For the Tired One

Wife.

Mom.

Sister.

Daughter.

Friend.

Church Planter.

Pastor’s Wife.

Counselor.

Teacher.

Chef.

Project Manager.

Referee.

This list of roles and responsibilities seems to have grown by quite a bit over the past few weeks. And before all of this, if I am honest, I was barely getting by with what I already had on my plate.

Now we add homeschool and balancing working from home with the kids and making sure these people that live in my home eat 3 times a day!

It’s so much. And truthfully, I can’t say that I am handling it all that well. I wish I could give you three tips for how to manage this season and the extra anxiety and stress, but I can’t and honestly I don’t think that’s what you need.

Solutions are great. Solutions give us a sense of control- and these days I bet most of us are grasping for any ounce of control we can find. But friend, if there’s one thing that I feel like we are collectively learning as a people is that we really don’t have any control. We have done a really good job of managing and pretending like we have it together, but you take away those systems and processes and freedoms and we realize just how much control we really do not have.

If you find yourself reading every blog and following every person on instagram who seems to be getting this whole shelter-in-place thing “right,” then can I encourage you sit down for a minute, preferably with a cup of coffee, and take these next few words in?

Surrender. That is what we are invited to in this season. Not solutions and schedules and systems. We are invited to surrender to the loving and good Father that we have, who sits above all of this. Who sits above Covid-19 and the stock market and your child’s education and your church’s financial stability and the government’s decisions. We are invited to surrender to the kind and powerful God who looks at us as we scramble to find a way to “get this whole thing right,” and He says: Sit down. Rest. Let’s do this together. You’re not alone.

Surrender has always been an invitation as followers of Jesus, we just haven’t really needed to surrender. We’ve managed our lives and homes and money and time just fine without Him. We’ve had the right plan, the time, the books, the money, the space…. But we no longer have those things. Doesn’t this all seem to be an invitation back to dependence and reliance upon the only thing that is certain, steadfast and secure: our Father?

So come. Bring your full self back to Him. Your heart- your expectations- your grief- your fears- your money- your hours- your children- your marriage- your job- your church- all of it. And surrender. Let go of the grip that you’ve held or are trying to hold and rest in the love of your Father.