I want you all to do a little test with me. Close your eyes and picture yourself as a tall glass of water. Now I want you to picture everyone in your life with a big straw. Pretty straws in all sorts of colors. Some are even bendy straws or those cute straws that curl around. They look so nice and harmless……..But if they all need something from you what do you do? If each one is sticking their straw in you at the same time, how do you handle it?

If you are a working mom maybe your husband needs his shirt ironed, a child that needs to get to practice, a boss that tossed you a “last minute” report to complete, the chair of the committee you signed up for asking you to make 40 cupcakes by tomorrow. Really? You signed up for yet another committee? Ok that is self-inflicted wounds and we’ll save that for another post.

Maybe you are the dad whose child is begging you to coach his team and your daughter who after you’ve had a very long day needs help with a project that is due tomorrow and she had 2 weeks to do it. And the kind old woman next door who asked you to please clean her gutters (who can say no to her, have you tasted her homemade cookies?) and your boss who demands more and more from you and you are really hoping it will lead to that raise you’ve been expecting and your pastor that needs help this Saturday (your only day off in 3 weeks) and on and on….

Or are you that college student that took a huge course load and has a demanding professor and is at school on an athletic scholarship with practice 5 days a week and the coach tells you it’s not enough. That scholarship means everything so you don’t want to blow it. Plus you’re working a part time job and your boss asks you to put in a few more hours.

Suckers….we all have them. Individually that love you, mean well and have legitimate things they need from you. One doesn’t know (or care) that the other people are around you with their straws getting ready to get something out of you. But, if the straws are all in your glass filled with cold, refreshing water you will soon be sucked dry. Then what? What do you do when you have given so much and you no longer have the ability to give? Like I said I’m not talking about self-inflicted wounds or bad boundary setting, I’m talking about life. How do you deal with the day to day things/people that will drain you? You look to Jesus.

He is truly the best example of what to do when the straws are all coming at you at once and are draining every drop of life from you. Who had more demands on His life than Jesus? He had twelve guys that at times seemed like they couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag without Jesus. Jesus had thousands following Him from town to town wanting something from Him. A healing, a teaching, a parable, to come to their house and visit etc. How was it that Jesus was able to keep up with the demands? Prayer. We see many examples of times in the gospels where Jesus took time to pray.

In Mark chapter 1 right off the bat we see Jesus going to work by selecting His disciples, driving out a demon, healing Simon’s mother-in-law who was in bed with a fever. Verse 32 says “that evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.” 34 says “Jesus healed many who had various diseases and drove out many demons.” Wow, that is a full day! I can’t even begin to imagine the number of people wanting Jesus to help them and have these newly selected twelve wanting to ask Him a million questions.

In verse 35 we find the lesson: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Following that in verse 38 Jesus says “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages- so I can preach their also. That is why I have come.”

Life is going to be busy and we are always going to have many demands on our life. In order to manage the chaos in our lives it is best to go into it “prayed up” as we say. When the people that need us, that rely on us are draining us of all we have to give, prayer time with our Father is the best way to face the next day. Now the “getting up while it was still dark”….I’ll leave that up to you!

Stop now and spend 5 minutes with the Lord and say:

Father your Word says:

• That you are with me, I will not be dismayed, for you are my God. I rely on you for my strength and I need you to help me.
• Father I know that I can do all things through You, for You give me strength.
• And I know that as you told Joshua we are to be strong and courageous because You, my God, are with me wherever I may go!