“You can’t do 100 things well.”
Just a few weeks ago I heard these words spoken at a leadership retreat. While I recognized their truth in my life, I continued to live at the same frantic pace—shuffling from one thing to the next. It is the lifestyle that I have become used to and looking back on my life, in every season, I’ve come to a place where I have realized that I have taken on too much—when five hours of sleep over several consecutive days is no longer enough and I admit that I don’t have the strength to do everything myself. Yet, somehow I always find myself wandering back to that toxic lifestyle of attempting to do it all.
And, I am once again at that tipping point—burned out.
The lifestyle I’ve found myself in reminds me of the episode in Parks and Recreation when Ron Swanson tells Leslie Knope that she needs to take time off from her job in the Parks Department while running her campaign for City Council. Things start slipping through the cracks and she forgets to invite Jerry to his surprise party that she plans after she forgot his actual birthday.
My freshman year in high school, my soccer coach challenged us with a verse:
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” – Colossians 3:23
This is a verse that I have tried to live by, but recently I’ve been learning that in order to work at everything with my whole heart, I need to do less. It is about quality, not quantity. So, I am challenging myself to do less, but with more heart. I’m challenging myself to not give into the pressure to do more out of my desire to feel needed, but to be content and present in the moment, knowing my own worth is found in Christ, not in my own accomplishments or the checkmarks on my to-do-list.
So, this is my apology to all the people I’ve hurt in my attempts to prove that I can handle it all, that I am somehow an exception to the rule. I am sorry for the times I wasn’t fully present to listen as I tried to multitask and for the things I let fall through the cracks.
I am thankful for the message proclaimed so well by Elevation Worship in their song, “O Come to the Altar” (see below), that despite my failures and shortcomings, Jesus calls me to His arms, offers forgiveness, and takes on my burdens.
