Overwhelmed
Written by Caleb Hixon, published February 2021
Chances are, you are feeling overwhelmed. It’s week 3 of the semester and if I know TCU—the stress has arrived. Deadlines, due dates, tests, & papers. Friends, family, orgs, & church. Not to mention your own personal relationship with Jesus.
The reality is that we’re not on Christmas break anymore. And with that, I have a feeling that you are feeling overwhelmed. Stressed. Maybe even anxious. And let me be the first to acknowledge that those feelings are real. It’s not as though your feelings are somehow wrong, I believe that you are feeling overwhelmed. The question becomes why? And what do we do with that?
What do we do when we are overwhelmed? Well, conventional wisdom says to find the things in your life that are non-essential and let them go. So, you look at your schedule, you look at your calendar, you look at your commitments, and try your best to find out what can be taken off your plate. Classes can’t go. Heaven knows greek life can’t go. Your job/internship can’t go — how would you pay your bills/eat?
So what’s left? Church.
Sure, your personal relationship with God is a non-negotiable. But, ministry is optional, right?
At this point, I would like to fully acknowledge my bias. It’s obvious. However, I think, bias or not, it’s warranted. I work for a church. I run a ministry. I am arguing from the standpoint of something that I believe deeply in. So much so that I have given my life for it. For you.
Something that I try and repeat often because I truly believe is that you are not tools to get ministry done — you are the ministry. We’re in the process of coming up with a new name for our leadership team because really what it is, and what we’ve created it to be, is a discipleship program. We don’t want leadership from you, we want leadership to be for you. We want you to be cared for. Poured in to. To know and be known. We want our leadership team & ministry to be something that is life-giving for you, not life-taking. If your involvement in leadership or in our ministry is ever anything other than the above, please tell me.
But what often happens is when you look at your schedule this team and/or ministry becomes the only thing that you can conceivably let go of to free up time. Even if you don’t want to, even if it’s something you enjoy, and letting go of it feels somewhat painful, it’s the only option. So you treat it like a bandaid. Just rip it off. It may hurt but at least it will be over if you just pull it off.
I’d like to offer an alternative — don’t do that.
If I may, I believe one way you can define the word “ministry” is our life's response to what Jesus has done in our hearts. It’s our way of living out our faith. Ministry is not a program or a club. It’s our life. If you look at ministry as an activity you engage in, certainly, it will be easy to see it as something that can be relegated. But if you view ministry as a way of life… as your response to the gospel… then the church becomes a place where we get to disciple you and teach you how to do that well.
Before you get to the point where you are so overwhelmed that you can’t see another way out — come to us. Talk to me. Talk to Olivia. To one of our coaches. To anyone. Let us carry your burdens (Gal 6:2). Let us pray for you (Phil 4:6). Perhaps we can help you find a way to take a break or simply help you create healthy rhythms.
“But Caleb, I need rest.”
This is an objection I hear often. And it’s true. You do! You need rest! However, rest is not found in anything but Jesus.
Matthew 11:28–29
[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
The point here being is that ministry is not somehow separated from Jesus. It can be. Don’t get me wrong. We can do ministry apart from Jesus. But Jesus says to take his yoke upon you, and you will find rest for your souls. This language is a little confusing to us because we’re not farmers. But a yoke is something you put on a cow or donkey to plow the ground. It’s an instrument of work. And Jesus says that this is easy!
Matthew 11:30
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean that ministry is supposed to be easy, but that when we are coming to Jesus… when we are receiving his grace… when we are finding our rest in him… when ministry is light and joyful. Because we are with him.
May I be candid for a moment? If you are feeling overwhelmed, it is not because of ministry.
There may be a chance that it is the way you are approaching or treating ministry. But if ministry is a response to the gospel as I asserted above, then we know based on what Jesus tells us that our feeling of overwhelmedness is certainly not because of ministry.
What you need is Jesus.
So what does coming to Jesus look like?
Dane Ortlund in his beautiful book Gentle & Lowly says,
“Verse 28 of our passage in Matthew 11 tells us explicitly who qualifies for fellowship with Jesus: ‘all who labor and are heavy laden.’ You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required; he says, ‘I will give you rest.’ His rest is a gift, not a transaction.”
You need not fix yourself up to come to Jesus. But rather simply stopping. Closing your eyes. Or keep them open. Your call. And begin to speak to Jesus in your heart. Tell him of your burdens. Tell him what has gotten you heavy laden. Confess it to him.
Don’t hurry it. Don’t rush it. Chances are, hurry and rush have been ingredients in your present state. Let your body breathe. Listen to the air coming in and out of your lungs. And then listen for the Spirits comfort. For His prompting. Jesus promises to those who come to him. To the penitent. To those who cry to Jesus for help. “[His] heart of gentle embrace is never outmatched by our sins and foibles and insecurities and doubts and anxieties and failures.”
This doesn’t have to be a long-drawn-out process. But for a few moments, sit with Jesus. Receive his grace. All you have to do is come. Where we get in trouble is by staying at arm’s length distance. Thinking we can handle it. Thinking that we don’t need to bother Jesus with our burdens. We’re big boys/girls. We got this.
News flash. We don’t got this.
Again, listen to what Dane Ortlund says/ “What helium does to a balloon, Jesus’s yoke does to his followers. We are buoyed along in life by his endless gentleness and supremely accessible lowliness. He doesn’t simply meet us at our place of need; he lives in our place of need. He never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace. It is his very heart. It is what gets him out of bed in the morning.”
We must come to Jesus if we are to truly find rest. And that’s exactly what we want to help you do! Don’t retreat. But come to the men and women that God has put in your life to care for you. The answer very well may be to take a step back and not “do” so much, but let us come to that decision together.
I care more about you as a person than what you can do for us. Give me the chance to prove that to you.
— Caleb