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LaunchPad: Day 23 · Equipped: A Podcast Platform for the Equip Ministry of Cuyahoga Valley Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do when you're completely overwhelmed?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: When there are piles of laundry stacked up three deep, or when you're just one paragraph into a six-page paper that is due much sooner than you would prefer.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of ways that people can respond to situations like that.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Fight, flight, or freeze.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: For me personally, my response to being overwhelmed is to freeze.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: To shut down, to check out, or decide that the best use of my time is taking a nap.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: As humans, we are often faced with things that overwhelm us.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's something mundane, like a pile of laundry, and other times it's something major, like a project at work or an important task for school.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: There are also times when the things that we are facing is spiritual battles, the energy to do our daily devotionals, to read the Bible, to forgive someone you know that God has called you to forgive.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: These situations aren't unique to our modern culture, and the tension we so often feel about the daunting work in front of us is the same as the Israelites felt in Nehemiah's day, toiling and toiling to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Make no mistake, this was hard, hard work.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Clearing endless piles of rubble and stone, a task so big that no matter how long you had been working, you look back and feel like you've made no progress at all.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Overwhelming, discouraging, nap inducing work.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Nehemiah records.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: There is too much rubble.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild this wall in Nehemiah 410.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah records more of this hopelessness in the next verse.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And our enemies said, They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: The situation in Jerusalem was dire.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: They needed to rebuild the walls in order to protect the city.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is a good thing, but the process is slow going, and as long as the walls remain incomplete, their enemies can simply walk into Jerusalem, kill them, and stop their work.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: If ever there was a time for haste, this would be it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, the people of Israel grew weary while under the looming threat of attack and death at the hands of their enemies.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that this is the trick of it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem was supposed to be a bigger task than Israel alone could do.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of being something Israel could accomplish or boast in, they were left with a task so big that the only response was dependence on a God, and a need for his strength and his guidance to keep doing the good thing.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of fight, flight, or freeze, Israel is instead called to respond with God dependence, faith, and perseverance.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes into a very similar but also very different circumstance.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: He has just commanded the church in Galatia to restore those in sin with gentleness, to bear one another's burdens.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: These tasks may not seem like a collapsed city wall, but they are no less difficult for me to muster.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Commands that are, if we're being really honest, both daunting and overwhelming.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul doesn't leave the church without guidance.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he offers them a challenge, and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 6 9.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let us not grow weary of doing good.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the core of the issue in my heart, that I know many of the things in front of me are good, just like Israel knows that building the wall is good, like the Galatians know that restoring the sinful gently is good.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Things that, while challenging in the moment are good for us and align us with God's heart and will.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So what do we do with a pile that is overwhelming?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Paul does not tell us to grit our teeth and get through it.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: His promise rests on the words in due season, which means the promised harvest comes on God's timeline and not our own.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that we contribute is simply the faith and the perseverance.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: For someone like me, whose instinct is to freeze, that is good news.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Freezing is often just weariness, hiding as rest.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: But God invites us to bring that weariness to Him instead of hiding from it.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some questions for you to consider today.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: What pile in front of you feels too big right now?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what would it look like to bring your weariness to God before reaching for fight, flight, or freeze?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a moment today, pray for strength when the rubble feels endless and our hands grow tired.