Are you Overloaded?

Do you ever feel like life is getting you down? Like you have so much to do that there is never enough time to get everything done? Like no matter how hard you try, your "to do list" keeps getting longer and longer? Do you feel like this pear tree, with so much to bear that you find yourself breaking? I used to feel like that a lot but now things are getting better. I shed some unwanted and unneeded baggage and things are looking great.





I used to be like that pear tree. I would try to do more and more and get myself in a fix and before I knew it, I was bogged down with no way out. No matter how I tried, things kept looking bad and I would end up depressed and when all other options were exhausted, I would break down and ask God for help. I would tell God my plan and tell him how I wanted him to make my plan work. Usually it ended up with my plan still failing and me losing faith and giving up on God. I could rationalize that I asked God for help with my plan and I didn’t get the help I wanted so God must not care. You know what I am talking about. Many of you have been there too. Why wasn’t God helping with my plan?




This time last year, I was bogged down with my job. I was working long hours and weekends and never seemed to have any time for myself or my family. I knew I was on the verge of a breakdown and couldn’t last much longer. I asked God for help with making ends meet. What I wanted was some kind of miracle where I would get more money and keep things the way they were. But no money fell from the sky and no offered me that pay raise. However, this job came open and I applied for it. I knew it would mean a huge salary cut and we would have to struggle to make ends meet. I wasn’t sure if it was the right choice but I did it anyway. God wasn’t giving me that answer I wanted but it was the only option for change so I took it.




After giving it some thought, I realized that the problem wasn’t with God it was with me. The problem was that it was MY plan and not necessarily God’s plan. Sometimes the answer isn’t what I want to hear but I know in the end, it is for the better. Long story short, I got the job. We adjusted to the pay cut and found other things to help us out financially. In less than a year, we have adjusted and are better off than before. I now have lots more time to spend with my family. I have so much less stress that I am a different person.





I would love to have all those pears on my tree. The problem is that one tree can’t possibly bear that many pears. Trying to save them all would mean destroying the tree and then there would be no pears at all. I decided to cut back and trim off the excess limbs and pears. I must have cut off 500 hundred pears. They are still good to eat but just a little small. The rest of the pears should now mature properly and the tree will be better off for it.







I think what I got caught up in was this competitive lifestyle that everyone seems to be living these days. We are all getting pushed to achieve, get, do, and save more. The reality of it is that MORE isn’t always the answer. Sometimes LESS is the answer. I am learning to be content with less and listening to what God’s plan for me is instead of trying to make my own plan work and that plan is working.

Have a Blessed Day,
Greg