Don’t Explode: Learning to Offload Life’s Burdens

Good morning Victorious Living family or afternoon depending on when you're watching this. My name is Christy Overton Johnson and I am coming to you today from Plano, Texas. I am here in Texas visiting family but also going into federal units. I'll be going into Texarkana tomorrow for a couple of events and then I come back and I go to Carswell and my arms already asleep, sorry. And so I'm already, I'm so excited about that and this morning I was just taking some time to walk and I've done my walk and I saw this beautiful rock here, isn't it pretty? On the side of a retention pond and this retention pond, it was so beautiful but what a retention pond is, it's a place for all the runoff to go. It's pretty, contractors make it look beautiful because when they're building neighborhoods they need a place so you can see the banks are sloped for the water to run in here and then there's actually what's called a spillway at the end right before the hedge there and maybe I'll walk down and show it to you but it's where the overflow can go. So the runoff comes into here and then the overflow goes over into a spillway area which continues on and flows and if something is blocked here, if there's something that's blocking the way or there's not a slope or it's full with debris then it can't go anywhere and it gets stuffed up, stopped up and stuffed up. So this reminded me this morning of how important it is first of all for us to have a place for things to roll off of us. I don't know about you but I imagine, I've never lived in prison but I imagine that every single day there is something that could offend you, something that could hurt you, something that, I'm sorry I've got something going on with my phone, something that could make you explode, overwhelm you, make you feel like you're drowning. Like I was thinking if this, all the rain that they've had here in Texas and it's kind of drizzly today, if this bank wasn't here for the runoff to come into this retention pond and if I'll get quiet you can hear the water overflowing into the overflow area but if that wasn't here these houses would be in water and so it's very important in our lives to have something similar to this. A place where we can offload the stuff that people in this world and circumstances and just daily life, daily prison life.

If you're watching this on the outside it's daily life in your work, daily life as a mother and in your marriage and things like that. Things happen and then you've got to have somewhere for it to go. So where do I offload my stuff? Every day I'm having to offload my stuff onto the shoulders of God because there's a lot going on in my life, a whole lot and there's a lot of moving pieces right now, there's a lot of moving pieces right now. I am actually moving soon, our office is moving. Every day my husband is, he's a contractor, he is asking me what color do I want this, what size toilet, what style toilet and I'm thankful but y'all he's a contractor, he moves me a lot. This will be a lot, not every three years but you know what? It's okay, it's okay but my point is there's a lot of activity going on and there's a lot coming at me. There's a lot of people reaching out, wanting help which is wonderful because that's what I do but people all throughout the day, hey can I have a phone call, can I have your ear for a minute and you know recently one girl got really upset because I was going out of town and it was going to be a week before she could meet and she told someone I knew it just wasn't fair, you know that she had to wait to speak to me and you know I just can't do everything and so every day at the end of the day I have to say God take this. All throughout the day God I got to offload this to you, God this upsets me or this frightens me and I don't know what to do with this. That's why the Bible says cast your cares onto the Lord for he cares for you. So he wants you to cast and that word cast in the Bible. I believe that's in Peter that word cast It means to throw Off like it's like think about casting Um, if you're fishing if you were fishing right here y'all can imagine that Um, I don't know that I want to eat anything out of here. Y'all it's kind of gross Um, and I used to water ski and things way grosser than this which might be why I am the way I is But anyway, if you were casting

Your fishing pole and your lure Uh into this water you would be casting it and throwing it way away from you way out there And that's what God is saying. He's going to cast all those cares the burdens the things that could flood you Wipe you out Burden you overwhelm you God is saying cast them onto my shoulders Because I care for you You know, I go to the word I journal I talk with trusted friends now There is a difference when things are going crazy and you just go run off and offload it to other friends who are just gonna Make that stuff blow up and get in your face and and Feed the fuel that's already on you Maybe you got a heap of debris and it's just been piled on you that day and and the wrong friends can Ignite that stuff in you and cause you to get even more angry and more burden until you react See the thing is if you don't do something with all of that It builds up and then you explode and then it goes into you saying something. Oh, i've done that before Y'all I I was so exhausted when we adopted our children in 2025 is when we got our little russian chatterboxes in our home and before that Um, I had just had my pelvis completely reconstructed. I'd gone through like 16 surgeries I had just retired from a 30 some year water sports career where that had been my entire identity For my whole life since I was four years old And so there was a lot the ministry was the water sports ministry. I didn't have a prison ministry at that time. It was going crazy Um in a great way and I just had a lot going on i've always that's my life I always have a lot Uh going on that would be the achiever in me and the performer

