The Ups and Downs of Taking Inventory

The feeling is one of sensory overload. Too many thoughts, too much to be done, too many needs.

But the problem is more than sensory overload. It is actually an awareness of inability to answer the thoughts, do the deeds, provide for the needs.

I cannot do it all. I never have been able to. I have often tried, and in trying I accomplish a great deal. It is not wrong to accomplish good deeds, to press forward into unknown ventures, to stretch one's abilities, to give time and find that it is somehow multiplied - because He does visit with grace those who are simply available. He will enlarge our capacity to accomplish so that we can actually do more and more. He provides finances and time and talent that were not there to begin with. This is all true. I have seen it. I have experienced it.

But there is that season of taking inventory: looking, acknowledging failure and wanting to make it right, re-evaluating, taking account of days and weeks spent in countless ways. When that is done I find the dreams begin again, the vision comes, the longing to do and do and do. That's when I need to find Him, His heart, His wisdom.

Yes, He will call me to do more than I think is imaginable; there is work to be done. Plain ol' work. But He will also give forgiveness for failure, restoration for lost time, newness of heart to try again. He will lead me in what to do and what not to do.

And that is what I need to remember today. Knowledge of His good and great faithfulness will crush that sensory overload and the discouragement that comes with it.

A new day, a fresh outlook, a different season. They are all His, and mine as well.