Keyword here is "attempt."
I didn't get far.
As I tried to balance two of the cones in one hand so I
could take the third, one of them slipped out of my hands
and fell back onto my shirt.
Face down.
Half of my Chocolate Mousse Royale was now decorating the
front of my shirt.
It gets better.
As I was trying to pick the spilled cone back up, I turned
one of the other ones a bit too much and the entire dip of
ice cream FELL OUT of the cone and onto my lap!
Half of my wife's Pralines and Cream was now decorating the
top of my pants.
At which point I said, "Quick, Jacob grab your ice cream
before daddy drops it on my head!" LOL
As much as I tried spilling that last one, I actually
managed to get it into his hands intact.
Oh well, two out of three ain't bad, right? :-)
I had too much to handle, and ended up making a great big
mess.
As we all had a good laugh over the situation, it reminded
me that - spiritually - we need to be careful not to take on
more than we can handle.
Many Christians struggle with saying "No," myself included
at times. Even with "good" things like ministry and serving
in the church.
I remember several years ago I was on just about every
committee in the church, taught a Bible lesson, led the
music, worked with the youth and played a major part in VBS.
.it was more than I could handle!
The point I want to make is this: I'm convinced that while
God wants us to serve to the very best of our ability, He
doesn't want us to burn out because we took on too many
responsibilities . more than He had planned for us.
We are a PART of the body of Christ . not the ENTIRE body!
Each of us have our roles to play, our functions to perform.
The heart shouldn't try to do what the lungs do . what a
mess that would be!
Christian, it's important that we only take on what we can
give our very best towards. Certainly, we want to make every
decision a matter of prayer, and do whatever God leads us to
do. But, at the same time, I don't think God would ever
expect us to do more than we could give our best effort
towards.
If we have so much to do that we begin to be half-hearted in
those things and unable to give our best for Christ, then we
likely have taken on too many things.
Maybe today is a good time to spend some time with God and
evaluate all of the things going on in your life.
Do you have too much to handle?
Jimmy D. Brown
support@Living4Jesus.com