DON’T STRESS IT
INTRODUCTION: What kinds of words come to mind when you think of the word, ‘stress’? Perhaps words like: anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, tension or chaos come to mind. Stress is defined in Webster’s as a ‘force that strains or deforms; mental or physical tension; urgency, pressure’. In his book, “Adrenalin and Stress”, Arch Hart suggests that stress is a result of anything that annoys, threatens, excites, scares ,worries, hurries, angers, frustrates, challenges or reduces self-esteem. What causes stress, what are the effects of stress and what we can do about that?
1) What are some things in our life that cause stress? I read that there are four major things that cause stress P.E.T.E.: People, Events, Thoughts and Emotions.
• (People) Family. What about the marriage stress? Learning to live together and share space. Learning to compromise, learning to solve conflicts like deciding whether the toilet paper goes over or under. Adjusting to each other’s little quirks or learning to be aware and sensitive to the other’s pet peeves like finding toast crumbs in the butter. What about raising children? Dealing with the high demands and the stress of getting them to school, practices or the babysitter on time. Dealing with the stress of all the different roles that parents have to fill like nurse, teacher, referee, problem solver, etc. Then there’s the stress outside of the immediate family with your parents, siblings or in-laws. Family can be stressful.
• (Events) Work. The stress of work would include your workload as well as dealing with our boss or co-workers. The high demands of productivity, the boss breathing down your neck, ready to critique your every move. Perhaps you’re dealing with the stress of an irritable or antagonistic co-worker. An estimated one million workers are absent on an average workday because of stress related complaints. Stress is said to be responsible for more than half of the 550,000,000 workdays lost annually because of absenteeism. Job stress is estimated to cost U.S. industry $300 billion dollars annually, as assessed by absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover, medical insurance, etc. What if your work involves driving? There’s added stress. I’ve had a couple of driving jobs before. Driving can be a source of tension. We can be on edge just getting behind the wheel. What do you think road rage is caused by? Perhaps I’m stressed about something before I get into the vehicle so when you cut me off in traffic it becomes the straw that breaks the back and I snap. Work can be stressful.
• (Thoughts/Emotions) Things I cannot change. Sometimes the stress I’m under has less to do with outside circumstances and more to do with the battles already going on inside of me. Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Much of the time, our anxious thoughts have to do with something we cannot change. Are my anxious thoughts about something in my past that I can no longer do anything about? Are my anxious thoughts about something in my future that I can’t do anything about but wait? We get anxious and anticipate something negative about a future event and 9 times out of 10 it never ends up how we made it in our minds to be. It’s wasted energy. We can waste a lot of time stressing about things we cannot change. We also cannot change what others will think, say or do. We can be stressed over what others are doing or not doing. I can try to persuade someone to think, say and do differently but in the end when it’s obvious that someone isn’t listening I need to stop banging my head against the wall and conclude that people are going to think, say and do what they want and I can’t change that. I can’t force you to stop thinking bad thoughts about me. I can’t force you to change your opinion about certain things. I cannot control your tongue. I can worry and stress about these things but I need to let it go and stop trying to change what I can’t change.
2) What are the effects of stress?
• Physical. Think about it: high blood pressure, Hypertension, heart attack, stroke, ulcers. Stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis, and suicide. Prevention magazine says, “Almost nine out of ten adults have experienced serious stress. More than four out of ten adults suffer adverse health effects from stress, and some estimates suggest that 75 to 90% of all physician office visits are for stress-related complaints.” Stress affects us physically.
• Spiritual. Stress strangles, stagnates and stifles us spiritually. Matt 13:20-22. The first one started out joyous. But when the stress of trouble and persecution came his way he fell away. Some are like that. They are all excited when they become baptized but then they get hit with resistance when they try to share the word. Or when they make some changes in their life because of their newfound faith others resist that change and the result of lost relationships or pleasures prove to be too stressful for them to deal with and they turn and fall away. The second one, because of the worries of life the word was choked inside him. The word couldn’t breathe, there was no fruit. Stress chokes the word right out of us, bringing us to a point of inactivity. Our spiritual growth is greatly hindered by our worries and our obsession with the pursuit of wealth. The word “anxious” means “to be divided” or “to de drawn in different directions.” The word “anxiety” comes from an old English word that means “to strangle.” It was used to refer to the practices of wolves killing sheep by biting them around the neck, strangling their prey to death. That’s what anxiety does to us. And if we allow it to, stress can bring us to the point of wanting to give up. Let’s take a little quiz to see how well you know these stress statements. Fill in the blanks: I’m just a bundle of… I’m at the end of my… I’m at my wit’s… My life is falling… I’m ready to throw in the… We know these statements because chances are we’ve said some of them. These statements are stress induced and they also indicate that because of that stress I’m about ready to give up. Stress strangles, stagnates and stifles.