But I got to a point when my body was exhausted My body was in major pain I was emotionally Not quite where I should be because I had just transitioned Out of this huge career where i'd been a world champion where I'd that was what I did That's who I thought I was I didn't understand Um my identity in christ at that time and so Then come these little children two at one time And I already had a little seven-year-old who did not react very well to these new children calling their mama mama his mama mama And y'all it got crazyville in my house and I Remember being at the beach with my family my husband's family and my little boy who was Still now you really speak in english And little girl were in this wedding for a family and Dalton was over there just throwing some some rocks and shells off the beach and he wasn't hurting anybody but I guess a little sand went up in the air and went towards some people and one of my Uh sister-in-law's went and said something to him And mama bear did not like that So mama bear went running over there and then came another sister-in-law who defended that sister-in-law and y'all There was already some hurt in my heart and we've we've talked about this. So this is nothing new But there was already a little hurt in my heart towards this person and

Some feelings of offense and things and so when she came over and said something y'all this preacher lady Was saying words I didn't even know Were in me I I would i'm too embarrassed to even tell you I lost it. I was cussing and i'm like then of course it Really hurt that relationship and it took a long time for that to rebuild But it it was because first of all there was hurt in me that had never been addressed There was conversations that should have been had which is what this pond represents it's letting the stuff come on off of you um Yeah, and I was sleep deprived. My body was not being cared for properly. So it was a perfect volcano it exploded and it like I said it took a long time it took a lot of apologies and it took a lot of soul-searching and so I'm telling you and that was in an environment on the beach you blow up like that in a prison it could cost you your life you blow up like that in free society once you've gotten out of prison or jail and it lands you back that's why you've got to have the off the bank sloped where things like Teflon always see you know it's tough you spray in the pan and it makes your eggs not stick you need to put some God Teflon on you and that's the Word of God that's prayer covering yourself in prayer that is having the Holy Spirit in you and you're conversing when things happen like if I'm on a plane and things and traveling and I know things are getting ready to get crazy I am offloading things all day Lord and help me get through this traffic I'm not gonna get angry at this traffic I'm not gonna get angry at this Avis lady who's taking way too long and I got preferred status and I'm standing in a very long line and I'm not gonna get mad at this like the person behind me it would have been so easy for me to turn around say yeah I know right why aren't they moving faster but he's fuming behind me you know what I did I just offloaded it so that there wasn't an explosion because

you come together with someone else who's a hothead and you're gonna you're gonna create an explosion you got to roll it off you you got to let it go into so there's this this pond here that represents to me a holding place where that's this is like the Lord you're offloading it to him so you've got your your Christian family you got God you got the words you got prayer I talked to God all throughout the day offloading things giving him my worries giving him my offenses my cares my worries like I just said and saying God now you have them I'm gonna take on your peace sometimes I actually go I breathe in your peace I let out my anger I think it's like in for four and then out for four in your nose hold it out your mouth and that's just a simple breathing exercise but I combine that with prayer and I say God you can have this and then like I said I I meet with the right people and I talk about it not when I'm hot but when I'm calm and then I get a plan like is there a conversation I need to go have and y'all that takes me a long time but those are things that if you don't have those crucial conversations I actually think there's a book called crucial conversations then things will explode and go bad so I want to encourage you today to develop those things in your life those those off roads those places in the boat like we had what's called a bilge pump when that when we'd get in the boat we would be bringing water me every day you're something's gonna be coming and getting on you and it's got to be pumped out it's got to be taken off your shoulders and then you take on God's burden which is easy and light and his guilt you yoke yourself up to him I'm in Texas I could probably go find some some more cows like in our last lesson and and you know when two oxen or whatever are put together there's a yoke God says yoke yourself with me let him carry the burdens all floated off your shoulders on to him and so that is my lesson for today it is what is what are you letting what are you doing with all the things that come on you every single day so that they can come off your shoulders so that they can overflow so they can go on downstream and listen if you can't hold it there's got to be a clear passage for it to roll off and to keep on going downstream and if you stay in communion

with the Lord and you walk with him and talk with him all throughout the day things will you will become a pure vessel where things can flow God can flow through you otherwise you're going to drown in it you're going to explode in it implode explode and you're going to be hurt and others are going to be hurt and listen God paid too high a price for you to live in stewing and anger and frustration and hurt and loneliness all those roll it off on to him let it slide on to him and you take it so that you can be walking on higher ground with him holy ground and you can walk in peace and joy and confidence so that is our lesson today from Plano Texas I was a little bit shorter today my hands are burning and they're asleep so I'm gonna get back to my walk and I appreciate your prayers and all that you guys do to encourage the victorious Living team. We love you so much and appreciate you. God bless you in Jesus name. Bye-bye. Please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our victorious living magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples.