Enough

One of the icons of my youth was the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man.  His secret to his great strength was eating a can of spinach, which he carried somewhere in his shirt and would consume just at the climax of peril.  You knew it had arrived when he would say, "Enough is enough and enough is too much!"  Having reached the limit, out came the can of spinach and his super-salad strength saved the day.

Two important lessons were taught in that children's cartoon: 1) Eat your veggies and 2) there is a limit to what we can contain.  I'll let you chew on the first truth (pun intended) while I take a moment to entertain the second.

There is a flash-point in each of us, that point where enough is enough and enough is too much and we either implode or explode, neither being particularly healthy.  And while there are times when our stress level comes from an outside source entirely, far too often we are the true source of  our own stress.  We say yes to that final straw that pushes our ability to stand up under the load to the breaking point.  We say yes when our psyche is screaming "No!" deep inside us.

Perhaps you've heard the old adage, "If you want something done, find a busy person to ask."  Why?  Because those who busy themselves tend tto get things done and they seldom form the word "no" and force it through their lips.  Even when they are beginning to wobble under the strain, "Yes, of course I'll do it," seems to escape from their mouths before their brain evaluates the overload.

What happens to these people?  Generally speaking: Burnout!  Were you aware that by the seventh year, two-thirds of preachers leave the ministry?  Were you aware that of the ones who don't leave, 50% would if they could find something else?  Why?  We keep asking more of them and they keep saying yes to us.  Tic toc, tic toc, tic toc.....

None of us, preacher, teachers, volunteers, et. al., are unlimited in our ability to take on burdens.  Not even in the cause of Christ are we unlimited in our ability to take on one more thing.  God is unlimited and his power working within us "can do more than we ask or imagine" (Eph 3:20) but that is the collective "we" of the body of Christ not each individual member.  The church can accomplish all that God has purposed but you cannot as one part of that body.  Eyes can't walk, ears can't talk.

God uses us individually with and within our weaknesses.  Rather than take away Paul's limitation, God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).  We are not equipped nor do we need to say "yes" to everything.  We need to use a sacred "no" to ministry, family, community and vocational requests at times.  Enough is enough.  Jus' Say'n.