3) What can we do about stress?
• Go to the Lord. Phil. 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We’re anxious about how we will make ends meet. We’re stressed about the job interview next Tuesday. We pace the floor, bite our nails in anxious anticipation. Instead of stressing about all that we need to bring it to God. But, when we go to God, we need to leave it there. If we can release it to him and leave it in his capable hands, his peace will guard our hearts and minds against worry. 1st Peter 5:6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you.” Our pride will keep us from going to God. In that stubborn pride we will stress ourselves out. How many times do we get stressed trying 100 different ways to solve a problem before we decide to go to God and pray? How much stress could be lifted from us if prayer would be our first resort? When we’re stressed we should go to the Lord.
• Surrender to the Lord. Matt. 11:28-30. “Take my yolk upon you”. In other words: Come under my control. We will not have the peace of Christ until we release ourselves to his Lordship. We might think that allowing Jesus to control my life would add to my stress instead of minimize it but the reality is that I can’t experience that peace until I do. Seems strange to think that I can’t be free until I surrender but it’s true. Freedom from stress comes with allowing Jesus to lead me. “My yolk is easy”. Wait a minute. It’s not easy to be a Christian. We are called to stand out. We are called to resist temptation. We are called to live contrary to the world. We are called to come out of our comfort zone. That doesn’t sound easy; it sounds stressful! So how could Jesus say that coming under his control is easy? His yoke is easy compared to the yoke of the law. We no longer have to fulfill the requirements of the law to be right before God; Jesus did that for us. “My burden is light”. That seems like an oxymoron. How can a burden be light? His burden is light compared to the burden of human effort. We are not required to accomplish the things of God under our own power and strength; Jesus gave us his power and his strength to accomplish all that. His control is easy when we’re surrendered to his power working through us instead of the burden of trying to do it ourselves. J.H. Jowett summarized the thought this way, “The fatal mistake for the believer is to seek to bear life’s load in a single collar. God never intended man to carry his burden alone. Christ therefore deals only in yokes! A yoke is a neck harness for two, and the Lord Himself pleads to be One of the two. He wants to share the labor of any galling task. The secret of peace and victory in the Christian life is found in putting off the taxing collar of “self” and accepting the Master’s relaxing “yoke.”” One day a man went by to see a farmer who was plowing his field with a team of oxen. The man noticed that one of the animals was seemingly a little bigger than the other so he asked him about it. The response from the farmer was very interesting. He said that the big animal was an older animal that was well trained and the smaller one was a young animal that was new to the yoke. The man went on to inquire as to why he put them together and this is the answer that he got: “Well you see; it’s like this. That older ox is the best ox that I have ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull himself to death, but together he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.” The ability to handle stressful situations is found in surrendering to Jesus’ wise guidance and working through his power.
• Focus on the Lord. Luke 10:38-42. Satan wants to keep us too busy to focus on Jesus. He wants to make us worried and upset about many things. Jesus would be telling us to slow down and focus on him. We need to remember what the priority is. Being busy is good, but the tendency is to get too busy and we neglect the most important thing. We face a stressful situation and prayer is a last resort instead of the first one. If we were to focus on the Lord we would be able to slow down, calm down and get our heads in the right frame of mind. Then, through focusing on Jesus and going forward in his strength, we will be able to see things in the right perspective and make decisions according to God’s leading which will allow me to be clear-minded and focused, thus eliminating my stress.
• Rely on the Lord. 2nd Cor. 1:8-10. Sometimes God allows us to be in stressful situations where we are under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure. Why? So that we can come to where we realize we have nothing to rely on but God. Then we can experience his deliverance. It helps to understand that we’re probably not going to be able to eliminate stress from our lives. The key to success is not removing stress as much as it is learning how to properly deal with it. Hans Selye said, “It’s not stress that kills us; it’s our reaction to it.” When we rely on ourselves to handle the troubles that come our way we will be frazzled and unsuccessful. But if we rely on Jesus to show us how to overcome we will have peace. John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you would have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” When we’re stressed because it seems like the world is winning we need to remember what Jesus said and rely on him to overcome.
CONCLUSION: If we respond to it correctly, stress can be a great teacher and motivator. Bruce Ball wrote, “Have you ever thought any deep thoughts about rubber bands? I have. A rubber band is made for only one purpose. That purpose is to be stretched so it can hold something together. Now, if it is not stretched, it is not fulfilling its purpose at all, is it? Christians are much like the rubber band. We were put on this earth to be doers of God word. To do that, we must stretch ourselves out of our everlasting comfort zones so that we can be effective. One of the hardest things for us to do, is to get out of our comfort zones, but to be effective for God, we must do it. I have read the Bible through and through and I have never seen anywhere in it that says God wants us to be all comfortable and cozy. I have never read where God wants us to have it really easy and smooth, have you?”
