Life is busy.
Life is really, really busy.
And if you're anything like me, you often find yourself wondering how you'll ever have enough time, enough sleep, enough energy, enough money, enough [fill in the blank].
But if you're not careful, you'll blink and all the time you didn't have will be gone. You find yourself feeling like you have no time at all and all the time in the world, caught in a limbo of sorts between stressed out of your mind and carefree.
So how do you do it? How do you be a good friend and love your neighbors, meet expectations at work, take care of and enjoy time with your family, and still have time to take care of yourself?
Often, simply living life can feel like an intense balancing act in which nothing is actually balanced and everything is an illusion. It also doesn't help when you look at friends or family and see the Instagram version of their life, in which all of their plates are spinning, they're getting enough sleep, and nothing seems to be wrong.
Here's the good news: no one has an easy time keeping all of their plates spinning.
Here's the bad news: it doesn't get easier.
I think the trick is to learn to recognize which plates can spin longer unattended and which plates need constant attention. Unfortunately, the other part of this trick is learning which plates to let drop.
I'd also like to argue that we can't identify which plates we need to keep spinning on our own, and when we try to, it only adds to our stress.
That's God's job.
Let him direct your plate spinning.
When we listen, and if we ask, God has a tendency to tell us what to do both in the big things (such as changing jobs, choosing a college, or getting married . . .) and in the small things (What should I do with this hour? Who should I eat lunch with? Should I go on a walk?).
When we follow his instructions and tend to the plates he's telling us to tend to, not only will our stress decrease but we'll be more equipped to deal with it all.
Perhaps the world won't end if you take an hour to be with a friend instead of finishing that paper right this second. Perhaps God has blessings to show you if you go on a walk with him in the aftermath of a rainstorm.
Maybe the blessings that come from focusing on individual plates far outweigh the importance of keeping every plate spinning.
My prayer for us all this week is that as we run through life we'll take time to make sure we're doing what God has for us to do, even in the small things of life.
Best of luck to you as you spin your plates.
J. J. Hanna is a writer and reader who loves God and wants to help encourage others with what she knows and what she's learning. Answer her questions with a quick note and connect with her on social media. She's excited to hear from you!
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