Have you ever been stretched SOOOOO thin that it just mades you want to scream ENOUGH? Honestly, I am feeling it this week. I just don't have enough hours in a day to do all I need, much less want to do!
Please keep me in your prayers... I really need them right now!
Just wanted to reply quickly and let you know that I'm right there with you...as I've mentioned, I work 40 hours a week besides my ministry, and both of those jobs are starting to pick up in a major way! I want to live a life of excellence and be fabulous at everything I do, but I sometimes feel stretched so thin, I'm not doing anyone any good...
Jesus, I pray for all of us who are busy ministry people, that you would give us the strength to run the race that you have set for us! Stretch our days and give us creative ways to do everything that we need to do, and help us to do it with excellence as unto You. We believe that you have us where we are for a reason, and that you have not given us more than we can handle!! Let today be one that is used by you for your glory - Let your light shine through us and let us see the results of our hard work. We love you, Jesus!!
You and I are soul sisters, PT. We seem to go through all the same things all the time. Yes, this week I'm feeling very much like you described. I was going to write my own thread about it. But for the past few days I have been too tired to even post, quite honestly.
I'm coming down off of a major outreach that took months to plan. Of course things go wrong at the last minute requiring me to save the day all the time (and I always do) but it puts me over the edge to do that. Add to that all the regular things going on that I have to keep going in the church, at home, etc. I won't bore you with my crazy schedule this past week, but, like you - I haven't had a moment's time to breathe.
I know that one is always prone to depression after a major event...even if it went awesome (which ours did) but then you are coming down off the adreneline rush afterwards. But with me it's more than that. It's dealing with people's actions in the midst of something like this. There are just some things in ministry that drive me crazy. Tell me...do you experience people letting you down with responsibilities...(such as for a large event, or maybe a ministry that they head in the church) and when they do not come through like they should, or they even quit - they will say, "I'm sorry. I feel like I'm letting God down, you down, and the church down." What I want to say (and what the truth is!) is, "YES, YOU ARE." But what they WANT me to say is, "Oh, that's okay." They want to be reassurred that what they are doing is not that bad and that someone will make up the difference. But it's not okay and the truth of the matter is, someone (many times me) will have to practically break my neck to make up for what they did. For years and years I used to say, "Oh, that's okay" because I knew it was expected and it would just smooth things over. But then I got tired of it. I realized I was really lying. So, I have now created a few stock answers for these times. When somebody does this, my typical response is, "Thank you for letting me know." Because quite frankly what they did was terrible, but at least I'm glad they told me in time to save the day. Or....if I can get away with it, I just stay silent and don't give them any response.
Do you relate? This is just what I felt stretched with recently...and felt like I would pop. I just hate it when people tell me disappointing things and then they want "reassurance" that what they are doing is okay. Ughhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Recently with my outreach, someone backed out on something they were supposed to do for me and said, "well, if I fulfill my promise to you to do that, I'll have to stay up all night to do that." I'm thinking, "OKAY........AND THE PROBLEM WITH THAT IS??" (Look at all the times all of US stay up all night, or do literally "whatever it takes" to pull something off.) The problem is, most church people feel like if they have to stay up all night or half the night, or inconvenience themselves or their families in some way, well.........the promise/responsibility just has to be re-thought. The other night I was driving with my son Jordan on the way to put final touches in place for our outreach. He brought up someone that had let go of a responsibility at the last minute and said, "mom, why did they do that?" I thought...I'm not going to lie about this. I said, "Jordan, because they don't have our DNA." He said, "What does that mean, Mom?" I said, "Jordan, there are some people that have it into the fiber of their very being that you don't quit, you don't break promises, you do whatever it takes to get the job done. We are those kind of people. We have it in our DNA to fulfill our promises no matter what. Some people don't. They fulfill promises when it's useful or convenient for them." At least I was able to use it as a teaching moment for my children.
The expectation to save the day feels overwhelming at times. The feeling of being the only one willing to do literally "whatever it takes" to get the job done gets so incredibly lonely at times. PT, I have known you for a long time now and I know that you are such a person to the 'nth degree and you are probably feeling very overwhelmed and "lonely" in the fact that you are inside your own world of keeping all of these balls juggling and plates spinning in your home/church. No one else understands the world you are living in right now...except us. Puppetmaster, you are living the same life - in an extraordinary way.
I just encourage both of you that although it is overwhelming at times like now........and you feel the loneliness of the life of being the great leader that you both are -- IT'S WORTH IT ALL. I would rather be a person like us with the right DNA anytime than to just be a bump on a log out there living a life of survival (versus living a life where you are leaving a legacy). I would rather be a person like us any day than just meandering through life with no purpose. I would rather be a person like us anyday who feels overwhelmed and stretched than to be a person who is living a life of convenience who experiences no stretching - or growing.
When it comes down between the two, I'll take this overwhelming life anyday. But we sure do need each other to make it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm praying for both of you today in a special way, that God would uphold you...strengthen you...continue to equip you for every good work.
You are loved greatly...and thanks for letting me vent a minute about my overwhelming week too.
I will tell you what someone told me yesterday..."you are...the bomb dot com!" (No clue what that means, but this young 20-something man told me yesterday that that's what I am, and I considered it a compliment the way he said it.)
I feel you. As many of you know we planted a church last month, and it is so much work. Please pray for us. My dh and I also both work full time jobs in addition to the ministry, and it can be so overwhelming at times. I am praying for the day that dh and I can be full time in ministry. I think that it was puppetmaster who posted about being bi-vocational. I did not get a chance to post on that topic, but I agree with everything that you ladies said. It is so sad that many churches do not see the importantance of full time staff, especially pastoral staff. Thank you for your prayer puppetmaster. I thank God often for you my sisters in the spirit. No one can really understand what it is like to walk in our shoes until they have done it. It is so great to know that you understand what I am going through and that we will lift each other up in prayer and encourage one another.
Deanna you are so right about people who cancel out on you at the last minute. Sometimes I just want to ask them, "Do if you don't do it, how will it get done?" Of course we all know the answer to that is US. We do it for the reasons Deanna so eloquently laid out. We can't stand to let God down, and so we do whatever it takes, and people who are not willing to do that don't understand what it is like. I have heard people say trite expressions about always saving the day as though I am Jeannie or something. We cannot nod and make everything complete. Just because we go the extra mile to get things done does not make it ok for people to break their word. This drives me crazy!
Anyway, I have often thought about this issue as it relates to church members. Are people born like this, or can they be taught how to give God their all? I don't know for sure, but I think that if it can be taught, it is not an easy thing to do. Have any of you ever thought about the fact that if we did half of what our members do, that they would be ready to kick us out of the church. I would never dream of doing most of what I am speaking of, but it amazes me that the expectations are so different.
BTW Deanna, "the bomb.com" is equivalent to "all that and a bag of chips". I am so glad that your outreach went well. PTL!!!
Working in both ministry and community theatre, I get a lot of the whiny, "But I have to get to bed tonight, and I just don't have time!"
My DH and I, along with our church's YP, work ourselves to the point of being ill with every project we do. Half the time, the only breaks we get are from each other...as in, "Ya know, why don't you go home and we'll cover for you tonight?"
The last project we did went great because we just plain didn't count on anyone's help. We just divided the work between the three of us, and any extra help we got was a bonus. It was a lot of work, but at least we weren't scrambling around at the last minute trying to get everything done! Sad that it had to come to that...
Deanna, you are so right about the DNA. Some people have got it, others don't!
