What to do when you’re overwhelmed
Is anyone else overwhelmed? The world feels like it’s falling apart. Covid, race riots and unrest, talk of defunding the police, an autonomous zone in Seattle, random, senseless violence all over the place… What’s next?
There’s a whole different feel to life right now than a few short months ago. How do we cope with that? How do we address all the problems, figure out what to do?
I found encouragement recently in the book of Nehemiah. The Jewish people had been conquered by the Babylonians many years prior. They had burned the city of Jerusalem and broken down the walls that surrounded it. Most of the people had been either killed or taken captive to Babylon.
Years later, the Persian empire conquered the Babylonians. Nehemiah was a Jewish man who found himself in Susa, a resort town in Persia, working as cup bearer to the king of Persia. The Persians had allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, but there weren’t very many of them.
When one of Nehemiah’s brothers came from Jerusalem to Susa to visit, Nehemiah asked him how everything was going. He told him, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.” (Nehemiah 1:3)
It was a mess. The wall around a city was its defense and protection against enemies. It was a really big deal to have the wall broken down.
This shows just a small section of the modern wall around Jerusalem, but as you can see, it’s a BIG WALL! There are different gates on each side of the wall to allow for coming and going.
The Jews were faced with an enormous mess. Sounds kind of like our country right now.
Fast forward in the story: Nehemiah’s heart was broken to hear about his beloved people and city. He prayed to God and asked the King of Persia if he could leave Persia and help rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. The king allowed him go and take some others with him to rebuild the wall.
The thing that struck me as I read how he went about rebuilding the wall and the gates, even in the midst of persecution and trials, was that he didn’t do it all himself. It wasn’t even just him and the friends he brought with him. It was a huge, overwhelming task, so they divided up the labor.
A few priests teamed up and worked on rebuilding one of the gates. (Nehemiah 3:1) Next to that gate, another group from Jericho rebuilt a section of wall. A group of brothers rebuilt a different gate. (Nehemiah 3:3) If you look through chapter 3, there are all different groups of people joining together to rebuild their piece of wall or their gate. Some were groups of priests, some were family members, others were people from a specific city, goldsmiths, perfume makers, rulers - people from all walks of life who each took a section to work on.
When I look at our world and the mess that it’s become, it’s easy to look at the big picture and become completely overwhelmed and hopeless. How in the world can our country ever be united again? How can we heal our cities and find solutions that make sense and bring peace?
First of all, Jesus is the answer to those questions. But how do we bring Jesus to all these messes? One part of the wall at a time. I can’t fix a city hundreds of miles from where I live, but I can share my faith in the one closest to me. I can be part of the solution in whatever way God has gifted me in the vicinity of where He’s put me.
In Nehemiah’s time, God used all of those different people from different vocations and different positions in society. The work wasn’t beneath them - priests and rulers worked as carpenters and stone smiths! They were apparently willing to put aside their preferred occupations and prioritize getting their city taken care of.
Another interesting thing to note: many of them made repairs in the area surrounding their own homes. Makes sense - it’s hard to be effective elsewhere and be a service to anyone else if our own homes are crumbling.
Nehemiah understood that when we’re faced with a huge, overwhelming task, we need to break it down into smaller, manageable chunks that people feel ownership over. Fix this wall in front of your house. Just do that first and don’t get sidetracked with the rest of the wall. God will raise up other people to work on the other sections of the wall.
What is your part of the “wall”? How is your own home? Do you need to spend time with your kids to help them feel safe and understand the country’s situation better? Do you need to study God’s Word with them and remind them of His love and ability to care for them and protect them?
How about your neighbors? Is there a tangible way you can help them or support them? What about your community? You could make goodies for your local police officers and first responders. They have it so hard right now and need our encouragement and prayer. Can you help out in a ministry in a city near you? How can you plug into what your church is doing in reaching out to others?
Ask God to give you a job to help rebuild your part of the wall. I think you’ll find that by doing something, you’ll feel less overwhelmed. You also might inspire someone next to you to get to work, also. Little by little, we can make a big difference.
What do you think your part of “the wall” is today? How will you help become part of the solution of bringing Jesus to others?