Seeing the Big Picture in the Chaos
By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever looked at your to-do list and found your stomach tying itself in knots over how you’ll ever be able to accomplish everything?
I’m a busy, task-oriented, give-it-your-best kind of person, and I love my lists. I’ve been keeping them since childhood, and they are typically a huge help in keeping my head straight and my life organized. I have lists for my day job as a newspaper editor, lists for my writing, lists for my household, and lists for all three. You’ll rarely see me in the grocery store without a list—shopping without a list feels downright wrong! I like a plan, and I love the feeling of checking off a task and knowing something important is complete.
But there have been times in my life when my lists seem overwhelming, the tasks insurmountable. I look at the tasks and wonder where, or even how, I’m supposed to begin. Everything seems chaotic, and self-doubt presses upon me like a hungry cat about to dig her claws into my thigh if I don’t move fast enough.
Those are the days you might find me buried in bed with a pillow over my head trying desperately to “center myself” so I can get destress and get back to normal.
Usually it doesn’t matter what the tasks are—big or small, complicated or simple. The swirl of chaos has tugged me off-course, and I’m floundering.
My husband always has sage advice during times like this.
“What’s the most important task, or the thing with the most pressing deadline?” he’ll ask. “That’s goes at the top of the list. Then the next most important, then the next. The rest can wait.”
He’s right, of course. Doing it all isn’t the goal. Prioritizing the most important is nearly always the key to tackling what’s before me. If I can just focus on the big picture, everything else will fall into place with ease and grace.
Reading the story of Nehemiah in the Bible reminds me of this. Nehemiah, an Israelite, is a cupbearer to the king in the days when the exiled Hebrew people are beginning their return to Jerusalem. While the temple had been rebuilt, the city walls were still rubble, and the book of Nehemiah chronicles his mobilization of the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
But in Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah had a vision of what he was to do, but no real idea how he was to implement the work. He knew the WHAT, not the HOW. In Nehemiah 2:11-20, we’re told how he set out at night with only a few people with him, inspecting the tattered remains of the wall.
Then he headed back to Jerusalem, where he told the people the big picture-priority message.
“I told them that my God had taken care of me, and also told them what the king had said to me. ‘Let’s start rebuilding!’ they said, and they eagerly began the work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and made fun of us. ‘What are you doing?’ they asked. ‘Are you rebelling against the king?’ ‘The God of heaven will give us success!’ I replied. ‘As God’s servants, we will start building. But you will have no share, right, or claim in Jerusalem’” (Nehemiah 2:18-20 CEB).
Nehemiah didn’t know all the details of the job at hand. He’d prayed to God, he knew God was on his side, and he’d asked permission from the king. But all he’d done so far was go do a nighttime inspection of the city walls. He didn’t have all the answers, or even most of them.
Still, the Bible tells us, Nehemiah told them God had taken care of him, and they responded “Let’s start rebuilding.”
That was enough to get started.
Even though Nehemiah didn’t know exactly where to begin, who to ask, what supplies they’d need, or even what obstacles they’d face—and they certainly would end up facing many obstacles—he pressed on in faith, keeping his sights on the big picture and trusting God would work it all out for good. He started, focusing on the end result, and worked toward that without troubling himself with the creep of self-doubt or the burden of questions.
He named the vision, then engaged the people.
He led well.
I think Nehemiah knew what my husband knows: We can focus on the tiny tasks, the hows and the whys, and get ourselves all tangled in the logistics of how to do the thing, or we can set our sights on the end goal, the prize, and get it done.
He chose the latter, and he prevailed.
In life today, we have that same choice. The devil is said to be the prince of distractions. So many things can crowd out the voice of God or threaten to steer askew the good work we are doing for His Kingdom.
But when we keep our eyes on God and remember His work is the most important, those distractions have no power over us anymore. God’s glory prevails. The big picture has conquered the chaos.
If you are in a time of chaos and feeling overwhelmed, I urge you to take a step back, take a cue from Nehemiah, and focus on the big picture.
That’s nearly always the better way.