When Things Get Crazy

We live in a high-speed, never stopping, never breaking, culture. Every day is an adventure that demands our time and energy. Technology is constantly changing, evolving, and picking up speed. Every day our world is changing quicker and quicker and evolving at incredible speeds. According to a quick search on Google, it is estimated that 328.77 million terabytes of information is created daily! With so much new information constantly becoming available, how are we supposed to navigate through all of it? What is the difference between fact and fiction is there even right and wrong anymore? We live in the most amazing yet terrifying times where you have every answer at your fingertips with just a few taps of a screen yet there is still so much confusion as to what life even is.

If we are going to survive in these times we need to be intentional about how we spend our time. We have to actively seek rest daily and take it when we can. If you don't take time to rest the world will never give it to you. It will leave you stuck in the rat race of the constant grind wondering what the point of all of this is. You will quickly find yourself burnt out and hating life. I definitely have felt this and it can be very difficult learning to say no at appropriate times. Boundaries are very important in our lives. If we don't have strong boundaries set we will continue to do things that may not be bad but might not be helping us achieve our desired outcome in life.

For eveything you say yes to there will be something you will have to say no to. If you are like me you want to be able to say yes to everyone because you don't want to let others down. I think this can be a toxic mindset for two reasons. Reason one is that we are not going to be able to give everyone our full attention so things are going to fall through the cracks. The other reason saying yes to everything is toxic is maybe it's because we have a prideful attitude. I will get more into what I mean by that in a second. I want to talk a little more in-depth about these two things next.

We only have so many hours in a day and only so many days in a year. Just doing basic math there is only so much we can do before we literally run out of time. We like to see our calendars fill up and as American's sometimes we see a full calendar as a bragging point or proof that we have made it. But by adding more and more things to your calendar and saying yes to everyone's request what we are really doing is saying no to rest. We are saying no to taking care of ourselves. We are saying no to spending time in the Bible. There are so many important things that we need to live a healthy life. If we are too busy helping others do what they need we can tend to forget to take care of ourselves. When you are not energized and healthy you can't do a good job and will begin to do a poor job at the tasks you do. This is why the Bible talks about taking a sabbath to reenergize yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually so you can do your best work the rest of the week. We need to prioritize things in a way to allow us to give our best to the projects we do say yes to.

My second point is near to me and I struggle with this one a lot. I think we can have a prideful attitude when it comes to helping others. Don't get me wrong serving others is a very good thing to do. However, some things we are asked to do we may say yes to because we think we are the only ones "good enough" to do it right. I know I struggle with this a lot of times. But have been learning there are other people also gifted in areas I am that can also help to take some of the weight off your shoulders. I want you to take a moment and look at your life and see if there are any places you can humble yourself and say maybe it's okay to not be the only one who can solve this solution. Teams are what make organizations thrive and building a team can make everyone's life easier! Trust me you don't have to do this thing called life alone!

This has been a lot and I hope if you made it this far you have taken something you can apply to your life! I just want to encourage you to not forget to take rest and take the time you need to be filled. You can't help others if your gas tank is on E. With all the information in the world and the constantly evolving internet and social media, it is okay to hit pause and take a step back to breath. Don't feel like you are less of a human if you have to say no to doing something or if you aren't doing what everyone else is. You are writing your own story!