Thinking out loud.

Ever have a day when you are just so overwhelmed the only thing you can do is nothing? Or laundry? Or clean your kitchen again for the thousandth time? Mindless tasks seem to take over my life when I am overwhelmed, and they are not helpful. So, I have decided, no more. I'm striking back at the mindless activities that do nothing to help my overwhelmed-ness (no, that's not a word) and I am going to THINK about why I am overwhelmed.

I think another word for overwhelmed in this scenario is stressed. I feel stressed. Whenever I tell people I am stressed I get something like, "Oh it's just a season," or, "This too shall pass," or, "That's life."

Quick tip, people: cliché are not helpful, they are mean. Don't offer a cliché to a hurting person. Ever. Just don't. 

You're welcome.

I have the best job ever (Area Director for Young Life in Auburn), but it is also the hardest job ever, and I really could use about 1782824 more hands right now to help. If you're one of the very MANY people who are helping me already, know you are appreciated and so valued. Seriously. Look at this board. Everything in pink signifies a person who is filling a role for our big event in March. Isn't that insane? And that's just one event. 

There are more than 150 people who will make Young Life Live a success.

The Lord has given me a big vision for Auburn Young Life, and while I know it's His vision, so he will take care of it and bring all that we need, the bigness of it just knocks the breath out of me sometimes. And then the Lord stretches out his oh-so-strong right hand, picks me up off the ground, looks me in the face and says, "Eyes on me." No clichés. Just love.

Oh -- and then {as in right now} he sends down my committee chair, who walks in with chocolate and my favorite coffee and gives me a hug. That helps too. 

Young Life Live will be wonderful and then it will pass. Then, I will be looking in the face of this thing we do called Young Life Camp (and a golf tournament, and an auction, and....) in which we take all sorts of kids, including many who cannot afford school lunch, to a Young Life resort that can cost upward of $750 big one's. HUNDREDS of kids from Auburn will go to camp. Sounds insane, doesn't it? It is. It's incredibly and beautifully insane that we take kids to places like Young Life's Malibu Club, Creekside and Canyon who have never stepped foot on a resort; who have never laughed for days on end; who have never eaten a meal around a table with people who love them; who have never really discussed their life with anyone (other than 180 characters at a time on Twitter); who have never been told they are loved, cherished and adored by the Savior of the universe. These kids have never experienced something that was so tailored and made just for them -- so incredible of an experience that they exclaim at the end of their time, "That was the best week of my life!" Over and over again. And they mean it.

I love my job. 

Young Life's Malibu Club

I just needed a good laugh. Look at this hilarity.

Forget the "job." Now let's talk about coming home, making dinner, doing the dishes, changing poopy diapers, soothing temper tantrums, editing college essays, laughing until it hurts and crying in exhaustion. I cry, "TOO MUCH, CAN'T DO IT" and Joey just points me to Jesus. And then helps with the dishes, which helps. Oh, and he's the one making me laugh until I cry, which really helps as well. He's sort of the best.

And then there's Gavin giggles.

And chocolate.

And moments like this to my right.

And the fact that for a whole day, my job was to jump on a mini trampoline in a mullet with velcro shoes. Oh, and I got to witness kids meeting Jesus. {YL staff and being a YL leader is seriously the best}

In the end, my only real conclusion is that I choose overwhelmed. I choose to live this life.  I choose to run after the craziness that the Lord has set before me. I choose the impossible. I choose the "this-makes-no-sense" life. I choose it, because every day, every week and every year, being involved with this mission reminds me that Jesus is so ever present, and so ever real. And, the fact that I am overwhelmed is just ridiculous, because none of this is in my hands anyway.

And now, I think I am ready to get back to work.

And just because he's cute.