What to Do When Everything Feels Overwhelming at Once
Some years pile everything on at once. Aaron and Jennifer Smith called 2024 "whiplash." In this episode, discover what Psalm 55:22 says to the person who is overwhelmed and running out of their own resources.
Some years pile everything on at once. Aaron and Jennifer Smith called 2024 "whiplash." In this episode, discover what Psalm 55:22 says to the person who is overwhelmed and running out of their own resources.
Aaron and Jennifer Smith went into 2024 as Christian podcasters and parents of 5 with more momentum than they'd had in years. By December 2023 Aaron's father was sick. Then his brother died.
The grief bled into January and kept going. Their home church was struggling. Financial investments didn't go as planned. Jennifer found out she was pregnant with their sixth child and needed an emergency C-section midway through. The baby arrived healthy on September 14, but Jennifer spent the months that followed navigating postpartum anxiety and depression.
Aaron called 2024 "whiplash."
Most of us know something of that experience, when the pressure doesn't come from one direction. It stacks up from every angle at once and none of it is small enough to ignore and none of it is fully in your control. And feeling like you should be handling it better doesn't help. Nobody handles that gracefully. You just get through it.
I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed by things piling up. There have been stretches in my own life when the pressure wasn't coming from one direction and I couldn't push through on my own.
Psalm 55:22 is where David puts his answer. Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. The word translated burdens there means your lot, your portion, the weight God has assigned to your life. David is saying give Him the weight and trust that He will sustain you under it. That's a different promise than relief. God is offering something that lasts longer: His presence in what you can't manage alone.
Jennifer said, looking back on the year, that when you hit the wall of your own capacity, let it be a cue to pray. She was describing the experience of running completely out of your own resources and discovering that God's hadn't run out. Aaron said they came out the other side with one clear conclusion: they couldn't do any of it without Jesus. They stopped pretending they could.
Through their story and Psalm 55:22, this episode makes the case that overwhelm is a cue, not a verdict. The weight is there. The God who can hold it is also there.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
- Why the pressure that comes from every direction at once is different from a single loss, and why that difference matters
- What the Hebrew word for "burdens" in Psalm 55:22 reveals about what God is actually promising when He says He'll take care of you
- One concrete practice you can start today to hand the weight to God before it buries you
When you hit the wall of your own capacity, God's hasn't run out.
Share This Episode:
https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/246
Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:
https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail
Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.
https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/
Rate and Review
https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/
Connect with Bart
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives
Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com
Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here.
Mentioned in this episode:
Join Our Private Facebook Community
If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group
Speak:
Aaron and Jennifer Smith are Christian podcasters who've
Speak:
been married for 18 years and have six kids, and they went
Speak:
into 2024 with more momentum than they'd had in years. They'd
Speak:
had plans and real momentum, and Aaron described it as feeling
Speak:
like things were finally moving in the right direction. Then, in
Speak:
December of 2023, his father got sick, and then his brother died.
Speak:
That grief bled into January and then into spring and then
Speak:
further. Their home church was struggling at the same time,
Speak:
which added another layer of pressure. Financial investments
Speak:
they had made didn't go the way they had planned, and then
Speak:
Jennifer found out she was pregnant with their sixth child
Speak:
and discovered midway through the pregnancy that she needed an
Speak:
emergency C-section, the first in six births. The baby came on
Speak:
September 14th, and she was healthy, but Jennifer spent the
Speak:
following months navigating postpartum anxiety and
Speak:
depression on top of everything else. Aaron described 2024
Speak:
whiplash. We'll come back to what they said about finding
Speak:
their way through it, but first,
Speak:
welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Léger. I
Speak:
know what it feels like to feel overwhelmed by things piling up.
Speak:
There have been stretches in my life when the pressure wasn't
Speak:
coming from just one direction, when it was stacking up from
Speak:
multiple places at once, and none of it was something I could
Speak:
push through on my own. Most of us know that feeling. This kind
Speak:
of overwhelm is different from a single loss you can focus on.
