How To Handle Stress?

How to handle Stress?

Thesis: Stress is a reality of life in our hustle and bustle life styles. We find pressures pressing in on every side. We find ourselves pressed to the wall because of these anxiety producing phenomena’s. So how do we handle stress? Jesus demonstrated to us through his life and ministry the right steps to take in dealing with the stress of life.

Video Clip: Jingle all the Way- Shows the stress of the holidays. These two guys are so stressed out that it causes them more stress because they deal with stress the wrong way.

Introduction:

Stress it’s everywhere and it is ever pursuing and pressuring us in our lives. I find it at home and at work. I find it in the church and outside the church. I see it in all four seasons of the year but something happens around the holidays it somehow gains momentum and presses us harder than during the rest of the year. Why? Our video clip revealed that the holidays can be filled with stress if we allow them to be. I heard one speaker say that we can be in pain and yet still not suffer because suffering is a choice. I agree I believe we can come under pressure and stress it can mushroom up but we don’t have to let it have preeminence. Stress comes from the following conditions:

S= Shocking moments in our life

T=Traumatic events that occur to our life

R=Repetitious pressure from something in our life

E=Errors that we make cause stress

S=Strain from succeeding and striving through life

S=Sales relates to money-financial pressures

Swindoll stated, “Whoever dubbed our times “The Aspirin Age” didn’t miss it very far. It is correct to assume there has never been a more stress-ridden society than ours. For many, gone are the days of enjoying bubbling brooks along winding pathways or taking long strolls near the beach. The relaxed bike ride through the local park has been replaced with the roar of a motorcycle whipping through busy traffic. The easy-come, easy-go lifestyle of the farm has been preempted by a hectic urban family going in six different directions…existing on instant dinners, shouting matches, strained relationships, too little sleep, and too much television. Add financial setbacks, failure at school, unanswered letters, obesity, loneliness, a ringing phone, unplanned pregnancies, fear of cancer, misunderstanding, materialism, alcoholism, drugs, and an occasional death: then subtract the support of the family unit, divide by dozens of opinions, multiply by 365 days a year, and you have the makings of madness! Stress has become a way of life; it is the rule rather than the exception” (15, Stress Fractures).

One motto says. “If you keep the bow bowed to long it will eventually break!” And many of us find ourselves in this position today. Why? Sometimes it’s because we do it to ourselves. We put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. We in all truth stress ourselves out. Some stress themselves out because they think that busy is better! Doing more is what God wants. Being busier is being better and we find ourselves in a whirlwind of activity trapped like a feather in a tornado swept around in circles and we end up getting so dizzy and disorientated that we lose our direction and our purpose in life. This type of pressure eventually causes the individual to crack and finally the pressure gets so strong and consistent it causes us to break.

I recall watching the TV shortly after 911 when one plane lost and engine and the plane crashed on long Island. The final verdict on this accident was not terrorism but actually it was caused by the stress from this plane flying in the air. Over time this plane being under constant motion and pressure from the outside force of nature eventually developed stress fractures around the engine. The mechanics never noticed these stress fractures and the mountings around this engine from the pressure could not take it any more and the engine broke free from the plane and it crashed. The truth is if someone would have noticed the stress fractures the people on that plane could have been saved but instead they lost their lives. Why because the stress fractures went unnoticed.

The same is true for each one of us today. We need to ask ourselves do I have stress fractures in my life! Is stress relentlessly pounding at my heart and life. Have I been in shock and awe for too long. Have I faced one trauma after another trauma. Have my repeated errors and mistakes caused me to be pressed against the wall feeling pinned like a sardine in a can. Have I been straining to long to endure another day of busyness running here there and every where. Have I found myself so indebt because of all the great sales, all the materialistic stuff that is paraded in front of me on a daily basis that I bought in to the lie that stuff will make me happy. This brings is to the upcoming holidays were most have the tendency to spend –spend –spend-charge-charge-charge. Then enters the stress bills-bills-bills.