This is a transcript of a message given at a college ministry meeting, Cru at Kennesaw State University, by Caitlyn Pitts.
When I was thinking about speaking and honestly the pressures that kind of come with it I was reminded of way back when I was in eighth grade. We had this “internship” program at my church and I put that in quotes because we didn’t do a whole lot of work. What it was was we got to the church early during the week, had personal time with Jesus, had a short devotional, and did various tasks throughout the church, learning about the different jobs there. We also had homework and books to read and I loved it. But what I didn’t love was the piece of homework we had to complete our internship.
Now this requires context. The eighth grade Caitlyn then was not the Caitlyn you see today. She talked to no one. She had her three to four friends and talked to them but that was it. The sometimes loud and obnoxious Caitlyn you see now in group settings did not exist. She didn’t speak in group settings other than maybe to answer a question. If I didn’t know you I wasn’t going to talk to you or even make eye contact in case you tried to talk to me. Eighth grade Caitlyn had social anxiety; she just didn’t know it yet. And to prove my point, I had one friend who signed up with me for this internship and she left two weeks in because of a previous commitment, I think like a family vacation or something. I talked to no one else. I’m not kidding.
Which made our last assignment for the internship like a death sentence for me. Because we had to write and present a five minute message in front of our internship group. The group was like maybe 15 people max, but it didn’t matter to me. Speak in front of a group of people who are not my close friends or my classmates who I was used to seeing regularly? This was so terrifying to me that – remember that friend who left me? – I was talking to her and I said and I quote, “Maybe I’ll lick a bathroom floor to get sick so I don’t have to do this.” Yeah, I was scared. The task in front of me was so horrifying that I was completely and utterly overwhelmed.
Thankfully I didn’t make any threats like that this go around, but the feeling of overwhelm is still present. And I feel like that’s a pretty relatable word, right? Who here has felt overwhelmed? I think we can all relate that at some point in our lives or maybe even right now, we have felt overwhelmed. Because it’s never just school – though that is often a lot in itself – but it’s school and work and car problems and family issues and friend drama and relationship problems or the lack of relationships. It’s overwhelming. And now we have to do taxes because that’s a thing and pay for groceries and actually go to the store and buy groceries. And oh yeah we have to sleep at some point too. It’s overwhelming. Maybe somewhere in there we could have a social life and hobbies to feel less overwhelmed or maybe we feel so overwhelmed we only have a social life and hobbies which then leads to more overwhelm. Maybe you don’t say “I’m overwhelmed,” but have you said “I don’t know what to do,” or “I’m confused by everything right now,” “this is too much to handle,” “what’s going on.” Have you had a tightening in your chest? Or tension in your shoulders? Have you been stressed to the point of breaking? Have you experienced what the kids call a crash out? Those signs point to what my point is: life is overwhelming. I mean we haven’t even hit on death, pain, or suffering in the lives of our loved ones or just the world in general. It is overwhelming.
Now so we don’t run into a Princess Bride situation of “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means,” let’s define our terms. “Overwhelmed” is a made up of two parts “over” and “whelmed.” Yes, whelmed is a real word. These days “whelmed” is used to denote being moderately impressed but originally it meant “to overturn.” “Overwhelmed” was actually used in a very similar way. “Overwhelm” means to overturn something, to completely flip it on its head, or to overpower it. The best way to think about this is like an ocean. When you’re standing on the beach in the water and a massive wave comes up, what happens? It overturns you, engulfs you, and overpowers you. Namely, you are overwhelmed.
Now, Caitlyn, you might be saying, why are we talking about this? Well, the Bible actually has a lot to say about being overwhelmed. In fact, it has so much to say that I had trouble deciding which passage to use. But I decided on this one story of the overwhelmed that is most likely familiar. It’s the story of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Let’s turn to John 11.
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
(John 11:1-19)
What’s going on here? I think the best way to relate to this story is to picture it.
