To live is to experience stress; that is a basic law of life - as natural as breathing and eating. While there are, indeed, two types of stress - eustress (good kind) and distress (bad kind), it is the latter we tend to experience and lament the most.
My spin on this topic has always been that any stress can be endured as long as it is an isolated case. For example, if I have a bad day at work, it is much more bearable if everything is ok at home/with the family or at church. But when all three are out of joint, the stress is overwhelming.
Every once in a while, the perfect storm ignites - when the gales from the different shores of one's life become so turbulent that one loses his/her sense of balance and direction. I can't say that I am in a storm right now, but I can certainly smell rain in the air.
As usual, God is good and dropped just the perfect scripture into my lap to combat the brewing storm. First, yesterday's devotional verse was Romans 5: 3 - "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us."
Then, this morning's verse was from I Samuel 17: 37 - "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Even though David was talking about himself, the verse could be talking about anyone of us; all we would have to do is insert three different nouns. The God is the same, and so is the power.
My particular talent is waking up in the middle of the night to agonize over things that a) I cannot control, and b) I certainly can do nothing about at 3 am. This morning, however, God brought the Fruits of the Spirit to mind. Rather than five smooth stones, here is the way in which He is helping me to approach the Philistine of stress in my life:
(Inhale) Love. . . . . . . .(Exhale) Hate
(Inhale) Joy. . . . . . . . . (Exhale) Sadness
(Inhale) Peace. . . . . . .(Exhale) Chaos
(Inhale) Patience. . . . .(Exhale) My timeline
(Inhale) Kindness . . . . (Exhale) Bitterness
(Inhale) Goodness. . . . (Exhale) Judgment
(Inhale) Gentleness. . . .(Exhale) Harshness
(Inhale) Faithfulness. . . (Exhale) Doubt
(Inhale) Self-Control . . .(Exhale) Selfishness
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