To stressed to be blessed?

A lot of people say they are “too blessed to be stressed”* – and that’s the way it should be. Recently, with all that’s going on in my FMC – Family, Ministry (including this blog) and Career, I feel stressed from time to time. So I started asking myself: Am I too stressed to be blessed?

What is stress? It is strain felt by somebody: mental, emotional, or physical strain caused, e.g. by anxiety or overwork. It may cause such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression.**

You know sometimes, I feel so under pressure that I barely notice or even appreciate God’s blessings. It’s not as if I’m not aware that He’s been good to me, it’s just that I catch myself almost complaining that I have so much to do rather than have the half-full glass perspective and thank God that I’m alive and even able to do so much. While some people complain about having to go to work, you should thank God that you have a job to go to. It is so easy to get “burdened” by the weight of this world that we forget to “wait on the Lord” to renew our strength.

After reading Elizabeth George’s book on Life Management for Busy Women – let’s not even talk about how long it took me to get through reading it – it further reinforced the need to spend quality time with God at the start of each day. After all, in Psalm 16:11 David said: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”*** Take note and hold on to this tightly: In God’s presence, there are pleasures not pressures.

20 chapters later he even explains why we must desire God’s presence: “ How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house; and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.”*** (Psalm 36:7-9) - that word again - "pleasures".

God desires that we spend time with Him for our own good (& pleasure). I’m sure we all know, or have least heard, of this basic principle but our practices are sometimes not aligned with the principle. Sometimes, I have so much on my plate that it feels as if spending time with God is taking from my time. When I get really busy…I mean “too busy” to spend quality time with God, I remember a saying I heard several years ago…when you’re too busy for God, you’re probably busier than God intended for you to be (Author unknown).

Hold on to that thought and consider these quotes on stress, which I pray will keep us away from it…and in God’s presence:

Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of mental illness ~ Richard Carlson

Stress is poison. ~Agavé Powers

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. ~Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind

Is everything as urgent as your stress would imply? ~Carrie Latet

Sometimes a headache is all in your head. Relax. ~Hartman Jule

Releasing the pressure, it's good for the teapot and the water. Try it sometime. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. ~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. ~Ovid

Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live. ~Margaret Fuller

If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it. ~ George F. Burns

God bless us as we move from being too stressed to be blessed to being too blessed to be stressed.



References:
* Author unknown
**http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?lextype=3&search=stress
***Amplified Bible