Have you ever felt scattered? Like you’re one hundred pieces of one hundred different people and none of them fit together? I have. Honestly, I still do sometimes.
A few years ago, I wrote in my journal, “Today I feel scattered. Scattered in my thoughts, my purpose, my identity, and my body.” As I reread those words recently, I realized they still describe some of my hardest days. Not every day, but enough of them that I know I’m not completely on the other side of this struggle yet.
The funny thing is that when I feel scattered, I automatically assume something is wrong. I don’t just think my schedule is too busy or my to-do list is too long. I start questioning myself. I start wondering if there is something fundamentally wrong with who I am.
It makes me feel like a failure.
Not just that I’ve failed at something. It makes me feel like I am a failure.
Like everyone else has figured out who they are and what they’re supposed to be doing while I’m standing in the middle of a room filled with unfinished projects, half-developed ideas, and dreams that I can’t seem to bring across the finish line.
Maybe you know that feeling too.
Why Feeling Scattered Can Make You Feel Like a Failure
For me, feeling scattered often looks like twenty different ideas competing for attention at the same time. I have books I’ve started writing, Bible studies I’ve outlined, podcasts I’ve planned, businesses I’ve built, websites I’ve created, and notebooks full of ideas that may never see the light of day.
Sometimes I look at all those unfinished things and they feel less like possibilities and more like evidence against me.
Evidence that I don’t follow through.
Evidence that I’m inconsistent.
Evidence that I can’t figure out my purpose.
Evidence that I’m somehow falling behind everyone else.
I want to follow God’s path. I want to finish the things He’s placed on my heart. I want to complete the books, record the podcasts, write the studies, and create the resources. But sometimes it feels impossible. It feels like I’m trying to hold twenty puzzle pieces in my hands at once and none of them fit together.
But lately I’ve started wondering if I’ve been asking the wrong question.
What if scattered doesn’t automatically mean failing?
What if feeling scattered doesn’t mean you’re broken?
When You Have Too Many Interests and Too Many Dreams
For years I thought my interests contradicted each other.
I love writing, but I also love spreadsheets.
I love creativity, but I also enjoy organization.
I love ministry, but I enjoy business.
I love creating things, but I also love solving problems.
I can spend hours brainstorming a book idea and then spend the next few hours building formulas into a spreadsheet because I genuinely enjoy figuring out how things work.
Somewhere along the way, I started believing that I needed to pick one identity and stay there.
The world loves labels. We want people to fit neatly into categories because categories make people easier to understand. You’re either creative or analytical. You’re either a businessperson or a ministry leader. You’re either organized or disorganized.
But God rarely works inside the neat little boxes we create.
Maybe some of us feel scattered because God placed more than one gift inside of us.
Maybe the problem isn’t that we have too many interests.
Maybe the problem is that we’re trying to pursue all of them at the same time.
What the Bible Says About Feeling Lost, Scattered, or Uncertain
When I look through Scripture, I don’t see God using people whose lives fit into tidy little boxes.
I see shepherds who became kings.
Fishermen who became church leaders.
A murderer who became the leader of Israel.
A tax collector who became a disciple.
Their lives didn’t make sense in the middle of the story.
Looking back, we can see how God was weaving all the pieces together, but I imagine many of them felt scattered while they were living it.
Moses spent years in Pharaoh’s palace before becoming a shepherd in the wilderness. Then, after decades of tending sheep, God called him to lead an entire nation. If Moses had stopped in the middle of his story, I imagine he would have struggled to understand how all those pieces fit together.
David was a shepherd, musician, warrior, fugitive, king, and psalm writer. His life wasn’t a straight line. It unfolded in seasons.
Even Peter seemed scattered at times. One moment he was boldly declaring his faith in Christ. The next he was sinking in the water or denying Jesus altogether.
Yet God used all of them.
Maybe because God isn’t looking for people who have everything figured out.
Maybe He’s looking for people who will trust Him one step at a time.
