My recent Facebook poll showed that over 60% of women feel their life is either “Pretty busy” or “Moving at warp speed.” Others described their lives as a “tornado” and “unhinged.” The reason for the overwhelm was attributed to doing too much for too many with too little for too long. Friends, according to my research, we’re overwhelmed.

Why do we feel so overwhelmed?

Matthew Edlund, M.D. and author of The Power of Rest says, “People treat themselves like machines. They consistently overschedule, overwork, and overdo.” And according to psychologist Danielle Shelov, Ph.D., the reason we do this is that we “… think the best way to succeed is by doing as many productive things as possible”

I’ve observed three other reasons we’re overwhelmed.

We’re overwhelmed because of fear. I’m afraid of missing opportunities, so I say yes too often. I fear that I’m not doing enough. I worry that our girls might fall behind. But God will never let us miss out on what He has planned.

We’re overwhelmed because of pride. The glamour of certain jobs or my desire to impress others has kept me stuck… and overwhelmed. But Achiever-Friends, where pride may keep us, grace wants to release us.

We’re overwhelmed because of our internal expectations. Fellow writer Stepfanie Cuevas says that, in addition to the basics of life, she adds expectations that “the house must be a certain level of clean, laundry must be folded and done, or I’m failing.” Becoming overrun with expectations causes us to feel overwhelmed, but God only expects us to love and glorify Him and love others.

Achiever-Friends, overwhelmed, overscheduled, and overdone don’t have to be the norm.

We can escape the frantic pace of overwhelm by asking two questions:

  1. Is what I’m doing glorifying to God?
  2. Is my pace glorifying to God?

Let’s start with the first question: is what I’m doing glorifying to God?

We’re never at a loss for things to do between work, family, church, and basic life-maintenance, so how do we know if what we’re doing is glorifying to God? Louie Giglio gives these three inseparable guidance points as we decide what we should do:
* Discover what God’s Word says.
* Listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
* And then we ask my Christ-following, grounded-in-truth friends this question: What do you think?

A God-glorifying life is a life that’s using its God-given talents, resources, and capacity to love God and others to complete the work God has uniquely designed and created us to do. It means that our activities are aligned with what God has in store. It can be filled with high-profile meetings or sandwich-making, but it’s a life that always points back to Jesus.

Is this the life you’re living? If not, what would you like to change?

Next ask: Is my pace glorifying to God?

Whatever our preferred pace, our lives should be slow and quiet enough to hear from God. Todd Henry, The Accidental Creative, writes, “If your life is a constant blur of activity, focus, and obligation, you are likely to miss critical breakthroughs because you won’t have the benefit of pacing and negative space.”

A God-glorifying life allows you to hear His still small voice. It allows margin for the longings of your heart to rise to the surface and be heard. It’s slow enough to think about your dreams, goals, passions, or hurts instead of avoiding them.

This life can be fast-paced or slow-moving, it can look like a full schedule or one that’s wide open, but it’s always moving at the speed of obedience.

Is this the life you’re living? If not, what would you like to change?

I love how Emily P. Freeman describes this in A Million Little Ways, “You are designed to reflect the glory of God, and when you release the fullness of who you most deeply are, we will see God because we’re finally seeing you.” Being who you are, doing what you’ve been invited to do, in the loving way God asks—this is what brings Him glory.

For a list of nine questions I ask myself at the end of a day characterized by overwhelm, subscribe to the blog. If you’re already a subscriber, don’t worry:  I’ll email the list to you.

Jesus’ actions and pace show us a God-glorifying life.

Jesus never seemed overwhelmed by activity, but that doesn’t mean He wasn’t on a schedule with specific tasks to accomplish. What He did was teach the people, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead. Jesus’ obedience glorified God. His pace was an unforced rhythm of prayer and activity. Moving at God’s pace glorifies Him.

A God-glorifying life is an obedient life where what we do and the speed with which we do it point everyone back to Jesus.

We don’t need a Facebook poll to prove that we’re overwhelmed. We feel it in our bones, in our hearts, and in our souls. The biggest question then becomes: what are we willing to do about it? Will you join me as we take hold of the God-glorifying life and release the overwhelmed one?

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