A quick image search on Google returns a slew of images. Stress and work or some other giant wave of problems about to come crashing down on the individual. This should come as no surprise, the word ‘overwhelming’ isn’t often seen as something positive. Polarizing elections, a global pandemic, continuious economic upheavels; it is little wonder that the Western world is reporting record cases of anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders. Social media connects us in ways that were impossible 20 years ago, but this same tool also divides us. Echo chambers resound our beliefs and leave little room for genuine dialouge with someone who we may disagree with.

Tech giants see increased engagement, which equals increased revenues, when people are angry, incesed, and seething. They have little motivation to solve the problem they helped create. All of these things can make life seem overwhelming at times. But it doesn’t have to be does it?

Christmas Traditions that need to stop

The holidays themselves can be overwhelming. We seem to have a tradition in my household where someone always gets terribly ill and visits a hospital for the holidays. My father-in-law was the torchbearer this year as he was recently admitted to the hospital with a blood infection. My wife was able to get him released a few days ahead of Christmas day but she had to take on the responsibility of administering his antibiotics via a pic line. She could have sent him to a skilled nursing facility but she thought it best to bring him home due to the holidays.

There have been complications, edema, weeping, convincing a very stubborn 86 year old man that just because he’s home doesn’t mean he’s better. But my wife has taken it in stride. On Christmas our oven decided to stop working. My wife being a baker, this was stressful. Being her though, she was grateful that this occured during a ‘non-wedding’ month and we ordered a stove. Delivery scheduled … the year was starting to spin back up.

Hey, remember me?

Being proactive, my wife was wise enough to schedule boosters and I hadn’t gotten my flu shot for the year so I got double jabbed. A week later my father-in-law started to feel ill. I’ll save you the details, suffice to say that after 22 months of dodging Corona, Omicron decided to pay my household a visit. As careful as we have been, our assumption is that one of the home health workers dropped it off during one of their visits. In the end it doesn’t matter.

All six of us have had it now and while the in-laws are still struggling, the rest of us are starting to turn a corner. It was in the midst of all this mess that I started to feel overwhelmed. Not by the stress of the situation, certainly not by fear, no it was another wave that was looming overhead about to come crashing down on my household.

Overwhelming Kindness, Love, and Generosity

I had taken a week out of work for the Christmas holidays and while I struggled with some side effects of the booster/flu doubleshot I was, for the most part, back at work. Then as this settled in and I reached out to my leadership all I kept hearing was “take care of yourself” and “take care of your family”. Workmates stepped up to cover for me. The body of believers from our community of friends dropped off groceries on our front porch or sent giftcards via email. One even dropped off coloring books and crayons, but not just any crayons, the box with the sharpener in the back! Another dropped off a bag of cereals that my wife would never let me kids buy!

The oven delivery was, of course, rescheduled; but thanks to the thoughtful generosity of so many people we are more than taken care of. I cannot express enough the gratitude that my family feels toward our friends and family. Even the simple text messages asking how we’re doing has meant so much to my wife and I.

Rebel against the rebellion

A while back my church did a sermon series called Nickajack, Rebel against the Rebellion. The point of the message was drawn from the true story about the State of Nickajack that wanted to remain neutral during the Civil War. The desire was for the pro-union areas of East Tennessee and Northern Alabama to succeed and form their own state. The effort failed obviously, but the point was that they were rebelling against the rebellion. In a similar way that we see the world in rebellion against it’s Creator; as followers of Christ we rebel against this rebellion.

We do this by being the hands and feet of God. By being his ambassadors in a broken land. As a family, we do our best to show love and kindness to all that we interact with. To be the type of people Christ would be if He were in our shoes. During this trial, we’ve been on the receiving end of that from so many people. To see so many people rebel against the rebellion, to do kindness when all of us are facing challenges. It was more than overwhelming … and it was beautiful.