I want to live an overwhelmed life. I love being overwhelmed by good things! Those times when your heart is ready to burst because something is so good. The other night my 2 year old Jonathan was giving me unsolicited kisses on the cheek before bedtime and I thought I was going to pop. It was just too much. I was overwhelmed with love for my little guy.

Being overwhelmed by negativity or something else on the other hand, makes life absolutely miserable. I’m working through Proverbs and Proverbs 10:6 says…

Blessings crown the head of the righteous, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

What I hear this passage saying is that those who choose to surrender their lives to God will be overwhelmed with blessings. God gave his only begotten Son to create a way for sinful people to have a relationship with him. Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” The Apostle Paul is saying here that God wants to overwhelm us. He’s already given so much to rescue us. Those who have submitted their lives to Christ can anticipate that God will overwhelm them with his goodness every single day. 

“Violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.” Some people like to think they can choose not to worship. They can choose to steer clear of all that religious nonsense. Not true. The word worship comes from an old English word which simply means to ascribe worth or value to something. We are going to worship because we will inevitably ascribe worth to some things and not to others by virtue of the decisions we make every day. We can’t help but worship. We were created by God to worship in hopes that we would choose to worship him. What or whom we worship has everything to do with what we’re overwhelmed by.

I believe this Proverb is saying that you are going to be overwhelmed by either good or evil. By either violence or blessings. If you choose to worship God and are counted among the righteous, you will be overwhelmed by blessings. If you choose to worship wealth, status, success or something else in this world, you are going to be overwhelmed by darkness.

We can’t choose not to worship. It’s simply not in the cards by virtue of being human. We can however, choose what or whom we worship. The ramifications of that decision will yield massive consequences not only in this life but also in the life to come.