Dear Jesus, I Can’t Carry All This—But You Can

A Gift for Mom! 🤍

When I think of these past months the word that comes to mind is heavy. Each day there is more news that weighs on my heart.

I’m an empath, so the hurts of others become mine to some degree. The suffering and struggle of so many and the endless conflict some days makes me feel buried in darkness.

RELATED: To the Mom Carrying the Weight of the World: You’re Strong Enough

As I watched church last week, I learned a term I’d never heard before “benevolent detachment” and it was just what I needed. I want to share it in hopes it helps someone else.

If it all feels like too much, that’s because it is.

We receive as much information in one day as our ancestors did in a lifetime just a couple of generations ago. Let that sink in for a minute.

Our souls weren’t meant to carry around all of the hurts and hardships we hear of. For myself, that was a relief to hear, because I have been carrying around so much that I didn’t know what to do with.

RELATED: You Carry Your Children’s Burdens⁠—But Who’s Carrying Yours?

Benevolent detachment is the practice of saying, “Jesus, I can’t carry this, but you can.” So, this week, I’ve been trying to release the burdens to the One who is strong enough to carry them. It is a freeing practice, friends, and I hope you’ll give it a try.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t empathize with others or have a responsibility to do our part in bettering this world we share. What I’m saying is if you’re feeling like these days are overwhelming and your spirit is being crushed, it’s time to reevaluate.

We aren’t meant to carry all of the information we’re presented with; we just aren’t capable of it.

If you’re an empath or a helper, you can’t help but feel all the feels and want to spring into action, but that isn’t sustainable. It is going to leave you exhausted and unable to love those around you well.

RELATED: May God Move in Our Hurting Land

I know when I take in all of the news and feel overwhelmed, I feel powerless. I lose sight of the ability I have to make an impact because I feel some pressure to do something big. What that is, I have no idea, then I feel like a failure, and that’s a frustrating cycle.

If I hand over the heavy things I can’t carry on my own it frees me to focus on what I’m capable of. And those small things I can do make ripples that perhaps extend further than I realize.

I encourage you to hand it over.

Originally published on One Grateful Girl

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Michelle Koch

Michelle truly believes that our lives are meant to be amazing adventures and that those adventures can keep us close to home or take us around the world. She dreams of living in the country, but within close proximity to a Target. She is married to a guy she has loved for more than 25 years and doesn’t feel old enough for that to be possible. Her son has her wrapped around his dirty little fingers. Michelle writes about seeking grace, celebrating beauty, and living with gratitude at One Grateful Girl. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

In: Faith

After my father shot me, I lay in a hospital bed, and my world went dark. I was 16 years old. The injury left me completely blind. But the darkness didn’t stop there. As my physical sight disappeared, something else came into focus—the depth of the wounds I had carried long before that moment, wounds I had never fully allowed myself to see. For years, I had learned how to survive without asking too many questions. I had learned how to minimize what hurt, how to explain things away, how to keep moving forward as if everything were normal. But...

Keep Reading

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

In: Faith

When people hear the word ministry, they often think of missionaries, or the pastor who preaches every Sunday, but in our home, ministry belongs to all of us—even our kids. Growing up, I didn’t think of myself as a ministry kid. Still, when my dad packed our old Astro for the summer and we all piled in, we were on mission. Each kid had a part to play in my dad’s evangelical magic shows (yes, you read that right!). My brother would juggle, my older sister sang, my middle sister flipped the projector slides that shone pictures of Jesus on...

Keep Reading

These Holy Small Things

In: Faith, Motherhood

My 8-year-old-daughter has recently taken up sewing, to my simultaneous delight and chagrin. My delight because I too love sewing; my chagrin because her enthusiasm often outpaces my own abilities, namely, in the undertaking of tedious projects with no pattern. Take, for example, the cloth doll diaper we designed and stitched up together. Granted, the design was fairly basic to draw up and scale. But the minuscule nature of the work, both for my hands and head, was enough to throw me into existential questioning. It was one of those moments when you wonder how the sum of your life...

Keep Reading

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

In: Faith, Motherhood

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore Quietly communing with a loved one in the early morning hours is such an intimate and precious time. Visiting with one’s grown child when all is dark and still is one of life’s purest pleasures. I remember the conversation clearly. My daughter’s husband, small children, and father were all asleep as we whispered and chatted. She and I are both fidgeters by nature, unable to be still for long. This inner restlessness must be remedied, and we are compelled by biology to...

Keep Reading

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

In: Faith

I have spent most of my life in faith. Not circling it or analyzing it from a distance, but inside it—learning its language before I even realized I was learning it, shaping myself around it in ways that felt as natural as breathing. I was raised in Christian Science, which is a very particular kind of faith. It’s not really about “believing” in the way most people think. It’s about understanding. Aligning your thoughts with what is ultimately true about God and reality. If you can understand rightly, you can be well. If you can see clearly, healing follows. So...

Keep Reading

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

In: Faith, Living

Insecurity is something we all carry in one form or another. For me, it has probably always looked confident and outgoing from the outside. But internally, it can feel heavy, complicated, and exhausting at times. And when someone comes along whose behavior reinforces those insecurities, it amplifies what was already there. There was someone I had hoped to genuinely connect with, but it was clear from the start that the feeling wasn’t mutual. From the beginning, their wall was up. No matter how kind I tried to be or how carefully I showed up, it never came down. Their distance...

Keep Reading

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

In: Faith

Woman walking in field with hand in wheat

Hannah knew what it was like to feel forgotten. She often clutched her empty womb and thought Surely the Lord has forgotten me. She knew the bitter sting of feeling isolated and alone. She knew the anguish of praying day after day after day and seeing no fruit, not even a bud, from her faithfulness. Hannah knew what it was like to feel like the weight of the world was on her, and her hope may have dwindled. Even those around her did not offer encouragement. Quite the opposite—they did their best to sow seeds of discouragement. Yet Hannah pressed...

Keep Reading

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

In: Faith, Living, Motherhood

“Ahhh!” My underwater scream garbled in my snorkel tube as the manta ray’s cavernous mouth swept a hand’s distance from my face. My fingers tightened around the surfboard until my knuckles ached. My arms trembled. I jerked my head side to side, searching for my daughters, Mia and Megan. Recent college graduates, they had joined me on one last mother-daughter vacation before launching their adult lives. They floated easily on the vibrant Hawaiian water, relaxed, trusting. I wanted to borrow their calm. Earlier, our guide had explained that the LED lights built into the surfboard attracted plankton the way college...

Keep Reading

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

In: Faith, Motherhood

My pastor frequently speaks of “kid pain” and acknowledges there’s nothing like it. I can testify to that. After nine months of uncertainty and unexplained issues following the birth of our now 4-year-old daughter, Harlow, we finally received her diagnosis of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency (PDCD), a life-limiting mitochondrial disease with no cure and no FDA-approved treatments. It was heartbreaking. In moments like these, a parent can fall into complete desperation. You go through a range of emotions almost too fast to name: fear for your child’s life; anxiousness about how much time you’ll get with them; overwhelming grief. And...

Keep Reading

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

In: Faith

There have been many times over the years when I’ve heard others share stories of how the Lord spoke to them or gave them a sign. Seashells scattered along a sandy beach, numbered to represent how many children they would have. A quiet walk in the park, followed by a clear sense that another little one was coming. What a blessing, I think, when I hear and read their stories. I often wonder how much more faith they must have than I do—to know with such certainty that what they heard was truly God speaking. I listen, I smile, and...

Keep Reading

Oh How I've Loved These Little Years With You

Motherhood

Oh How I've Loved These Little Years With You

In the NICU You Proved You Were Tiny But Mighty

Baby

Dear Jesus, I Can’t Carry All This—But You Can

RELATED: To the Mom Carrying the Weight of the World: You’re Strong Enough

If it all feels like too much, that’s because it is.

RELATED: You Carry Your Children’s Burdens⁠—But Who’s Carrying Yours?

We aren’t meant to carry all of the information we’re presented with; we just aren’t capable of it.

RELATED: May God Move in Our Hurting Land

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Michelle Koch

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

These Holy Small Things

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

Get It Now

So God Made a Mother

Dear Jesus, I Can’t Carry All This—But You Can

If it all feels like too much, that’s because it is.

We aren’t meant to carry all of the information we’re presented with; we just aren’t capable of it.

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

These Holy Small Things

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

Previous Post

Next Post

You May Also Like