God’s Plan Doesn’t Always Feel Clear in the Middle of the Story
I think one of the biggest lies we believe is that calling should always feel clear. We assume that if we’re truly walking in God’s will, we’ll always know exactly where we’re headed. Yet Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Why would God tell us not to lean on our own understanding if everything was always supposed to make sense?
The reality is that many of God’s people spent long seasons walking without seeing the entire path ahead.
Abraham left home without knowing where he was going.
Joseph carried dreams for years before seeing them fulfilled.
Noah built an ark before the rain ever came.
God has always asked His people to walk by faith before they could walk by sight.
Feeling Scattered Doesn’t Mean You’re Failing God
Years ago, during one of those scattered seasons, I felt God whisper something to my spirit that I’ve never forgotten:
“It’s going to look impossible. Do it anyway.”
At the time, I thought He was talking about a specific project. Now I know He was talking about obedience itself, because obedience often looks impossible in the middle.
Writing the book feels impossible.
Starting the business feels impossible.
Healing feels impossible.
Trusting God feels impossible.
Finishing something feels impossible when your mind is carrying a hundred different ideas at once. But God has never required perfection before obedience. He has never asked us to have the entire plan before taking the next step.
Sometimes Feeling Scattered Comes From Trying to Be Someone You’re Not
What I’ve come to realize is that not all scatteredness comes from the same place. Sometimes we’re scattered because we’re trying to become people God never called us to be. I’ve lived through those seasons too.
There were years when my scatteredness came from trying to become who I thought everyone else wanted me to be. Who I thought my parents wanted me to be. Who I thought would earn approval. Who I thought would finally be enough.
That kind of scatteredness is exhausting because you’re trying to hold together identities that were never yours in the first place.
But there is another kind of scatteredness.
The kind that comes from abundance instead of confusion.
The kind that comes from having many interests, many ideas, many gifts, and many opportunities.
The kind that comes from seeing possibilities everywhere.
That’s not failure. That’s gifting that still needs wisdom and direction.
How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed by Too Many Goals and Projects
The older I get, the more I realize my problem isn’t that I have too many gifts. My problem is that I keep trying to use all of them at the same time.
I used to joke that entrepreneurs wear a lot of hats. What I really meant was that I was wearing all the hats simultaneously. Now I’m learning something different.
I may wear many hats, but I don’t have to wear them all today. That’s what God has been teaching me lately.
Not how to eliminate dreams.
Not how to stop being creative.
Not how to stop having ideas.
He’s teaching me how to recognize seasons.
Learning to Trust God’s Timing for Your Dreams
Right now, my boys are a priority.
One is entering high school. The other is thinking about college, scholarships, jobs, and adulthood. These moments matter. They won’t always be here.
At the same time, God has been stirring my heart toward writing again. Toward drawing again. Toward creating again. I can feel Him calling me back to some of the things He’s placed on my heart.
The podcast may return in a bigger way one day.
The consulting business may grow again one day.
Some of the books sitting unfinished on my computer may finally be completed.
But not everything has to happen in the same season.
Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there is a season for everything.
I think much of our stress comes from trying to force every season to happen at once.
God Uses Unfinished People in Unfinished Seasons
Maybe that’s why feeling scattered no longer scares me the way it once did. I don’t think feeling scattered automatically means I’m failing anymore.
Sometimes it means I’m growing. Sometimes it means God is sorting things out. Sometimes it means He’s teaching me which dreams belong in this season and which ones need to wait for another. And sometimes it simply means that He created me with more than one gift, more than one interest, and more than one way to serve Him.
Maybe you’re feeling scattered today too. Maybe you’re staring at unfinished projects, unanswered questions, and a life that feels more complicated than you thought it would be.
If so, let me encourage you with this: God has never been intimidated by unfinished things.
After all, He’s spent thousands of years turning ordinary, imperfect, unfinished people into something beautiful.
And He’s not finished with either of us yet.