Too much of a good thing: Too busy not to pray

These past few months have been...full. A quick recap since I haven't written lately:

*YS Youth ministry conference
*My first Jury duty
*Helped with music at the women's retreat
*Two plays and a choir concert to see the some of the youth
*30 hour famine with the youth group in Dallas ( raised money and fasted for over 30 hours in awareness of world hunger)
*Formal Dinner and dance put on by the youth group for the adults in our church
*Re-painted our guest bathroom and our dining room
*Went to San Antonio for a weekend with my husband's family

These are just few...I know all of our schedules probably look similar, and it's not about seeing who can do more or get the least amount of sleep. It's about being able to find or make time to slow down and listen for what God has to teach us in that moment. I remember going to Germany when I was younger and going from beautiful church to beautiful church. The first church was breath-taking, and I remember just being in awe as I took in the paintings, crown molding, vivid stained glass windows. We must have gone to at least ten different churches in a matter of days, and I have to be honest and say that after a few, it was just really hard to take in the beauty of each one because we were just moving so fast and trying to cover so much ground in such little time.

What I have been thinking a lot about for the last months in various ways is how it becomes even more important when we are the most busy to stop, and give each moment to God that his will be done not our own. It is too easy to try to control everything ourselves, fit everything in, and make things perfect. It's such a simple concept, one that I think we all know somewhere in the back of our hearts and minds, but when it comes down to it and we are in the midst of our day, actually doing it slips out the window as we are driving to the next place.

We had a few good friends stop by on their drive across the country. I tried sooo hard to make everything perfect, have the right food, and make sure they felt at home. Everything did seem to go really well...until they accidentally backed up into the car that was parked directly behind our driveway on the other side of the street just as they were leaving. I kept thinking why that person chose to park there, how I could have stopped it, and a handuful of 'what-ifs". What I think was hardest for me was that there was no way to control that. There is so much that is out of our hands no matter how much we 'do'. There is so much i 'did' that weekend to try and control. What I didn't do is stop before the weekend ever started, and give it over to God and ask that HIS will be done. I was so consumed by vacuuming and buying all of the gluten-free food I could lay my hands on that I failed to do the very most important thing of all. Give up my will, and submit to HIS.

It is in these times of craziness and hectic schedules that I am brutally reminded that I am too busy not to pray, and that I need to be more like Joshua, stopping in the heat of battle to worship the only true source of power, strength, and everything else I need to make it through and glorify God in the process. The well within me dries up all too quickly if I only draw from my own resources. In the book I'm reading, What happens when Women pray, I think Evelyn puts it simply when she says, "We work, we pull, we struggle, and we plan until we're utterly exhausted, but we have forgotten to plug it to the source of power. And that source of power is prayer-the "effectual, fervant prayer" of a righteous person that avails much." (James5:16)