Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast and on toward New Orleans. A man who refused to vacate, moved his wife up the ladder to their attic as the water rose to his waist. As he came to her side to comfort her in that devastating moment, she laid her head upon his shoulder and breathed her last. After a day and a half, they were rescued, and the autopsy revealed …she had died from stress.
Most of us would be hard pressed to say that we know anyone who died from stress, but none of us are free from its menacing grip. Stress is no respecter of persons and may plague its victims with fatigue, headaches, backaches, allergies, nervousness, dizziness, ulcers, and high blood pressure. It ill-affects our ability to think and behave rationally. Upon its advent, this unwelcome guest sets up shop in our minds, sending its influence throughout our body’s normal physiological pattern. Thirty million men in America today describe themselves as “stressed out”.
The remedy offered for its management will vary greatly, depending upon the source. Friends will advise us to avoid stressful situations, take more vacations, and get some fun in our life. A psychologist will counsel us to express our anger, cry more, and join a therapy group. The natural health society exhorts us to a better diet and more exercise, while the medical field prescribes pills. There are now 18 million Americans on Prozac; but Christ prescribes something else.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. -Matthew 11:28-30 Some may believe that Christ is offering us a new plush and padded yoke in trade for our harsh wooden one that has rubbed us raw, along with a burden-free load to pull. This thought promotes the belief that our life will dramatically improve upon entrance into Christianity. Christ does affirm that His yoke is easy, but this extends no guarantee that our load will be removed.
While repentance will alleviate the awful load of sin with its condemnation from our breast, the new man will continue to face the events pertaining to this terrestrial world, and stress is the inevitable result. Stress is the response of our sympathetic nervous system to a perceived or actual threat. When we find our well-being threatened, our blood pressure skyrockets and muscle tension increases. Depending upon our mental fortitude, we are ready to fight or flee. Short-term stress is fairly normal, and our body’s glands and organs can usually handle it without any problem. It is long-term stress that kills. When adrenaline flows too long, the body becomes susceptible to disease, cancer, and emotional problems. Here, Christ offers relief to the heavy-laden soul.
Some stress is inevitable and even needful for a healthy life. There are emotional strains that accompany marriage, parenting, work, education, and finances. The busy mother is no more exempt than the industrious business manager. Every living human must eventually enter the “University of Life”, where stress and struggle are not elective courses but required curriculum. Christ does not necessarily remove any of these burdens from His followers. Instead, He offers us to trade in our single yoke for a plural one, a double yoke that will allow Him to walk beside us, thus, helping us learn to pull through the tough times, just like He did.
As we face the grind of each burdening trial, who would be a better teacher than the One Who was subject to every pressure imaginable to man? A good teacher will not extinguish the struggle for the student, for that is the avenue for the vital growth to occur. We do well to examine the Father’s purpose of our struggles and consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. -Hebrews 12:3 Stress is not the cause, but the effect. When we insist on maintaining control of our own autonomous lives and bask in our proud independence, we can expect stress to be the fruit of our journey.
As we learn to walk through these difficult times in a yoke with Christ, the eternal purpose becomes manifest. Our wise heavenly Father desires to turn…
…Stress into Strength
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren… For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. -Hebrews 2:17, 18 “No pain, no gain,” chant the athletes. While we all know that strain on the body produces strength, we still prefer a spiritual lounge for the soul. The ability of our Lord to be a faithful high priest was wrought not in the fact that He was the Son of God, but that He was tempted like as man. The splendors of heaven could never have fit Him for such a service.
As the burden mounted heavily upon His shoulders, He began to say, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. -John 12:27, 28 When the trials press hard, we must learn of Him. We ought not seek an alternative route but recognize that the Father has ordained it such and desires us to glorify His name through it.
The Apostle Paul bore more stress than most of us can even comprehend; in labours …in stripes …in prisons …in deaths …in journeyings …in perils …in perils …in perils …in perils …in perils …in perils …in perils …in perils …in weariness …in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. –2 Corinthians 11:23-28 Is this the easy yoke that Christ prescribed for all who will come unto Him? Indeed, it is, for Christ’s strength is made perfect in human weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon us. -2 Corinhtians 12:9 The promised easy yoke is not to be redeemed by the minimal amount of pressure we experience, but in our learned response to manage that pressure.
…Stress into Stability
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. -Hebrews 5:8 We can hardly fathom that our Lord had any deficiency in obedience at the side of God, but here again, the heavenly environment was an insufficient field to produce the harvest of golden obedience required to redeem mankind. Earth was not a punishment for His inadequate obedience, but His sojourn of suffering produced a maturity in His character that heaven could not yield. Pain and strain drive us to lean hard upon our God. If we try to handle the trials on our own, we can expect these tribulations to drive us into the ground until we admit our need.
