OVERWHELMED!

When last I wrote, I only had to strip and paint the master bedroom and its bath before taking a break from my wallpaper eradication project, so I forged ahead. I stripped about two thirds of one bedroom wall and then … quit.

Three weeks passed. The unwashed wall looked terrible, but I didn’t care. Just the thought of working in the bedroom overwhelmed me. My energy level plummeted. I knew that I wasn’t being rational. I had never felt overwhelmed by any of my projects before … so why was I suddenly stalled when I was so close to being finished with this one?

Pat and I decided that we both needed a break. We had had two close family members die within weeks of each other. Mother’s care was a constant responsibility. I had been working on the house practically nonstop. We were both emotionally drained and I was physically exhausted, so taking a break to go camping seemed to make perfect sense.

We picked a favorite spot. We made our plans. And then I couldn’t go through with them! I told Pat that I couldn’t face coming back to that unfinished bedroom. What I really needed to do was to take a week off from work, stay home, and make myself finish it!

We compromised by taking the RV out to a nearby beachfront park. After spending some time watching water, clouds, and wildlife, I gave myself a pep talk, got in my car, drove back to town, gathered all of my supplies, and got two sections of wallpaper stripped before becoming overwhelmed again!

I felt drained. I slumped down on the bed and said, “Okay Lord, what is going on here? Why can’t I make myself finish this room? The only thing I have left to do after it is the bathroom!” And then I stopped. There was my answer! My problem wasn’t the bedroom … it was the bathroom!! I was going to have to kill mold, repair the ceiling, strip off two layers of wallpaper, remove and paint the cabinets, reseal the shower, etc, etc. There was so much work to be done in that one room that I had made the conscious decision not to even think about the bathroom until I finished the bedroom. Apparently my subconscious hadn’t got the message!!

I immediately shifted my focus from the bedroom to the bathroom. I took down the cabinets and stripped off the hardware. Pat removed the toilet tank. Kate helped me get started on the wallpaper. And when I began to think unkind thoughts about the former owner as I uncovered holes, molly bolts, and gouges under that bottom layer of wallpaper, the Lord prompted me to pray for her.

I spent a lot of time praying for a woman whom I had never met, but the work became less onerous. My energy and enthusiasm returned, and I finished the bathroom a week after I began. Pat and I even went shopping for new artwork together. (Yes, we have artwork in our bathrooms.) And then I got two bedroom walls stripped before my steamer burned out. But that’s another story.

What about you? Are you feeling overwhelmed these days? Have you asked God to help you pinpoint the real problem? Have you listened until you got His answer? Have you acted on it? Why not??

Pastor Kit