Pressure: I Eat It For Breakfast

Pressure, I Eat It For Breakfast

I Timothy 6:11 plus verse from Daniel

I. Crab vs Pipe - 6000 ft down, 3mm slit by the saw, 0psi in pipe & 2700psi outside

- Crab pushed into the pipe by the pressure

As we look around our world we see pressure all over. The air around us is always pressure us, the wind blows and we feel the pressure. When we go swimming, we feel the pressure of the water around us.

Pressure is all around us, how do you handle it?

I have loved to swim. Ever since I was 2 years old I have been swimming in pools, lakes and the oceans. I have never had any issues diving down into deep water. I have told you before about my friend Joey. One of the cool thing about going to my friend Joeys house was that he had a lake nearby. Now this wasn’t an ordinary lake. This lake used to be a rock quarry, which means a company dug a big hole in the ground and once they were done mining it, filled it up with water. Joey’s lake went down to 200+ feet. I used to fear swimming across this lake because of the shear blackness of it. At times my friend Joey and I would swim out until the ground dropped off. We would have contest to see who could go down the farthest. We tried everything to get down faster and farther. I couldn’t tell you the true depth of how far we went down, I know it was more than 15 feet down but to us at 12 years old, was a pretty deal. The funny part was, last year I went swimming at the Vivian Road YMCA and blew my ear drum out. True story, this is something I have never done. I was swimming with Timmy and teaching him to jump in and go down. So I dove into the deep end which is 12 feet deep and before I got to the bottom, I felt this pop in my head, heard air bubbles go out and got really dizzy. I wasn’t sure what happened and in talking to Beth I realized I had ruptured my ear drum. It hurt like crazy. Finish story...

(Possibly change this to fit the students I am speaking with. Plaza, new to Jr High, new to High school, college)

Pressure is all around us, not sure in the atmosphere and water but also in our lives because of people and events. We have all experienced pressure from:

* parents: to do well in school, to be successful, to make the right choices

* friends: to be true to them, to be there for them, to help them be better

* teachers: get good grades, turn in all your homework & be ready for test, to be on time

* coaches & instructors: to practice, to perform well, to get it right

* marketers: see the magazines, movies, tv shows of all these people who look great and have such wonderful lives.

EVEN

* ME: I pressure you to be here, to be active, to listen, to be respectful and to live a Godly life...

Some of you even feel pressure (real or assumed) from

* God: to follow Him, to live according to the Bible, to be who He wants you to be.

Pressure isn’t a bad thing, sometimes it can be a good thing. For the crab in our video, it really wasn’t good. Now too much pressure can be a bad thing, a very bad thing. I would guess that all of us could tell stories or share experiences of dealing with people who have experienced too much pressure. Sometimes they end up in our needed to take a mental break at an institution or even death. All of us need to know how to handle pressure, we can’t escape it, we can only deal with it the best we know how.

Pressure is all around us, how do you handle it?

I personally believe there are 3 kinds of people out there when it comes to dealing with pressure. (Slide)

1. Pressure Eater. This person loves pressure and almost thrives on it. They make great leaders who can handle big loads and lots of tasks. Sometimes they wait till the last minute to do a task because it gets their creative juices flowing. Failure for this person is usually big and hard.

2. Pressure Shy Awayer. This person stays away from pressure. If something seems like it will be too hard or to big a risk, they simply won’t do it. They may take some pressure and deal with it but only if they really have to. They would rather not do something than to feel pressured. Failing for this person doesn’t really occur because they never take the risk.