“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

It was a crazy week. All the neatly laid plans for the week ended up being pushed back and piling up on the desk. Additionally, things were weighing on my mind. Finally, a day to get caught up and in the moment, looking at the pile on my desk, I was tempted to just walk away. However, I remembered a tactic learned years ago in a time management/organization workshop. I picked up one piece of paper, one receipt at a time and handled it, whether it was to trash it, file it, record it etc. There was a time in my life when I could get overwhelmed very easily by piles of paperwork, to-do tasks, obligations and my own thoughts. I had to train my brain how to handle those feelings and how to handle my life. By the time I retired, many people believed I didn’t really work that much because my desk was so clear of debris. Little did they know I had a system to handle the myriad of responsibilities I had. They didn’t know that I had to learn how to prioritize my work and my life in a way that made it possible to stay on top of those responsibilities. At first, I developed a priority list to keep my head above water but after I caught hold of the scripture above, and place God at the top of my priority list, that’s when the system became almost second nature.

Jesus was teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about our propensity to worry and become overly concerned about how our needs will be met. He reminded the crowds (and me) that God, the creator, takes care of birds and fields who don’t have the ability to reason these things out, so certainly God will take care of us also. It was a soothing balm for my ability to become overwhelmed so easily by the responsibilities I was juggling at the time. The key is priorities. When we place God as our top priority, seeking Him and trying to live for Him, the other concerns of our life will fall into place. How does that play out in our every day life?

It means that we take time daily to study, to pray and meditate on God. It means pausing and being thankful before we pick up the next task on our to-do list. It means taking a deep breath and asking for the Spirit’s leading in our daily lives before we walk out the door or begin the day’s chores. It means allowing ourselves to have simple moments of acknowledging God at work in our life throughout our day.

Is this easily done? No. Life can hit us with a barrage of stuff daily, that distracts and overwhelm us. Which leads me back to that moment at the desk piled up with paperwork and my brain overflowing with things that needed to be resolved before the day was over. I wanted to stuff it all away in a drawer and forget about it, but instead, I neatly stacked it up, set it aside while I picked up my daily devotional reading and prayer journal. I put my hand to the art journal (honoring a God-given gift). Then I returned to my desk. Some might have seen that as a diversionary tactic. I see it as a moment to seek God first. From that point, I put my day in order, took a moment to breathe, then began to pick up those papers one piece at a time until the pile was gone. It was a moment where what I learned from Scriptures met up with what I learned in my work life. And I think that is what Jesus was trying to teach us in the text. God wants to be involved in our daily life and concerns, but we have to be willing to let Him in. When we do that, things begin to work out, the feeling of being overwhelmed falls away from our psyche and we find ourselves able to do what is necessary and probably even some extra. Do I get it right every time? No. I hope this little experience will encourage you the next time you feel overwhelmed and I hope to remember this experience the next time I get overwhelmed.