Throughout the year, we present an article in the bulletin each week on a variety of topics, written by a member of our Parish staff or ministries on a rotating basis.

Giving It All To God

by Corey Shorter, Coordinator of Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with anything? Have you ever been in a situation that challenged you either mentally, spiritually, or both? I remember being in my last year of college and everything was extremely hectic. I was working full time as a safety officer at a local school, I was attending college as a full time student, and I was in the process of starting my youth mentorship as well. While everything was already moving at an extremely fast pace, here comes another opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The previous year I had applied to enter into my college’s business pitch competition, but unfortunately I wasn’t selected to move forward with the competition. So the next year, I made some revisions to my business plan and reentered into the competition, and this time I was selected as a finalist. This was a big deal! Not only was I challenged to compete against other students at my school, but I had to compete against students at the other 20 Columbia College locations across the U.S. Immediately my workload tripled; I went from going to work and school, to meeting with business coaches weekly, developing business strategies and a bunch of other things, all while still raising a family. On the outside it seemed as if I was thriving, but on the inside, I was “all over the place”. I wanted to give up on everything and drop out of the competition. In the midst of all of these thoughts, I just remember asking God for his help, and for him to give me the strength to “push through” and finish. Over a period of time, I noticed that I wasn’t as stressed, and I was able to effectively manage work, school, competition, and home life.  With this renewed mindset I was able to finish the competition winning 2nd place. 

In today’s society, everything tells us that in order to be successful and productive we have to maintain this busy lifestyle. We are taught to 1) set goals; 2) develop a plan to accomplish those goals; and, 3) put in long hours until those goals are accomplished. To be totally honest, the journey to accomplishing those goals can be gratifying but completely draining, often resulting in time away from friends, family, and unfortunately, God. A busy lifestyle like this can lead to a number of things like exhaustion, hopelessness, feeling defeated, feeling overwhelmed, unhappiness, and many other things. These feelings can be associated with “the burdens of life”. So what is a burden? A burden is a load, a particularly heavy one. Most of us try to deal with these burdens on our own, but with no success. When I was in the competition I felt myself being weighed down by these burdens. I tried to “juggle” all of these things, until I realized these things were weighing me down.

In Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light”.

So instantly I asked God to take away the things that were weighing me down physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, because the scripture says to give it all to God. So, did it happen instantly? No, but I can say that things began to “lighten up”, and eventually I was no longer stressed by these burdens because I had given them over to God. God had given me a new perspective on the load I was carrying, and with that new perspective, I discovered my purpose!

In Isaiah 40:31 it says, “But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint”.