Dealing With Stress The Silent Killer Series

Stress

Annual Sermons Volume 9 (15-16) – Revised 2022

HOW TO HAVE MORE TIME AND LESS STRESS

“There is a time and a season for everything under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

bmarcaurelle@charter.net

STRESS THE WAY TO A MISERABLE LIFE

I know what you are saying. “Brother Bob, there is no way you can teach us to have MORE time. That’s one place we are all equal. There are just so many hours in a day, twenty-four and no more.” No, I cannot teach you how to have more time but using principles from God’s Word and time management seminars I, hopefully, can show you and myself how to have more time for the things we NEED to do, and lessen our load of guilt, and more time for the things we WANT to do, and lessen our load of weariness.

I don’t know many people like Junior Samples, the character on HEE HAW! The epitome of laziness, he was slowly doing some minor chore. A friend asked him, “Junior, don’t you do anything fast?” “Yep!” said Junior, “I GET TIRED FAST.”

All I know and see are busy people, hustling and hurrying from daylight to dawn. But it seems like most of us are busy going in circles like a dog chasing its tail. We do what we HAVE to do, usually at the last minute, and leave undone things we NEED to do and WANT to do. We substitute GOOD things for the BEST things.

I’ve seen this road sign in the Georgia mountains, “SPEED KILLS.” Whether you mean driving, drugs or the rat race of life - SPEED does kill. We live at a fast pace. We want patience right now. The mail is too slow so we FAX. We buy new cars and gadgets to save time, but spend all our time working to pay for them. Vance Havner said life is a rat race and the rats are winning.

Exhausted at the close of each day, we try to juggle being mother, father, husband, wife and employees. We are involved in community functions, school functions and church functions. Add to this grass to cut, mildew to clean off the house, cars to repair, and relatives to visit and you’ll know why one lady in a cartoon cried, “Stop the world! I want to get off!” We know why we call this the daily GRIND. It just grinds the life and energy right out of us.

This is all new. In 1950's we didn’t like this. I lived in a city but did not have a car or a telephone. We walked most places we went, even pulling our groceries in a wagon. We didn’t need a phone, Mama said, because if people really want you they’ll come see you. We didn’t have a dishwasher, a trash compacter, a washing machine or a calculator. We didn’t have any TIME saving gadgets but what we did have was TIME! Time to sit on the porch - time to walk through the neighborhood; time to laugh and play together. We had more quality time for each other each other back then than we do now.

Feeling Trapped and Out of Control

Stress is not necessarily hard work or long hours on the job. Dr. Selye works 16 hours a day but his work is his life, his hobby, his joy. Stress is the feeling of being out of control, of being manipulated by pressures and bound by our circumstances we do not like; of feeling trapped. A country song puts it:

Right or left at Oak Street

It’s a choice I make every day

And I don’t know which the more courage

The staying or the running away

Talk about being out of control – A new air traffic controller from the sticks was on his first day at the controls. A pilot said on the speaker- “USA Flight coming in East to West on runway seven”. The young man said, “10-4”. Another pilot came on and said, “TBS Flight coming in West to East on runway seven”. The young man said, “10-4, YAW’L BE REAL CAREFUL OUT THERE!”

Most people today feel trapped - by their job; their marriage; their finances; their inadequacies; their problems, etc. Charles Steinbeck traveled all across America with his dog Charlie and talked with people from every walk of life. He said majority of were not happy with their lives. They wanted to be someone else and to be doing something else.

Mothers know stress. A lady took her son to a psychiatrist and said, “This kid is driving me crazy”. The psychiatrist said, “Let me get this straight. You are telling me you have given your mental balance to a three-year-old.” She had and she is one of many.

Stress and Material Possessions