When You're Feeling Overwhelmed

Why do bloggers stop posting? Why do they post less and less often, eventually falling off the map and leaving readers wondering what happened to them?

I don't think that it's a lack of interest. After all, we bloggers love to write or we wouldn't have started these things in the first place! No, I think it's just that life gets to be too much. Other things take precedence, we can't do as good of a job as we think we should, and so eventually we stop writing altogether.

Lately, I've been overwhelmed. 

With the last semester of college underway, a family vacation coming up at the end of this week, and approximately 3,000,000 other things that have to be done, it feels like every moment is spent keeping the monsters of fear, anxiety, and stress at bay. 

At times like this we have to reevaluate our priorities, and sometimes things get moved to the back burner. Like blogging regularly.

And that's OK.

If you've been feeling overwhelmed lately, take it from me: the world won't end if you give something up, whether temporarily or permanently. 

Part of living a life of purpose involves deciding what to focus your energies on. You can't do everything well. When Paul said "I can do everything through him who gives me strength," he didn't mean that he was attempting to juggle a full-time job with a full-time ministry, plus a family and a golfing hobby. He worked where God wanted him to work and "threw off" the other things that hindered (Hebrews 12:1).

So take some time today, or this week, and figure out where to focus your energies. Discover your strengths, then work in them. Remember what Edmund Burke said, "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." Don't get overwhelmed, get prioritized.

What has been overwhelming you this week? What can you put on the back burner?

Photo edited from Gas Stove Burner 12-28-09 -- Dec282009_1399, a photo by stevendepolo on Flickr.