I want you guys to picture this. If you have siblings, this is probably going to be a little bit easier. I want you to picture that you have a little brother. You’ve grown up together. You faced a lot of life challenges together. He gets on your nerves sometimes and went through a weird moody phase but you love one another. You’re family. You guys are older now, and your parents, they’re older, or might have even passed away, so it’s really you guys taking on the world. Just the normal daily mundane things, groceries, bills, work, and family stuff. But it’s you guys, and you’re together. You have another sibling – a sister – and it’s the three of you together like it’s always been. Then, one day, your little brother gets sick – like really sick – and it doesn’t look like he’s getting better. And you get doctor after doctor and each one says the same thing: there’s nothing we can do. You’re watching your little brother who you love so dearly and you’ve grown up with get sicker and sicker and weaker. He’s having trouble opening up his eyes and speaking, it’s just not something he has the energy to do. He gets thinner. He gets paler. It’s looking really really bad. Your sister, she doesn’t know what to do. She’s crying every night. You’re crying every night. Your parents aren’t there to help, money is already running low, and this little brother was probably the main source of income. You don’t know what you’re going to do. You’re at a complete loss. The heartbreak of losing your brother and watching him suffer, it’s too much to bear.
Overwhelming, right? Now I don’t know if he was their little brother or if he truly was their main source of income or if their parents weren’t there. But the point remains: they were at a complete loss of what to do. They were overturned and engulfed and overpowered. They were overwhelmed. We see that in the passage. In verse 8 of John 11, we learned that the Jews – the people who lived in Jerusalem — were trying to kill Jesus. They lived only two miles from where Lazarus was, meaning Jesus would put His life in danger going there. And it wasn’t a quick journey to get to Lazarus either. We know that Jesus was across the Jordan river from them according to John 10:40. They are so desperate for help and so overwhelmed by their situation that they are asking Jesus to make a long journey and risk His life to help them.
Have you been there? You may not have lost a loved one but as we talked before, but overwhelm is a common experience. And in overwhelm the battle is often fought in our minds. In fact, most of the battles in life are fought in our minds whether you realize it or not. What you think and believe ends up being how you act. And in John 11 – in the middle of this overwhelming circumstance – Jesus gives His disciples, Mary and Martha, and ultimately us three truths to cling to and fight to believe in the midst of the overwhelming.
God has the power to produce His plan
The first is God has the power to produce His plan. In these verses, Jesus says and does some wild things. He’s glad He wasn’t there when Lazarus died? He stayed two days longer in the place when Lazarus was sick? And what’s this about twelve hours? But these all actually show Jesus had a plan. He isn’t crazy and it’s important to note He doesn’t say He’s glad Lazarus is dead. There is a plan here. This is especially evident in verses 9-10. Now these take some explaining, after talking to and searching through my sources from men and women much smarter than me, I found a consensus on what this means. Each day is given 12 hours, meaning the night won’t come until its appointed hour. That’s why Jesus says “are there not twelve hours in the day?” During the day, it’s safer to do your work because, well, it’s light outside. This all leads to what Jesus is trying to say: He has an allotted time for Him to work. His death – or night time – would not come until the time He and the Father had appointed it. The power remains in His hands. If the Jews wanted to kill Him, it didn’t matter. His plan would come to pass because He has the ultimate power.
In times of overwhelm, this is vital because often we can feel like either God doesn’t have a plan or isn’t working or we can feel that our feelings of overwhelm were caused by us messing up God’s plan. This is not the case. God has a plan. He has power. You are not big enough to mess up His plan. Others are not big enough to mess up His plan. He is working, even when it feels like He is saying and doing strange things. There is a plan that is being brought to fruition.
So God has a plan and we are not big enough to mess it up, but what about this plan? It can honestly be more overwhelming to know there is this vague plan out there that isn’t completely in your control. Which is why the second truth to remember in the overwhelming is just as important.
God’s love runs deep for His children
God’s love runs deep for His children. Let’s read verses 20-37 now.
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
(John 11:20-37)
Have you ever been really sad and had a rough day and wanted to talk to someone about it? When talking to them, you’re explaining the pain of what you’re going through, really pouring your heart out. Then they say, “have you tried this?” or “I think what you need is…” Instead of sitting in the moment of pain with you, they jump to solving it. This is usually well intentioned, but in reality solving someone’s issue is actually much easier than sitting in it with them. If love is bearing someone else’s burdens, it should look just like that, bearing it or holding it up.
This is exactly what Jesus does. We saw in John 11 verses 3 and 5 that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. This is confirmed by how He responds to their grief in verses 33-35. He mourns with them. If you know the story of Lazarus (and I think many do), you know he ends up living. So why did Jesus cry? Because Jesus’ love runs so deep that He wants to sit with us in pain. He doesn’t want to slap a bandaid on our problems and be on His way. He is not in a hurry. His love runs so deep that He bears our pain with us. This is important to remember in the overwhelm because it is easy to attempt to distract yourself. When life starts to pile up, you can run to friends or entertainment or relationships or career, anything to protect yourself from feeling the pain of life. But Jesus doesn’t rush us through the process of pain. He sits with us, carrying the weight of our grief. We don’t have to rush through it because He doesn’t. His love comforts our grief.
