From Chaos to Calm

(Dear Electronic Friends: My apologies, but it's been a busy week. I am recycling a blog post from September, 2014. I hope it encourages you who are new readers or you who have bad memories!)


Who depends on you? What are your responsibilities? How many items are on your to-do list for the week?

Overwhelmed yet? The jumble that makes up your daily life can cause incredible chaos. This doesn't even factor in the biggies that occur:  loss of health, relationships, job, or home; fear, either real or imagined; worry about, well, everything.

How can we manage an overloaded life so there are pockets of calm?

Proactive Steps:

• Pare down
• Simplify
• Just say no

No, no, no! That's insulting if you are in the throes of life right now because often you can't eliminate anything. It would be like asking

• Which meal can my family do without?
• Which kid do I neglect today?
• How do I tell my boss I can't do the work she assigned?

So, how can we manage all we must do and stay upright? Try this:

1. Work diligently and efficiently. Focus 100% on the task at hand and then REMOVE YOURSELF FROM IT. (see a previous post, Formula for Busy People, about setting priorities and working through goals.)
2. Take care of yourself physically. Eat healthy (try eliminating one not-so-good item from your diet), exercise (each week move around a little more than the previous week), and get good sleep (work on your before bed sleep routines and allow enough time for proper sleep). Even Elijah took a God-ordered nap when he was depressed and overwhelmed. (see I Kings 19: 3-9)
3. Work on improving your relationships. Schedule time for fun and social engagements.
4. Be sure to spend time alone with God.

Now...

Invert that list so it looks something like this:

1. Spend time alone with God
2. Work to improve your relationships ("People are more important than things")
3. Take care of your physical well-being
4. Work responsibly and productively

Do you see the difference? Allowing God to be first in your daily priorities enables everything else to fall into place. The busier you are the more you need to place God first.

Wonder of all wonders, privately communicating with God makes me more energetic, it clears my thinking, it minimizes stress, and increases my productivity.I don't know how, but it works every time.

Too Busy not to Spend Time with God!

 

My Prayer Chair in a former backyard

Old Testament David, a man with many responsibilities as king of God's people and a man who frequently found his life in chaos, said it best:  "I seek you with all my heart;...I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees....I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways....I will not neglect your word." (Psalm 119: 10-12, 15-16)

"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." (Psalm 145: 18)

David learned to go from chaos to calm by spending time with his God.