Day 111 — How are all these things going to get done?

We’ve all asked ourselves this one:  How in the world am I going to get everything done?

Let’s just be honest and up-front.  Life is busy.  It’s difficult to keep all of the plates spinning.  As a father, husband, employee, student, and homeowner it is difficult to even know everything that is on my to-do list much less do it all.  To expand my list just a bit more (not to say, “Hey, look at all I do” but rather to provide context for the thoughts that follow), I have two kids (eksimants and cesimants, 5 and 2) and a wife (who is at the very least a saint) at home.  I own my home, so there are always things that need to be done (mow the yard, water the yard, fix something, etc).  I’m an employee that travels about 75% of the time.  When I’m on the road my workday can run 10-12 hours long.  When I’m home it’s more like 8-10.  I’m a PhD student, and am in a term right now (300 pages of reading this week alone).  I have Multiple Sclerosis.  My thoughts are often shifted to a parent who is going through a health matter.

In short, I have a lot of plates to spin.

I have a lot of things that I could worry about.

I ask myself and God everyday, “how am I going to do all this”.

As I was gearing up for the start of this term that question was nearly all-consuming of my thoughts.  Then one day, an answer came:

I tell you not to worry about your life.  Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear.  Isn’t life more than food or clothing?  Look at the birds in the sky!  They don’t plant or harvest.  They don’t even store grain in barns.  Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them.  Aren’t you worth more than birds?  Can worry make you live longer?  Why worry about clothes?  Look how the wild flowers grow.  They don’t work hard to make their clothes.  But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them.  God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow.  He will surely do even more for you!  Why do you have such little faith?  Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat?  Will we have anything to drink?  Will we have any clothes to wear?”  Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things.  Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.  But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants.  Then the other things will be yours as well.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  It will take care of itself.  You have enough to worry about today. — Matthew 6:25-34 (CEV)

Hits home.

Here is the point.  If you are doing the things that God has laid out for your life, then God will take care of the details that surround it.  It is that simple.  Consider Paul.  From prison he wrote that no matter what his circumstance he was content.  Why?  How?  What did he know that we forget? He knew that no matter how many plates he had to spin, God would provide the abilities for him to spin them.  He knew that God would even occasionally spin a few for him.  He knew that when sleep was rare, God would help that sleep to be extra-restful.  He knew that when concepts such as correlation coefficients weren’t making sense that God would help lead him to the “aha” moment.

Jesus tells us, “put God’s work first and do what he wants.”  With that comes the payoff, “the other things will be yours as well.”

I don’t know what plates you have to spin.  Yet, I do know that if you are firmly placing yourself, your life, your plates and your poles into the hands of God, then you’ll get through it.  You’ll reach the end.  You’ll succeed.  You’ll be content no matter the circumstance.

Consider the Psalmist:

I look to the hills!  Where will I find help?  It will come from the Lord, who created the heavens and the earth.  The Lord is your protector, and he won’t go to sleep or let you stumble.  The protector of Israel doesn’t doze or ever get drowsy.  The Lord is your protector, there at your right side to shade you from the sun.  You won’t be harmed by the sun during the day or by the moon at night.  The Lord will protect you and keep you safe from all dangers.  The Lord will protect you now and always wherever you go. — Psalm 121.

When you make your to-do list tomorrow, take a minute and let God help you.  Let God show you the priorities (“put God’s work first”).  Don’t be afraid of interruptions (“put God’s work first”).  Don’t be afraid of that “still, small voice” telling you to sign up for more ways to “put God’s work first”.  And when you hit that “this is as much as I can take” moment, look to the hills.  God is there, and that is what makes it possible for us to be content no matter the circumstance.  That is what makes it possible for us to have joy in the journey.