Chances are, you have a lot on your plate at the moment.

Scratch that.

Chances are, you don’t just have one plate with stuff on it, but so many that you could possibly open a crockery store. (Anyone think they have enough inventory to start a Corelle franchise with me?)

Chances are, most of us are overwhelmed by all the plates we have spinning up in the air.

We are overwhelmed by our to-do’s and task lists.

We are overwhelmed by the responsibilities of parenting our children or “parenting” our parents.

We are overwhelmed by the medical reports that we were praying would be different.

We are overwhelmed by relationships that drain us and feelings that overtake us.

We are overwhelmed by the state of the world rife with wars and violence and crime and hateful acts and speech.

Heck, sometimes, we are overwhelmed by the laundry and just thinking of what to make for dinner tonight.

We sometimes feel like it’s all too much. And, maybe it is.

Today, I would suggest that instead of fighting that feeling of being knocked out and beleaguered, we embrace it for a season. That we allow ourselves to feel dazed and stunned and helpless. That we don’t pretend to be invincible but accept that sometimes we are inundated. That we don’t pretend to be strong but acknowledge that sometimes we are swamped by life’s unpredictable waves.

Surprisingly, I gleaned this lesson from an Old Testament character you wouldn’t typically describe as overwhelmed. Ezekiel may have been a prophet who dropped some truth bombs, but he was also a guy who was overcome with emotion just like you and me.

Zeke (I’m assuming he wouldn’t mind us calling him that) was in the running to be a priest in Israel. And yet when we meet him in the eponymous book, he is a captive in Babylon. Instead of serving God in the temple as a priest, he is commissioned by God to be a street preacher to the exiled Israelites. To make matters worse, God pretty much tells Zeke that the people would ice him out and ignore his words.

Zeke knew already that his assignment would be a big fat miserable failure in terms of its results. This was the original Mission Impossible. In chapter 3 he reports: “I came to the exiles at Tel-abib …. and I sat where they were dwelling. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days” (Ezekiel 3: 15).

Ezekiel obeyed God by reaching out to his fellow exiles as God had commanded him. But once he got there the text says that he “sat there overwhelmed” among them. Some translations say he was deeply distressed or distraught. It was all too much for Ezekiel. But you know what he didn’t do? He didn’t pretend away his sense of being overwhelmed or feeling inadequate. He didn’t attempt a “fake it till you make it” act.

Friend, I don’t want to sound prescriptive about what we should or shouldn’t do. But maybe we can take a pointer from Zeke and allow ourselves the space to sit overwhelmed. Maybe that can give us the opportunity to acknowledge our helplessness before God.

And the beautiful thing is that God doesn’t just leave us sitting there, stranded forever.

Later in chapter three, we see God summoning Ezekiel after seven days and telling him to go out into the valley. And Ezekiel says: “So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there… and I fell on my face.” (Ezekiel 3: 23)

From being overwhelmed by his situation, Ezekiel falls face down before God, overwhelmed by His glory. Friends, may we embrace our overwhelm, not so we remain in it, but so it moves us toward reverence of God.

Instead of rushing from one activity to another, may we stop to acknowledge that yes, it is all too much — but it is not too much for God. Instead of being pressed down by the weight of it all, may we fall facedown before the God who carries it all. Let’s not attempt to run away from that sense of being overwhelmed. Instead, may we embrace it and run into the arms of God.

 

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