Finding Joy When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed by Lisa Jordan

The week before Mother’s Day had been one of the busiest weeks I’d experienced this year—increased work obligations, planning a women’s ministry event at my church, helping my husband get ready for a work-related business trip, and editing my current manuscript that’s due at the end of the month. On top of that, I’d hurt my back and spent three days in pain while pushing through to complete my to-do list. 

Lisa Jordan

All of these tasks were good things that needed to be done, but when they fell all in the same week, I felt overwhelmed. I’d gone to bed exhausted, and I hadn’t slept well especially after waking up in the middle of the night when my brain roused with thoughts of everything that needed to be done. Naturally, I grew exhausted, which didn’t help with those overwhelming feelings.  

One morning last week, our alarm had gone off at 6:00 a.m., but I’d had been awake already for a couple of hours. After sending my husband off to work, a heavy sigh escaped as I eyed that day’s to-do list written in my planner. Then God whispered into my heart:

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I...

After settling in my favorite chair with a steaming cup of tea and my dog on my lap, I closed my planner and opened my Bible to Psalm 61. I love the beauty of David’s prayer and the pictures his words paint. As I savored those promises, a peace I hadn’t felt in days flowed through me. I wanted to face my day with joy instead of dread. My to-do list had taken over my life, and I needed to make some changes. Perhaps you’ve experienced a similar situation, so allow me to share tips that helped me:

1. Pray—He hears the cries of your heart and listens to your prayers. Ask God for wisdom and clarity to focus on the priorities for the day.

2. Simplify—Our hearts grow weary when there’s so much to do. To be productive, we need to do less to have more. Sure that sounds like an oxymoron, but a simplified schedule and limited to-do list allows us to give focused attention on our priorities for the day. God promises to be our refuge.

3. Prioritize—look at your calendar and to-do list and break it down into three columns: Need, Want, Wait. Choose the top 3 tasks that need to be completed that day and do them. By crossing those items off your list, you will feel empowered by your productivity. If time allows, look at your want list and choose one task that you can complete in a specified amount of time.

4. Delegate—asking for help permits us to give more focused attention to our priorities. And it offers a blessing to those who say yes to your request. After hurting my back, I asked two friends to help with prep for my women’s ministry event. As we worked and laughed over ridiculous moments, one of my friends mentioned she was so glad I’d called because she’d been looking for something to do that night. She’s been going through a difficult time, and the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday was weighing heavily on her heart. So my request turned out to be a blessing...for both of us.

5. Decline—practice the art of saying no. You may be asked to do or participate in many good things, but you need to keep your focus on your priorities and the calling God has laid on your heart. Protect your calendar from becoming too full by giving it up to God on a daily basis. He will direct you towards those opportunities where to invest your time. Your ‘no’ could the courage someone else needs to say ‘yes’ and rise up to a new calling.

Each of us experience different seasons in our lives. Right now, your primary focus may be parenting your young children, focusing on your crumbling marriage, restoring your health, or perhaps caring for aging parents. Those blessings require a lot of time and attention. Lean on God and allow Him to lead you to the ‘rock that is higher than I’.

About the Author

Heart, home, and faith have always been important to Lisa Jordan, so writing stories with those elements come naturally. Represented by Rachelle Gardner, Lisa is an award-winning author for Love Inspired, writing contemporary Christian romances that promise hope and happily ever after. She is the Operations Manager for My Book Therapy. Happily married to her own real-life hero for almost thirty years, Lisa and her husband have two grown sons. When she isn’t writing, Lisa enjoys family time, kayaking, good books, and playing in her craft room with friends. Visit her at lisajordanbooks.com.

Lakeside Family
Lisa Jordan

Lakeside Family
The one man she never wanted to see again is the only who can save her daughter’s life.

In the space of a minute, Nick Brennan learns he has a nine-year-old daughter— and that she desperately needs his help. All this time, his high school sweetheart, single mother Josie Peretti, thought he knew about their child. And that he just didn’t care. About the ill little girl—or Josie, the woman he’s never forgotten. But Nick made a long-ago promise never to forsake his family the way his father did. A promise he vows to make good on now… if only Josie will bless him with a second chance.

Overcoming Without Being Overcome

Image courtesy of morguefile.com

Angie, here. There are times in a writer's life when he or she is overcome by ... well, life. Illness, family drama, financial woes -- all these can cramp up the creativity. I know, I've been dealing with a couple of these myself. In fact, I've even thought I might quite writing. But to quote R. A. Salvatore:

“If you can quit, then quit. If you can't quit, you're a writer.”

I just can't quit. Believe me, I've tried. If this sounds too familiar for comfort, then this post is for you.

Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible. It is a compact book so full of deep wisdom and practical direction. One of my favorite verses in this little gem of a book is the last part of the 13 – 14th verses of chapter 3:

“… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me …” (Philippians 3:13b – 14a, NIV)

Written by Paul around the first century, it still holds truth today. On those days that I can’t move without pain, when I can’t read, write or focus on anything but what must be the most insane sitcoms, I can look at that verse and take comfort.

Did you know that Paul had a chronic illness? His illness was so bad that in his second letter to the church at Corinth, he tells them that he prayed for healing three times, but God told him, “No,” each time.

