How Do You Remain Afloat in a Crisis?
It isn’t difficult to become overwhelmed.
By Steve Greene
Imagine the crowd of 5,000 who gathered to hear Jesus speak.
The disciple, Andrew, told Jesus, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
Jesus was frequently underwhelmed by the faith shown by His disciples. The disciples were frequently overwhelmed by the vision of the Lord, particularly in the sea.
I suppose there is not a neutral state to whelmed. The word means to be engulfed or submerged—as in overwhelmed. Whelmed is an archaic use of the word and serves little purpose in our vocabulary.
The truth is that becoming overwhelmed doesn’t change much either. The crowd must be fed. Work must be completed. There are feet to wash.
Perhaps becoming overwhelmed is selfish. It seems that Jesus wanted His disciples to be focused on the needs of others, rather than fretting their own need to fetch more food. We never seem to have enough, yet God always provides.
My friend, Rebecca, who has been our office manager at Charisma Media for over 25 years, created a great object lesson for the overwhelmed.
She wore arm floaties to work one day.
Folklore has it that she wore the floaties all day. In her brilliant teaching manner, she made it clear that flotation devices aren’t much help for the overwhelmed. So just don’t be overwhelmed. I think that’s the lesson here.
The Holy Spirit keeps us afloat. Jesus is our Prince of Peace. The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
When the job is too big, budgets are too large, and people are too whelmed, do what the disciples did.
Do all that you can do and trust the Lord to calm the chaos.
(Source: Charisma Media)
