Too Much?

When I was first definitively diagnosed with MS twenty-six years ago it was a confirmation of what had been suspected ten years earlier by the second neurologist I saw because of my recurring symptoms. I was just 42 with still plenty of parenting left to do for our three daughters. I was involved in a busy ministry and trying to meet lots of needs. I had to wonder if God was giving me more than I could handle.

Recently I have been involved with some friends who are wondering the same thing about their lives. Though we live in a first-world country and are not refugees from a horrible war, we sometimes find ourselves overwhelmed.

In my book, Mind Change, there is a “power thought” I wrote to myself twenty five years ago to help me get my spiritual balance when in the early days of facing an uncertain future. It says:

“God has not given

you too much.

“If there is something you have to

face, you can face it.

If there is something you must

overcome, you can overcome it.

“To paraphrase C.S. Lewis:

”When something must be done, there is no use talking

about whether or not it can be done.”

                There are going to be times when it may seem we have been given an unfair and unmanageable load. But I am thankful for so many people through the years who have shown me that “God has not given too much,” and that living a full life of love is something we can still happily do, even with heavy burdens.  These heroes were not super saints, but just ordinary people who trusted God one day at a time. That is something we all can do if we will not lock into the idea that we have been given too much.