Overwhelmed, Part 2: The Solution

A few weeks ago, I wrote about being overwhelmed by the media…about how I felt assaulted, even violated, by the graphic nature of the news that I couldn’t seem to turn off. Since then, I went through a phase where I continued to gobble up the stories like some kind of journalistic Pac-Man. I just couldn’t break my habit of obsessively checking the news during the day.

Finally, I Had to Stop.

Like I’d said in the blog, I started to feel weighed down by the exposure. Fear began to creep in—“I can’t possibly raise a child in this world!” “How is this possible?!?!” “Dear God, what do I do?!?!?”  Anger began to rise…and it didn’t subside. Fortunately, I’m busy. I asked for more responsibilities at work; I got them. And Lord knows, I’m busy enough once I get home that I don’t have time to check on such things! I’ve also began to filter what kinds of news I read. The headlines are enough; I don’t need to read the details on the attacks.

The news makes me feel like my chances of making an impact are nil. I feel impossibly small; I feel that my “faith” is not enough to move a dust bunny, much less, a mountain. The best thing that I can do is to make an impact in my immediate community…meaning, my son, my husband, and…I think that’s as far as I’ll get. I don’t feel like I can do much beyond that.

The world is too big, and I am minute.

It’s so easy to let the overwhelming media defeat you before you’ve even gotten out of bed.

Do we ever really know, in this life, how far our impact is felt? Do we ever see our ripple effect? Do we understand the ways God uses us? I don’t see it.

But I believe it.

I stole the idea for this blog from www.shortdailydevotions.com  The verse for today is: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9 ESV)”  That’s a good one, right? It’s one of those verses that we read 100x and forget about what it means.  It means that we

Do

Not

Give

Up.

Just because we don’t understand our impact doesn’t mean that we stop trying to make one.

I have no idea how God has, or how He is going to, use me.

I’m a simple girl from Franklin County.

I live a simple life in a small house

In a small town

With a small family

And a smaller bank account.

But God has a plan for this Simple Girl

That is far more complicated than I can understand.

So, I have a choice:  Do I give up? Do I see the overwhelming news, and decide that I’m defeated before I get out of bed? Do I decide that it’s just not worth it? Do I let the day win before it even starts?

Do we give up in doing good?

Because, what’s the point, right?

Or do we keep on keeping on?

Do we continue doing the little things…the random acts of kindness that no one sees…making statements for the positive that no one hears…the drop in the ocean that we feel is unnoticed?

Even a drop in an ocean makes a ripple.

In the overwhelming life that we lead; in the overwhelming world that we live in; we have to remember that we serve a God Who is bigger than anything we can comprehend. Yet, He is intimate—He knows the deepest, smallest things about us. I don’t understand how; but I have faith that He does.  When we do the tiny things that we do, He sees them. He honors His word—the little things we do will eventually result in greatness. We simply have to persevere. Yes, we ARE moving mountains; sometimes, it’s one grain of dirt at a time.

Keep on doing good, y’all. It will be worth it in eternity…