Eastsiders and God: Dealing with Stress
Pastor
In our
survey, we covered 319,000 people. It
covered an area of east
There were five areas in the section called “spiritual/personal.” Again, people were asked to identify their primary concerns. Here is how that part of the survey turned out:
Dealing with Stress 27.0%
Finding Companionship 17.6%
Finding a Good Church 10.8%
Finding Spiritual Teaching 10.1%
Finding Life Direction 15.4%
Easily the leader in that category was the problem of dealing with stress. 27% of us have that as a “primary concern” of our lives. The question is how bad does the stress have to be for it to be a “primary concern?” Other research might indicate the extent of the problem.
According to a Lou Harris poll, 86% of us claim to be chronically stressed. One out of four of us say that we're stressed to the point of exhaustion. Thirty-eight percent of us always feel rushed. Seeing these kinds of numbers, some have even gone so far as to say that stress is heading toward being THE disease of the 21st century.
Such a pervasive problem has serious consequences. Robert Anderson, who specializes in stress related illnesses, says that at one time he attributed stress to 30-40% of the problems brought to him by his patients. Today he believes that stress can be implicated in 90% of all ailments. Of the top 20 prescription drugs, 11 of them treat stress-related disorders -- 13 billion doses of tranquilizers, barbiturates, and amphetamines are prescribed each year. Eight million Americans have stomach ulcers. The cost of work time missed due to stress and its related illnesses is over $200 billion annually. There's no doubt that negative stress is robbing us of energy, vitality, and enthusiasm.
Scripture
“If
an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. 13 But it is you,
a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14 with whom I once enjoyed
sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. 15 Let death
take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave, for evil
finds lodging among them. 16 But I call to
God, and the LORD saves me. 17 Evening, morning and
In the passage above, David is being hounded. Some think this relates to the Absalom rebellion. What is certain that former friends have turned against him and are trying to kill him. The experience of David in those trying years is a good illustration of the stresses that can come to people’s lives.
I am sure this Psalm is the passage that Peter was thinking about when he wrote, "Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you."[1]
As we think about what Eastsiders are going through, it is important to say that not all stress is bad. In fact, some people seem to thrive on it. Having said that, it is also clear that stress is a big problem to many others.
It is not hard to understand where stress comes from. When we looked at Eastsiders and money issues last week, we were looking at a major source of stress both in making the money and in paying the bills. The sheer pace of life creates stress. I will not even bring up the subject of traffic. We also need to say that we are not all created the same. Some people, just by how they were created seem more inclined toward stress. Others seem to be descendants of Alfred E. Newman who said, “What, me worry?”
Beyond the normal issues of life, I believe we compound stress in our life in several ways:
Wrong attitudes increase stress. Anger will increase stress.[2] Paul in Ephesians urged us not to let the sun do down on our anger or else we would be giving the devil a foothold in our life.[3] Unforgiveness is usually related to anger and creates stress.
Wrong expectations of yourself will increase stress. If you believe that everything you do has to be perfect, you will be under enormous stress. If there is a “critical tape” playing in your head all the time, you will drive yourself without mercy. A person like that doesn’t need someone else to criticize them, they are doing it to themselves.
A Wrong
agenda in life will increase stress.
What I mean by that is that you will feel the internal tension if you
are not operating within God’s will. You were born to do certain things. Failure to do them results in internal
tension or stress. If you were to take
the 20 most successful people (judging by usual societal standards) at
1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17-inch paper, 99 copies.
2. Sit in your yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go."
4. Sing along at the opera.
5. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
6. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what YOU think."
7. Practice making fax and modem noises.
8. Highlight irrelevant material in scientific papers and them to your manager.
9. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
They might not have a stress problem but I couldn’t help but wonder what other kinds of problems they might have had.
In addition to the survey, I asked a few people how they handled stress. I liked their answers more. Their answers divided into physical issues and spiritual issues. Here are the main answers I got.
One man who has an exceptionally stressful professional job said he would leave his job so tired he could barely function. For him, the answer was rest. He would just have to sleep and relax. He didn’t use the word, but I call this the Sabbath Principle. God set it up so that we would work six days and rest on the seventh. If you violate that principle and don’t take at least one day in seven as a day of rest, you will pay a heavy price in your body, emotions, and spirit.
Another person said the key for them was exercise. We are physical people. God created us that way. Many people find that a brisk walk, or a good workout sets their body at ease.
Another man who works in development and construction, who told me he actually likes stress, said that he prayed. Because he prayed, he knew that God helped him to find solutions to problems. Knowing that he would find solutions to the problems he faced, allowed him to be focused without being worried if everything would work out.
This is like Jesus asleep in the boat during a fierce storm. Everyone else is frantic but Jesus was sound asleep. Jesus knew that everything would be ok. He wasn’t worried that he would drown. He knew that he had the power to make things work out ok. As a result, he could relax and sleep.
One person in sales told me about a particularly difficult time. For him the answer was in two forms. I never lost faith in myself and I never lost faith in God. In these last two cases, they shared a common feature. We might call it hope. One man says that he prays and knows that God will answer his prayer in time. The other man says he never lost faith in himself or God. He also has hope.
This hope
seems to underlie what David said as well.
He had distress. He had troubles
and danger. But verse 17 has a present
tense quality about it. “Evening, morning and