I Think I'm Having Stress

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Friday, November 2, 2018

Praise the Lord!  Let all that I am praise the Lord.  I will praise the Lord as long as I live.  I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.  Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.  When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.  But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.  He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.  He keeps every promise forever.  He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry.  The Lord frees the prisoners.  The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.  The Lord loves the godly.  The Lord protects the foreigners among us.  He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.  The Lord will reign forever.  He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 146:1-10(NLT)

A lady called a mother friend of hers to ask how she was getting along.  Said the voice on the other end of the phone:  I'm sick, the house is a mess, and the kids are making me crazy."  

Said the friend:  Don't move a muscle, I'll be right over; I'll cook and clean for you and keep your kids out of your hair until your husband, Sam gets home.   

Said the harried mother, Sam?  My husband's name isn't Sam!  

Said the other, Oh, I'm sorry.  I must have dialed the wrong number. 

After a brief pause the tired Mom said:  That's O.K., but.... you’re still coming over, aren't you?[2]

People find themselves under the effects of a load of stress these days.  Of course, it is no new thing; Adam and Eve had a pile of it to deal with, and then their younger son was murdered by his own brother.  Most stress is produced by breakdowns in relationship; mini-disagreements or maxi, as in the case of Cain and Abel.  But all conflict between humans produces tension and the threat of being overwhelmed. 

We look in all sorts of directions for help, personal coping mechanisms, friends, neighbors, programs that promise help or resources.  There are self-help books, retreats, gurus and, the prize-winner in all the competition to ease your troubled mind: dropping-out.  The opting-out of tension dimension is filled with more choices:  TV, adulterous affairs, drugs that numb your ability to feel, and too many more to list.

I have heard the concept that tension can be good or bad.  Eustress is the good kind; like the tension on the strings of a violin, tightened just enough to be in perfect tune.  This is like the push-and-pull of a healthy relationship between co-workers who respect each other’s contribution to a project.  But, if the roles, established authority patterns, or lines of communication get confused, or just plain shattered, like a violin string pulled too tightly --- SNAP!

Our Psalmist was no stranger to stress; he knew the effects of being weighed down like an overburdened pack animal.  He knew the prison of empty promises and false friendships.  He understood the loneliness of being a powerless outsider without hope.  And so, this man said goodbye to counting on the powerful of this earth to bring him any relief; he turned his heart Heavenward.  And, there he found hope, joy, and the lift of a friend.

I’m not dissing the whole human race here; we need to learn and practice knowing, understanding, and helping each other; that’s a godly thing!  But, my whole point is to give trust slowly and carefully.  If we entrust ourselves to anyone else’s leading, just because they sound good when they talk, we will soon find that trust violated (and maybe our pocket picked!).

Rather, trust freely and quickly in the Lord; never a promise broken there!

For You Today

How’s it going in that stress department?  Are your stripes unravelling?  Here’s a gentle reminder where to turn:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT)

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of John Wilcock's the column of lasting insignificance 2-8-14

[2] Stressed Mom image, Courtesy of Pixabay.com

The Promise of Rest

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Friday, October 12, 2018

God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it.  For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them.  But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.  For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath:  ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world.  We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day:  “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”  But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”  So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.  So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today.  God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:  “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”  Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come.  So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.  For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.  So let us do our best to enter that rest.  But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.  Hebrews 4:1-11(NLT)

Last week my bride and I were on vacation.  Well, it was really a stay-cation.  We didn’t go anywhere like Disney, or Seven Flags, or even visit the grands in Florida.  We stayed home and worked like the Hebrew slaves building Pharaoh’s pyramids.  We pulled weeds, trimmed bushes, shoveled dirt and manure, seeded, fertilized, and transplanted stuff in the dog days of late-September’s heat and humidity.  We both knew for the next several days we have never been more in need of rest for old bones!

The needs of emotional rest for the mind, and spiritual rest for the soul are just as much a reality as in the physical body.  We are created in the image of He Who rested on the seventh day.  But, because of our fallen nature, we do not readily recognize the tiredness in our soul and spirit, or the deep emotional need of rest like we feel the weakness of our weary depleted physical condition. 

But, eventually it does catch up with us.  And that is why we need to be reminded that God’s promise of rest for the weary soul still stands!

And just like a quiet place and a soft bed are a sweet invitation to regain physical being, so is the quiet place next to Father God’s heart the Good News above all else!

I love the hymn that speaks of this quiet place:

There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God;

A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God,

Hold us who wait before thee near to the heart of God.[2]

The caution in Hebrews, however, is that we will fail to enter that place if we try to hold on to our disobedience; when we fail to confess our sins, we put distance between us and the Savior Who is the key to that place near the heart of God.

For You Today

If you’re feeling a little weary in the soul lately, or there is trouble rustling around in your spirit, perhaps you’ve lost sight of the promise of rest; it still stands for all who will take a knee.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Cleland B. McAfee, Near to the Heart of God, 1903m (The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989), p.472

In Green Pastures and Beside Still Waters

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Thursday, April 19, 2018

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 
He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.  Psalm 23:1-3^(NLT)

Green meadows with peaceful streams are quiet places.  Every human needs times of quiet to be restored – to have strength return to the body and mind.  For the Christian follower of Jesus those times are for prayer, casting all our cares upon the Lord.[2]  And, in order to do that there must be times of repose, purposeful rest!

For me the ability to gain restoring to my soul requires exchanging my exhaustion for God’s renewal.  This is an issue of sabbath, a principle God established early on for His people to prevent wearing out prematurely. 

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.  On that day no one in your household may do any work.  This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.  That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.  Exodus 20:8-11^(NLT)

I have known people who seemed to think the concept of sabbath was so antiquated it didn’t apply to them.  The idea of taking a day off seemed wasteful; there was a world to be conquered out there, and taking time off from the conquest was lazy and irresponsible.  God may have rested on the seventh day, but the world would fall apart if they did…with all due respect, it doesn’t; your world comes unglued when you fail to rest.

Even one of the most famous myth creators knew this well.  The story goes that Aesop was playing a children’s game with some very young kids when a colleague walked by.  The man remarked that Aesop was wasting time with those children, playing a worthless game when he should have been working.  Aesop got up, picked-up his bow and laid it in the middle of the road and then challenged the man to tell him the meaning of what he just did.  The man wracked his brain for a long time, but couldn’t come up with an answer.  Having won this battle of wits, Aesop then explained, 'If you keep your bow tightly strung at all times, it will quickly break, but if you let it rest, it will be ready to use whenever you need it.' In the same way the mind must be given some amusement from time to time, so that you will find yourself able to think more clearly afterwards.[3]

For You Today

If you ignore sabbath you run the risk of being ineffective as a disciple at least.  But the more weighty transgression is to know that you have marginalized something God said was important.  If it’s been awhile, rest your bow today!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth

[2] 1 Peter 5:7

[3] Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.