What to Do When You Feel Overwhelmed - Part 1

We can all feel overwhelmed sometimes. It’s not a good feeling. We feel like we are trapped and as if we have no room to move. When we feel overwhelmed we often can shut down and do nothing which is very counterproductive and can make us feel more overwhelmed. It can become a vicious cycle. When we are overwhelmed we lose confidence in ourselves and in our God. We can make decisions we will later regret. We may even quit.

While the feeling of being overwhelmed is inevitable, it's not a feeling God wants us to live in. God wants us to have space in life. I love what David writes in Psalm 18 and how God rescues him. He says, “He brought me forth into a broad place.”

When we feel overwhelmed, we can trust that God wants us to move out of that feeling. God will lead us out, but we do have our part to play.

Here are five questions you can ask when you feel overwhelmed to help you fight the feeling of being overwhelmed, regain your confidence and get moving again:

1. Is it just today that I feel overwhelmed? Our feelings are valid but sometimes we can make them my whole world. Today might just be a bad day. Tomorrow the feeling might pass. Don’t let a difficult day define your whole state of life.
2. Is it a season that will pass soon? In our work there will inevitably be very busy seasons. In Church work, there is a rhythm to the year and certain seasons will definitely be more difficult. Understanding that rhythm is very important. The Fall is a sprint and Christmas is definitely very busy. Last Spring I had a very busy season of planning. I looked at my schedule that has full days taking up with creating an annual plan for Rebuilt, message series planning for Nativity, helping partner parishes in their planning. It snuck up on me, and at times I felt overwhelmed - but I knew it would end. At the end of that season, I had a hard stop when I had my vacation planned. Recognize if you are in a season and if possible, put a hard stop after it, so you don’t just go from busy season to busy season.
3. Have I become unyoked to Christ? The reality is that we can all fall off our prayer routines and stop making time with God a priority. If I stop the spiritual disciplines and routines that connect me to Christ and refresh my soul, then inevitably I will become overwhelmed. Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28-30 that we should come to him when we are overburdened. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. If we are feeling overburdened, we might need to restore our connection to Christ through prayer and other spiritual disciplines.
4. Is there a sin I need to confess? Sin weighs us down and feels like a weight. David writes in Psalm 32:3, “When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” David knew he had done something wrong and needed to confess it to God. I’ve been there as well. I have started feeling overburdened and overwhelmed, knowing that I needed to go to confession or apologize to someone else. Sometimes it’s been a specific sin, sometimes it’s because it has just been too long since I have gone to confession. If you are feeling overwhelmed and recognize it’s because of a sin, admit the sin to God, go to the sacrament of Confession, and go to the person you have wronged. The sin is making you feel overwhelmed and repentance will remove it.
5. Am I procrastinating or delaying obedience? Sometimes we just put off what we know we’re supposed to do. And the longer we put it off, the more overwhelmed we feel. If you have a deadline on a project or important presentation coming up, you will keep feeling overwhelmed until you do what is most important. Just jump in and get started, and most times the feeling of overwhelm will go away. Likewise, sometimes we know an action step we need to take on a problem that God has told us to take, but we delay. We know we need to have a difficult conversation or forgive someone or go to confession, but we put it off. As a result we start feeling overwhelmed. Do what God has told you to do and feel the weight lifted.

Next week I will share an additional five questions.

Rooting for you,
Tom