Too Much to Handle?

Pss.118: 17 “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

Too much to handle?

What God has done for me…

I’ve never really been a fan of the fictional Super Heroes of the comic world or of the TV/movie world; it’s just not my thing. I’ve always admired the real heroes of the world that took great steps in saving/rescuing/training or changing the people of the world that walks around with blinders on bumping into wall after wall.

The real heroes are the ones with an uncanny strength that endures the prickliest of situations. They walk amid the cactus without getting pricked, they see the rose not the thorn, they hear the Word, not the world; those are the real heroes.

I never saw myself as one of those heroes, that is until…this Lenten season lent me clarity of something and now I see differently. I look around at people who say they are going to diet or give something up and fail in epic proportions after just a month of forgoing the very reason they started the diet in the first place. Their strength is weakened by temptation.

I watch as addictions pull tighter and tighter on the purse strings. I had to watch first hand as my husband wrestled with giving up sugar, Pepsi, and other addictions only to be pulled right back in within two months. I’m not the type of woman who lays demands at my husband’s feet and says change this or else, I don’t judge others for trying something and failing, all I can do is give them a sight of what successfully overcoming the temptations looks like, and sit and watch them walk or fall. 

I realized something this month, I have the strength of a T-Rex and the weakness of the T-Rex with its small little arms unable to reach the very ground he walks. I have the gentleness of a Brontosaurus that sees herbs, leaves, and plants as the nutrition of choice. I also feel that the likes of me are extinct in nature and I forage looking for someone, something, anything that shares my determination to live. People are remiss in understanding the strength needed to survive in this world today. They give up all too easily or turn a blind eye, puffing themselves up literally and metaphorically.

You might say that I’ve not always been this strong and you’d be wrong. I didn’t realize it when I was young of course because I was too busy surviving. I didn’t just one day ‘decide’ to be strong, give something up, take the road less traveled, this was my nature from my very beginning. I think I only just realized my strength, in seeing others falter over and over and unable to show very little semblance of strength. 

Okay, where did my strength come from? I can only attribute the unending strength of God Himself. I hear over and over that ‘God never gives you more than you can handle.’ That little piece of solace is based on:

KJV: 1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 

ESV: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

AMP version simplified for you: “No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].

I believe that God does give you MORE than you can handle and this is where your strength is built up and sustained but notice also … “but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

I look back at my life; psoriasis arrived on the scene at around fourteen about the same time I converted from Catholicism to Christianity. Tempted by the wiles of men and alcohol, one man in particular whom I ended up marrying and staying married to for twenty years. At twenty-one, the legal age to drink, I gave up alcohol and further pursued the God who ‘provided a way out’ so I was ‘able to endure’ the path or what I like to deem ‘the road less traveled’! 

At thirty-seven, God was pulling me in a different direction. He had seen that not only had I endured but all the trying to save those around me I had done failed. He then called me to a completely different set of surroundings but I’d have to give up ALL of my possessions, save for my child, clothes and a few writings and odds and ends, that was it. I followed. The length of His arm was all that I had to strengthen me and it was enough to carry me over one thousand miles away.

Six years of reflection, healing, and growth were my years in the Texas sun. Then we were called to the center of the United States in the form of the heartland in the Midwest called Nebraska. It was here that my husband went blind, and had his sight restored two-and-a-half years later. It is here where I grew in strength for my Lord and Savior, feeding off the purity of souls that He surrounded me with physically and virtually. It is here where arthritis appeared and my body weakened but my strength kept growing and growing.

I thought I had had ‘more than I could handle’ but God poured out a little more in way of the life-changing diagnosis of Cancer. Yup, the Big C is what I was now dished out to overcome and strengthen myself with. I thought for sure I had met my end but God assured me that it was only the beginning of His plan! What was even bigger was that He asked me to trust in Him and not man to be the Almighty Healer that He is! This is where many people say, ‘C’mon now, that is just too far! God would never do that!’ Well, guess what people, He did, to ME! He gave me MORE than I could handle!

Now the task in front of me was to trust in Him [not man], lean not on my own understanding [ego], and use the very talents I was given [writing and research] as a tool in building an even stronger me. Onward I go, fast after fast, feast after feast, sight after site, [yes you read that right], and person after person I will change as I grow and hopefully teach them a lesson they can carry with them as they too are given ‘more than they can handle’. I am now a hundred pound weakling overcoming the impossible with the strength of David fighting the massive Goliath.

As I watch the weakened fall, I hand you strength to carry on in Him who is the Almighty Healer with an arm and hand stretched out to you and all you have to do is surrender your ALL [not just small portions ie: I’ll give up this but not that]. I believe it is at that time where you’re given too much to handle that you will find YOUR strength in enduring what God can do for you. 

1 Chron. 16:34 “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Storing Up Treasure

Col. 2:2 “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”

My neighbor is a hoarder. You know the ones you hear about on reality TV shows? She has piles of pallets sitting here and there, wooden crates stacked over here, trash everywhere so much so I feel like I’m living in the county dump until I walk outside and realize this is my neighbor’s treasure.

I saw a meme recently and it said:
“A spotless house is a sign of a wasted life.” 

I kind of took umbrage to that remark because my house is very clean. I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘spotless’ but if you knocked on my door right now I wouldn’t have to run around straightening up before I opened the door. Does that mean I have a wasted life because I see cleanliness as next to Godliness?

Some people who are not too clean might like reading the above meme because it makes them feel good knowing they haven’t wasted their life cleaning their home. Maybe some people take pride in a dirty home, I don’t know, my neighbor sure holds no shame in her mess building, so why do I love and appreciate a clean home?

I was raised in a house with six kids, both of my parents worked so it was up to the two girls to clean the mess left behind by the others and often I found myself cleaning alone. I was married to a man whose mother was a hoarder and at her house, there was a path to the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms but clothes and trashy treasures lying around in case they were needed one day.

What is so funny is that my ex and I would clean her house immaculately when she went on vacation and within a day of her returning home, it was back to the same mess. It was as if the mess cradled them to sleep at night and gave them a secure feeling of safety. 

I used to clean houses for a living (when my back was able) and I loved cleaning for people who couldn’t do the hard labor themselves. I had one lady who would clean before I even got to her home but insisted she didn’t and would pay me to do the finishing touches. Fine by me! 

Now that my back isn’t what it used to be I can’t do the cleaning I would like to do but I still keep a nice house AND have a life. Oh dear, but has all the time I spent cleaning mean I’ve wasted my life? Why do I let a stupid meme get to me? Guilt because I’ve wasted my life cleaning and LIKING it clean?

Just to clarify, I LIKE my house spic-n-span. Now more than ever I appreciate my tidy house you know why because I’m still able to do what I can to satisfy my need-to-be-clean urge! In a couple of years I probably won’t be able to sanitize my house due to disability and I’ll lay there wondering why I wasted all that time cleaning when I could’ve been doing… what? 

Thirteen years ago I left behind every treasure I owned except for what I could fit into a small u-haul truck and most of what I brought was for my son. My cleanliness I brought with me and to this day my home here is as clean as the one I left behind. Cleanliness is a part of who I am. Not for any other reason than the enjoyment of smelling freshly washed linen, newly mopped floors, the aroma of Windex wafting through the air. Ahhh… life is good when it is a clean life.

Some people treasure trash while others treasure cleanliness. Whatever the case may be as I’ve heard many a time in my life, you can’t take what you have here with you when you die, but one thing I can take with me…my clean pure soul and that my friends, is good enough for me! 

Matt. 6: 19-20 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”