It was then that Paul, instead of wallowing in self-pity, made a decision to embrace his weakness. In fact, verse 10 of chapter twelve says,

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NIV)

By that he meant that he’d reached a point where he couldn’t do anything (you know you’ve been there), that’s when he let God take over. And God always works in mighty ways. That’s the prize that Paul wanted – the life that God created just for him.

And that’s where we’ve got to find our joy when life get’s to be too much. The prize that God planned for us is just over that hill of pain, discouragement, loneliness or grief. Isn’t that great? We’ve just got to keep climbing until we get to the top.

I'm going to leave you with one more verse to think about and that's Jeremiah 29:11 [ESV], "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for [peace]* and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

What verse(s) do you cling to when you're overcome by life? Feel free to share them in the comments below.

*Bible Gateway

Overcoming the Writing Overwhelm by Cindy Sproles

This is the time of year when things can really get overwhelming: shopping, Thanksgiving, shopping, cooking, shopping, relatives,  - oh, yes, and shopping. Where does your writing fit in to your schedule during the holidays? Cindy Sproles, of christiandevotions.us has some wonderful thoughts for us to help us overcome the "overwhelm."

~ Angie

Life does have a way of happening. As much as I make the effort to control the things around me the truth is, I’m not in control at all. Publishers and professionals tell me, “You must blog. Facebook is an asset to your writing career. And oh, chirp, warble…uh no, it’s tweet, tweet, TWEET .”

When I gazed across my to-do list and see its length, my stomach churned. Worse yet, none of the work is my personal writing. It’s writing for others, reading submissions and editing. In the back of my head my own novel flailed, bobbing up and down through the river of “stuff” that called my hand of attention. My work was floating but I was personally drowning.

How do we manage to write when we’re overwhelmed? It begins when we re-examine the reason we write. The reason we write is from a love, a passion that burns deep inside us—that gift God has placed within us to nurture and develop so He is able to use our talent. When we allow the world to overwhelm us with earthly junk, God won’t work through us. We shove God to the bottom of the slush pile when it’s His calling that has ignited the desire to write.

I sat in front of my computer screen in a fog. Tweets popped up in the corner of the screen and instant messages lined the bottom. Who do I answer first? I slowly inched the cursor over the x and closed out Tweetdeck. One by one, I closed the instant messages and marked myself … off-line in Gmail. My heart knew I needed quiet.

I turned in my Bible to Isaiah and his words of encouragement … but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Just reading these words gave me a renewed strength.

Mental and physical overload is a worldly thing that sends me into a frenzy where the unimportant clouds the words God speaks to me to write.

It seems cliché to say “Pray,” but God wants us to bring every need, every thought to Him. When we offer up our plate filled with “things,” it’s His pleasure to scrap it clean.

Fighting overload begins at the feet of Christ—where we release the unnecessary and regain the necessary.

The work is too much to handle alone. Be quiet. Lift your weariness to the one who can manage it. Give the work to God. Renew your strength. Then, will you find the strength to fight the overwhelming junk of the world.

I get it God, I thought. So I slammed my Bible closed and grinned as a Twitter feather floated to the floor.

You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Exodus 18:18

Cindy Sproles

Editor, ChristianDevotions.us

Cindy Sproles is Editor and co-founder of Mountain Breeze Ministries and co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries. She has contributed to Novel Journey, Novel Reviews, and contributes to the Times-News.net. She co-writes the He Said, She Said devotions with Eddie Jones, which are featured on Christian Devotions Ministries and in Common Ground Christian Newspaper. Cindy is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and has a BA in Business.

Overwhelmed

Thursdays – Dawn’s Devotions for Writers

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present
your requests to God. And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)

It’s been one of those weeks—no, I take that back—it’s been two of those weeks. Most of us have them at one point or another. We begin to feel overwhelmed because it feels like there are so many things to do, and not enough time to get them all done.

Feeling overwhelmed is partly my fault. I’m not a last minute person, and so for me to feel on top of things, I need to be ahead of schedule.

I also have a tendency to think I can accomplish more in one day than what is feasible. Add to that a multitude of interruptions, and by the end of the day, my “to-do” list has become longer, not shorter. I begin to feel further and further behind and when Thursday rolls around and Monday’s “to-dos” still aren’t crossed off, I begin to feel overwhelmed—and not in control. I kind of like feeling that I’m in charge of my day. (Yep! It’s one of my flaws.)

As writers, we’re daily faced with trying to take care of our children and give our spouses the time they deserve—not to mention the laundry, shopping, cooking, volunteer responsibilities, errands, and day jobs outside the home. We’re supposed to create balance in our lives, which includes personal time and time with the Lord, while accomplishing all the many tasks assigned us.

But … have you noticed … I have yet to even include spending time writing?

As writers, time isn’t only spent at the computer fleshing out characters for our latest novel. This career also involves researching, marketing, networking, developing a platform, speaking, blogging, attending conferences, submitting work, answering e-mail, attending writers meetings, critiquing for other writers, and reading books on craft—as well as those written in our genre.

No wonder we can feel overwhelmed!

But, we don’t have to …

We don’t have to feel anxious. Instead of trying to do everything on our own—we can trust God to work things out in good time. Then we can let go of our desire to control, and we can accept the peace that transcends all understanding … God’s peace.