Overloaded Circuits
A few years back, I recall dropping our kids off during the first week of school and then taking a walk with Sarah around the neighborhood. Like this year, the start date of public schools and Holy Spirit’s school fell within a couple of days of each other and as we walked past a couple of moms chatting in a front yard, we overheard them rejoicing about their children returning to school. It appears that the relief of the end of summer can mirror the end of the school year.
This year, the start of school has arrived without the lightness celebrated by those moms of years past. If you talk to any parents, the beginning of school this year comes with even more trepidation than last year when we all figured out the limitations of virtual remote learning. Unlike last year, children are now in the “at risk” category for this virus and pediatric ICU’s are filling up.
This personal experience in our community pared with the news out of Afghanistan, Haiti, fires in the west, and the ongoing political upheaval and division on our own soil, brings us a sense of times that are ongoingly heavy. So, when I came across an insightful note recently by the Lutheran pastor, author, speaker, etc., Nadia Bolz-Weber, I thought it was worth sharing:
“I think of a fuse box often these days, because friends, I just do not think our psyches were developed to hold, feel and respond to everything coming at them right now; every tragedy, injustice, sorrow and natural disaster happening to every human across the entire planet, in real time every minute of every day. The human heart and spirit were developed to be able to hold, feel and respond to any tragedy, injustice, sorrow or natural disaster that was happening IN OUR VILLAGE. So my emotional circuit breaker keeps overloading because the hardware was built for an older time.”
I recently heard a podcast in which a professor of neuroscience spoke about the immense impact the pandemic is having on our cognitive and emotional capacity. The unknown future, the ever-changing present, the inability to know what to expect or hope for next are all unmooring. When we include all of the things we see happening in the world and, for so many of us, the challenges of our own lives, it can be so very much to handle.
And so, as I usually try to do, I turn our attention back to our faith. One thing that is so often spoken yet has no grounding in the church and doesn’t represent anything in the Bible is the phrase “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” The verse this is based on in I Corinthians actually speaks of God’s relief in the midst of challenges. So, we turn our attention to what we know instead: that God knows life is hard and desires to give us rest for our souls. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden in light.” (Matthew 11:29-30).
Friends, we certainly pray for deliverance from the current challenges, particularly for those most closely in the midst of them. In our prayers, I hope we will hear the goodness of God who desires to give us rest for our souls so that we may proceed in the assurance of a love that will never allow us to be overcome. Out of that love, in the immediacy of our lives, may we hope to help any who are placed into our care.
We love you and God loves you.
Josh Condon+