As I have worked on the ‘Time to Change’ video series, ironically, life keeps giving me signals about what an overcommitted poorly managed life looks like. In prior posts, I mentioned lessons learned from both running out of gas and getting a speeding ticket. A couple of days ago life sent me another message…my hard drive maxed out on my computer. Here is what happened and what I learned. Oh, by the way, I am going to shamelessly mix metaphors in this post, so bear with me.
THE OVERLOADED DRIVE
I had just completed editing a video and went to save it. My computer thought otherwise. A rather disconcerting message appeared on my screen, “Export Drive Does Not Have Enough Memory.” I wasn’t happy. Long story short, (the purchase of a new external hard drive and a lot of time spent deleting, editing and moving files) I am now back in business.
WHAT LOST SHEEP AND OVERLOADED HARD DRIVES HAVE IN COMMON
The experience reminded me of the parable of the lost sheep. I heard a pastor this weekend preach on that passage so it was fresh in my mind. My thought was this, sheep don’t plan on getting lost. They don’t try to get lost. So how do they get lost? Answer: Sheep creep. They have their nose to the ground nibbling here and there. They gnaw at whatever looks good and is adjacent to whatever they last ate. Bit by bit, bite by bite they creep away from where they should be.
So what does that have to do with my hard drive becoming overloaded? Well, people get overloaded and far from God. They don’t set out to do it no more than I set out to max out my drive. They creep their way there. They nibble a bit of this and that with no attention to the direction it is taking them. I know that is how I get overloaded and far from God.
DON’T MISS THE “MY DRIVE IS ABOUT TO OVERLOAD” SIGNS.
What about you? Where are you in relationship to God? Are you either overloaded or feeling distant? Have you made little decisions repeatedly that didn’t seem like much at the time, but now you are in a place you never planned on being?
Often times there are signs, but you can miss them by being too focused on what’s immediate. That was true for my hard drive. I am sure that it was getting much slower and less efficient. I don’t recall it getting slower, but now that I have removed a bunch of files, I can’t believe how fast it is. When effects are extremely gradual, we don’t noticed them until a whole system crashes.
WHEN MY PERSONAL DRIVE MAXED OUT
This quiet evolution was certainly the case when I went through depression several years ago. I never saw myself getting depressed. I seemed to just suddenly find myself there. Signs were abundant, but I missed them all. I was too close and shutting down. It wasn’t until I was struggling to function with simple things that I new something was wrong. Metaphorically speaking, one day life said to me, “Export Drive Does Not Have Enough Memory.” Ouch.
I turned to God. I needed a purging and a system reset. I gradually worked my way back home. I started in the dark, but God lead me, inch by inch back into the light. Praise God.
All of that said, take a moment today and lift your head up from the grass. Look around you. How close is the shepherd? Have you nimbled too far? Have you been too fixated on what immediately tastes good? Do you see any signs that you have wander away? Going back to my hard drive…How is your system operating? Is it bogged down? Inefficiently working? Ready to crash and burn?
If so, don’t wait. Do something about it right now. Today. If you are literally overloaded, as in overcommitted, you may want to do the ‘Time to Change’ course that I put together. If you are emotionally overloaded, you may want to seek out a counselor who can help you ‘download’ some of what is maxing you out. Either way, look for the signs today and do something immediately to restore your system and get you back on the path closer to your Master.
Blessings from The Practical Disciple
p.s. I noticed a flurry of registrations for ‘Time to Change’ yesterday on the release date. But please note: that was a release date and not a deadline. Anyone can register anytime to get these 15 videos of time management solutions. The videos are short, free and I believe packed with value for anyone trying to come up with a time management plan to make life more livable. There’s also a number of tips in the videos to declutter your life. A word to my regularly readers: I’ll stop harping about the videos soon. I am just very excited by them and hope people will join the fun. Sign-up using the box in the right hand column. To see the topics cover visit this link, ‘Time-to-Change’.