I think it’s safe to say that most of us (if not all of us) have at some point been a little envious of the person with the perfect life. You know the person I’m talking about. The pastor’s wife with the perfect figure, the dazzling dimpled smile, the godly husband, and talented honor-roll kids.

Or how about the sales guy who has already reached his monthly quota by the fourth day of the month, has a great car, great house, a wife in a power suit, great energy, and strong shoulders that announce themselves through whatever designer business suit he’s wearing?

They make us feel like we need to immediately stop by the gym, enroll in a Dale Carnegie course, get some hair extensions, stop buying our clothes off the rack at Penney, and maybe rent some Mensa kids to replace the inconsiderate video-game wizards at our homes who eat up our food, refuse to pick up their rooms, and whose smartphones have apparently grown into appendages.

My friend, you need to get it together. Seriously.  Look around you, if all these other people can multi-task at such an awesome level—exactly what is your excuse? If you have trouble figuring out how, you can flick on the tube and have the Cleaver’s, the Clampett’s, or the Cosby’s  show you how it’s done (technically, the Cosby’s were actually the Huxtables…but I was trying to think of families that started with the letter “C”, and it seemed to work).

Allow me to let you in on a little secret.  The people who seem to have it all together…don’t. I know, it sound like a shocker (or maybe status envy), but no one really has it together. Take it from me; I was always in the “Look-at-him-he-has-it-together” category.  I was a two-career professional: Senior Pastor of a growing church, and a Sales Manager with a leading technology company. All my kids were in the school’s GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) program. I built a spacious 5-bedroom home for my family in an exclusive community. We had the family car, the luxury car, and the spare car.

By the way, I was the guy who made his quota by the fourth day of the month.  Somehow, somewhere in the middle of all that, I started believing the hype. I was the ruler of my domain, and the spiritual leader of my realm. But then, God showed me something…something that I’ll never forget and a lesson I hope you’ll take to heart.

God took one step back, and he really allowed me to try to handle all this “success” on my own. Within a month, everything was literally in shambles. I realized that I couldn’t shoulder the burden of managing life’s responsibilities on my own—not that I tried to, mind you. Nevertheless, it was a very tough lesson.

I learned that chaos is crouching at all of our doors, and the only way to keep it from disrupting your life is by trusting in Christ, because in all honesty, He is the only one who ever really held it all together in this life. In the Bible, Hebrews 1:2-3 reminds us that, “He has created all worlds, and holds all things together simply by the power of His words”.

So don’t buy into the hype. None of us is really capable of having it all together. What’s vogue on the outside is often vague on the inside. So don’t stress. And, if you’re at a point in life where it seems like things are unraveling faster than a thrift store sweater, don’t panic. You can stop things from falling apart, but you can go to someone who can. Remember, prayer is the place where burdens change shoulders.

Give your troubles to Jesus. He—and He alone—can handle it!
Carl Prude © 2013
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