Martha was no stranger to the throes of stress. How difficult the task looms when we have insufficient strength, or we need help to accomplish it. Perhaps the bread burned, the water jug spilled, and the chicken still needed to be butchered. Add to that a touch of ill health and perhaps a pounding headache, and she boiled over onto those she served and loved most. What busy mother cannot relate to the strains of her predicament? But Christ has a different message for her. Here stress can become the avenue for dependence and prayer. Those who labor in their own strength will soon learn that the restraint of complaint has its limitations, and eventually the accusation toward others will escape the lips.
When our dutiful work bears us down, we do well to consider its source. God invented work for our betterment. He set Adam in the Garden of Eden as a caretaker. This was no punishment, but an avenue for creativity, productivity, positive challenges, and satisfaction of accomplishment. If we view labor merely as a frustrating drudgery that inevitably ends in the injustice of a melancholy existence, stress is the unavoidable result.
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. -John 5:17 We do well to learn of Him. Through work we serve people, meet our own needs, and earn money to give to others. These ideals will never dissolve the stress that daily knocks on our door through working relationships,but … There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. –Ecclesiastes 2:24
…Stress into Faith
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. –Hebrews 4:1 There is no doubt, stress steals our rest. Whether it subtly steals our joyful song during our work day or the blessed rest upon our pillows at eventide, this persistent thief is constantly grappling for our well-being. To take Christ’s yoke upon us is to lay down our own. Problems cause stress, but Christ never affords us a problem that we cannot handle. A Christ-given problem is something we can do something about. If we can’t do anything about it, it ceases to be our problem, but rather it is a fact of life. These facts must not be deemed as handicaps but embraced in faith and accepted, even if we created them ourselves.
I asked a statue. “Why are you there?” He replied, “My master has put me here.” “Why don’t you move?” “He wants me to remain immovable.” “What use are you there?” “It is not revealed to me yet.” “What do you gain by doing so?” “It is not for my profit that I am here; I will serve the will of my master.” “But you do not see him?” “No, but he sees me, and takes pleasure in seeing me where he has put me.” “Would you not like to move nearer to him?” “Certainly not. There is no nearer place than where he has placed me.” – source unknown
…Stress into Peace
For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. –Hebrews 4:10 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. -John 14:27 While we all desire to be prudent in this world, there is a point that we must lay it aside as our God did. Our weak minds cannot handle the constant barrage of commerce without moments of vacated release. We need times apart to refresh our bodies and minds and enter into rest. Rest is just as much a part of the creation ordinance as work is. We must relax and take time to breathe deeply of the day’s best offerings. The fragrance of the lilac bush, the beauty of the magnificent sunset, and the song of the rose-breasted grosbeak must all be observed.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights. -Psalm 119:143 A time to meditate on the important things in life is an implicit requirement for our peace. Regular meal times should be a reserved haven for household members, to refresh their souls and spirits as well as their bodies. Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they departed into a desert place by ship privately. -Mark 6:31, 32 There is a time to trim out good things and good people from our lives. There also is a time to set aside the daily mental duress and give ourselves to bodily exercise. There is a time to delegate our load to others, as Jethro instructed Moses. Someone valiantly stated, “I would rather burn out than rust out!” While this may bear some merit, it seems to me that either way you are still out. But God has called us to peace. At times, we must lay down our perfectionist ambitions to secure peace. Apply the old adage, Do your best and forget the rest. Self-created standards are, at times, very stressful to attain.
There is a Divine rhythm created between work and rest, stress and release, sound and silence, tension and tranquility. The greatest musical compositions consist of a crescendo and decrescendo. So, our God ordains rest.
…Stress into Joy
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. –Hebrews 12:2, 3 We can endure a lot if that joy remains before our eyes. God places these things before us every day, but we often fail to notice them. We may need to take minute vacations to see them, but they must penetrate our thoughts.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. -Philippians 4:8 Take a moment to admire a flower, chat with a friend, pet the dog, and smile at a child. They will not be the only beneficiaries. The race is not to the strong nor to the swift, but to those who fly on joyful wings. This battle is not won through the alleviation of all stress, but to its proper management in our mind. We never intentionally renounce God’s vision for our life, we simply lose sight of it through neglect. We are children of the King, not the paupers of the earth. When we become disobedient to this vision and live as though it cannot be obtained, stress soars and our spirits wilt. Christ offers us an alternative medicine. It is the effective stress-relieving pill that He Himself swallowed, and it is still being offered to us today.
Any moment of hating,
any moment of lying,
any moment of resentment
is a moment of dying.
Any moment of loving,
any moment of giving,
any moment of thankfulness
is a moment of living.
All our moments add together
like the digits in a sum.
–Cecil
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