When Your To-Do List is Eating You Alive

By Linda Grabeman

 

Your schedule has gone staccato. You know what I mean:

Meals.

Wash.

Errands.

Phone Calls.

Repeat.

Some nights your list replays in your head and you can’t sleep. 

 

 

That’s where I was very early this morning.

I got up and went out on my screened porch. My sacred place. My sanctuary.

In the dark, I listened to the frogs. I sense God in those hours before dawn.

His omnipotence overwhelms and steadies me in those hours before the world awakes.

Maybe Jesus felt the same way when His schedule got hectic:

“While it was still night, way before dawn, he got up and went to a secluded spot and prayed.

Simon and those with him went looking for him. They found him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you.”

Mark 1:35-37 (The Message) 

Can you believe it?

The One in perfect communion with God still felt the need to get away.

To be refilled.

You see, Jesus had the order right: He worked out of His rest.

We work until we drop and then we rest.

There’s a huge difference.

The problem is this:

We’ll be tyrannized by our to-do lists until we give God FIRST DIBS on re-ordering them.

God understands the burden of lists.

How they swirl in our heads.

Faster and faster.

Screaming at us about the things we need to do.

Or even worse, about the things we should have done.

Jesus whispers, “Come sit with Me. It’s OK, child. Your lists mean nothing to Me. Your value is not based on your performance. I just love you. No matter what. My love can’t be earned, only received. Let me remind you whose you are. I paid a dear price for you. Let My perfect acceptance fill you wherever you are empty.

Stillness is the only requirement. ” 

Jesus took time regularly to get away with His Father.

He didn’t work from an empty tank like we do at times.

And in John 17 He said that He had done everything His Father asked Him to do while He was on this earth. Because His Father ordered His days.

Not the crowds. Not the Pharisees. Only His Father.

When God told Him to go, He went. When He told Him to leave, He left.

His Father’s will had first dibs on His life and His time.

He worked according to the Grand Design.

The Design He heard from His Father.

If the Son of God needed regular refreshment from His Father, how much more do we?

We get caught up in the relentless running of this world.

It takes deliberate steps to walk away.

Could you use some deliberate downtime with the Lover of your soul? 

Not a Bible study or even memorizing verses.

Just stillness with the Lord.

To hear His voice. His agenda for you. 

To give Him first dibs on your agenda and your life.

One day at a time.

Love,

Linda

Check out Chloe and Linda Grabeman’s book Real and True: Hope for the Restless Heart at www.realandtruehope.com