This is exactly what the crowd says in verse 36, “see how He loved him!” But maybe when I said all this, you wondered how truly a God could love you if He allows overwhelm to happen. If He is so powerful as we talked about first and He deeply loves us, how could He allow pain and suffering?
He overwhelms the overwhelming
That’s certainly what I have said. If you know me, you know the word “overwhelmed” is the word that I often use. If we had a word count of how many times I have used the phrase “I’m overwhelmed” or “I feel overwhelmed” it would be in the thousands if not the tens of thousands. This feeling of overwhelm is common to me and so common in fact that life sometimes feels too heavy to be worth it. I don’t say that lightly. In fact, I didn’t really want to say it at all but felt like I couldn’t pass this moment by without being completely honest. The pain and suffering and change and heaviness of life all with the constant tasks that must be done just to live feels like too much for me often, making me wonder if life is worth the living. I mean if life is characterized by the overwhelming, what’s the point?
Maybe you have never experienced this or have not experienced this to the same extreme. But I think we all have experienced in some capacity wondering “what’s the point?” Even as Christians, we can sometimes ask ourselves in the midst of the overwhelming, “Jesus, what is the point of this? What are you trying to do?” Then as Christians, we can bombard ourselves with the first two truths mentioned which is good. Remind yourself of His plan and power and love. But it can lead to this idea that “one day” it will be better. One day far off it will be okay or if you’re like me, one day in eternity it will finally be better. Which is also true. But I think it’s important to note Jesus’ response when Martha expresses a similar sentiment.
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:21-26)
Martha knew it would be good. She knew her brother would rise again. This is good theology! But notice Jesus’ response, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Which brings us to the third truth that is absolutely vital to remember, Jesus overwhelms the overwhelming.
When Adam and Eve ate that fruit in the garden long ago, it introduced the idea of life being overwhelming. Now there is labor and pain and suffering and work. People die, tears are a thing, loneliness is abundant. Life is hard, life is overwhelming. Death trapped us because we – along with Adam and Eve – decided to try life on our own, decided that we knew best. And it didn’t take long for us to discover that we couldn’t do it on our own. It was too overwhelming. We were trapped. But instead of leaving us there, God sent His Son, Jesus, to rescue us. Jesus came to live life. Sit with that for a moment. Jesus came to face the very overwhelm we’ve been talking about. He lost loved ones to death. He got tired. He got busy. He got hungry. He had people abandon Him. He was misunderstood. He had work. He suffered. He died. He was overwhelmed. And yet. His death – a gruesome, tortuous one – was not the end. He died to free us from death. How? Because He rose again. Death was the consequence of us walking away from God and living on our own – namely sinning. He paid that price and then rose again to life. He overwhelmed the overwhelming!
This is how we face the overwhelming ourselves, we rest in His presence. We rest in the fact that HE is our life, HE is our good right in the here and now. His overwhelming presence is what overcomes our overwhelm. I believe that’s the emphasis of this passage. Most messages end with verses 38-44 of John 11, talking about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But I think it’s significant that the majority of the verses in this story talk about the pain before Lazarus comes back because that’s the pain we live in now. The only way to overcome this overwhelm is by resting in the presence of an overwhelming God.
At the height of my “is life worth living” thoughts, I heard a song called “Because He Lives.” The line that stood out was “life is worth the living just because He lives.” I had never thought of that before. So now, over and over again, I go to Jesus in the overwhelm. It doesn’t make all the pain go away. It doesn’t make those thoughts disappear completely. And yet, Jesus still makes life worth living. Because HE is my life and my good. He is the goodness of the Lord that I see in the land of the living. In the face of the overwhelming, prioritize being with the overwhelming God.
And that’s actually what I want to do right now. So as the band comes up to close us out, I want you to sit with Him. Just rest in His presence. Hide under His wings. Take refuge in the God who is overwhelmingly powerful, overwhelmingly loving, overwhelmingly gracious, and who overwhelmed the overwhelm of life.
Overwhelmed 