Speak:
Give your full attention and simply work through it. What
Speak:
Aaron and Jennifer experienced was something that comes at you
Speak:
from every angle at once. The grief and the financial pressure,
Speak:
the medical complication, all at the same time, and none of it
Speak:
small enough to ignore, and none of it fully in your control.
Speak:
That kind of overwhelm has a way of making you feel like you
Speak:
should be managing it better than you are, like there's a
Speak:
version of you that would be handling it more gracefully, but
Speak:
there isn't. No one handles this kind of pressure gracefully. You
Speak:
get through it. Here's what Psalm 55.22 says, Give your
Speak:
burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not
Speak:
permit the godly to slip and fall. King David is saying, Give
Speak:
God the weight and trust that He'll sustain you under it.
Speak:
That's a different promise than the one most of us are looking
Speak:
for when we're overwhelmed. relief. God is offering
Speak:
something that lasts longer. His presence in the middle of what
Speak:
we can't manage on our own. The practical word here is give.
Speak:
Give the burdens to Him. That means prayer, and it means
Speak:
prayer that names what you're dealing with, the job and the
Speak:
marriage, the money and the parent who's declining. Name
Speak:
them and hand them over. You may have to do it more than once.
Speak:
You may have to do it this morning and pick them up back by
Speak:
this afternoon, and that's all right. You bring them back. He
Speak:
can take them all over again. What Jennifer described from the
Speak:
other side of 2024 is what that practice produces over time. An
Speak:
awareness that when you hit the wall of your own capacity, God's
Speak:
hasn't run out. The ceiling you hit is the floor of something
Speak:
else. Now, let's get back to Aaron and Jennifer. Looking on
Speak:
the year at the end of it, Jennifer said something that has
Speak:
stayed with the people who heard it. She said,
Speak:
She was talking about the experience of running completely
Speak:
out of your own resources and discovering that God's hasn't
Speak:
run out, that the ceiling you hit was the floor of something
Speak:
else. Aaron said they came out the other side of the year with
Speak:
one conclusion. They couldn't do any of it without Jesus, and
Speak:
they stopped pretending they could. Psalm 55, 22 says, Give
Speak:
your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. That's
Speak:
what Aaron and Jennifer found out, the slow, exhausting way
Speak:
that God meant it. The pressure you're under right now is known
Speak:
to God. He sees all of it, and He's not waiting for you to
Speak:
manage it better before He shows up. He shows up in the giving in
Speak:
the moment you stop white-knuckling it and say, I
Speak:
can't carry this. God, please take it from me. Here's today's
Speak:
challenge. Take 10 minutes a day and write down everything that's
Speak:
pressing in on you. Give Him the full list, nothing left out.
Speak:
Then, pray through that list and hand each to God. You don't need
Speak:
to do it perfectly. You just need to do it, and tell Him you
Speak:
can't carry it alone. That's where Aaron and Jennifer ended
Speak:
up, and that's where the weight starts to move off your
Speak:
shoulders. Lord, you see the full list of what your people
Speak:
are carrying today. You know the ones who are overwhelmed and
Speak:
running low. Give them the grace to hand it to you and sustain
Speak:
them under the weight they can't lay down yet. Let them find that
Speak:
your resources haven't run out even when theirs has. In Jesus'
Speak:
name, amen. This podcast is listener-supported. If Daily
Speak:
Devotions for Busy Lives has been an encouragement to you,
Speak:
would you consider giving a one-time gift or, better yet,
Speak:
becoming a monthly supporter? You can give at
Speak:
dailydevotionsforbusylives.com slash support. Thank you in
Speak:
advance. And thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy
Speak:
Lives. Remember, when you hit the wall of your own capacity,
Speak:
God's hasn't run out. Give Him the weight. Come back next time
Speak:
for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.
Speak:
Until then, God bless and have a great day.
