Tuesday, August 25, 2009

When Too Much is Too Much

I'm sure I'm the only person in the world who does this, but I regularly try to do too much with too little (no one else does this, right?). It's a bad habit that unabated will lead to an ulcer, and to top it off, never once have I managed to do the too much I've planned in the too little time I've planned to do it. Instead I succeed in frustrating myself, annoying the hooey out of my husband and diminishing my role as a leader.

Now, some of you over-achievers may be asking, "How do we know when too much is too much?" The answer is simple - too much is too much when you lay awake at night unable to shut off the to do list train chugging around in your mind, too much is too much when you go to bed with a list on your night stand to add the things to your list that come to you in your dreams, too much is too much when you don't have time in your life for the most important people in your life (i.e. God, your spouse, your children, your friends), too much is too much when the time you do carve out for the important people in your life is spent thinking about other things, too much is too much when you consistently don't have time to exercise and eat non-take-out food, too much is too much when you find yourself regularly praying for 28 hours in a day.

You see, God doesn't make mistakes and when He created everything He established night and day and a constant rotation of only 24 hours. He also created time to rest. Jesus commanded us to eat with one another and care for each other. Jesus also told us we should love our neighbors, which means being home long enough to know our neighbors. Jesus said to treat our bodies as God's temple. Too much is too much when we've convinced ourselves that we can do 40 million things that keep us from doing the things God commanded us to do from the beginning.

I am the last person that should be teaching this concept, unless you consider that the best teachers are often the ones who have been there and done that themselves. I am learning and getting better everyday with the help of good friends. Ya'll know I'm pumped about this church plant and God did give me the energizer bunny gene when He created me, but for the rest of you out there with that gene, too much is still too much and it's time we learned to spread the wealth and share the joy - in other words, ask people for help and start shortening the to-do list. Or, if that's too painful, make another list called your "to-don't" list and make sure you follow it to the letter.

Enough said, I'm off to join the Y and spend the evening with my baby - and if that's all I do, it's more than okay.

No comments: