Stress: Lesson 2

Lesson from January 13

This week, I had a conversation with a young friend who reminded me of some of the stresses of families of persons of your stage of life. In this particular family, both husband and wife have executive positions, they have several small children, they have strong connections to extended family … and in the midst of their life together, it is hard to find a moment of personal time. In thinking about this family, I remembered my own family in the mid-eighties. We lived in Cary, North Carolina. Every morning we saw a 6 year old and eight year old off to school, Claire began a 25 mile commute to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she was a graduate student, and I drove 8 miles to my first supervisory job, a job in which I supervised 4 women 20 years older than myself. Along the side, we were trying to care for Claire’s parents who were in ill health in north Georgia. It was a time of life filled with stress. We are going to spend a little time for the next several weeks seeking God’s guidance on ways to lower the level of that stress and at the least, make it more productive in our lives.

In the first lesson on Stress that Karen Clarke taught on December 30, the lesson turned around one of my favorite passages in the Bible;

“Rejoice in the Lord always.” Again I say, “Rejoice!”
Let your gentleness be shown to all. The Lord is near.
Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your wishes be known to God.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:4-7

Three points:
· Paul’s prescription for anxiety is reliable. He is in prison facing execution at the time he writes the letter of Phillipians. He knows what stress is!
· The prescription works because when we come into the presence of God in prayer, we find the Lord of Peace who is a good listener.
· The prescription works because in prayer we gain perspective and truth.


End of Review of Last Lesson and Beginning of Lesson 2: Failure Leads to Stress

Although the authors will try to suggest perspectives to help us cope with stress … to overcome stress … they will certainly not act as if stress is not real. Indeed, that is a major point. Stress is real and will severely impact our lives if we do not make progress toward mastering it.

In today’s lesson they go right to a major source of stress … out failures. Sometimes life is stressful, not because of external circumstances, but because of our own failures and errors. And failure is stressful, not just because it is humbling and embarrassing, but because it often has concrete consequences.

The authors then take us to one of the most painful moments of embarrassment and failure in the New Testament.

Reader 1: Matthew 26: 31-35

Reader 2: Matthew 26: 69-75
Before we think further about this scripture, let’s see if we can see ourselves in it.

Reader 3: Read John 21:15 – 17

Our authors believe that in these scripturse we get important perspectives about how God sees our failures:
· While Jesus does not affirm our failures … he nonetheless anticipates them. He knows who we are.
· Jesus believes in us despite our failures.
· Jesus sees our failure and shame.
· Jesus forgives us our failure.

Conclusion:
The quarterly tells a very poignant story from the 1996 Olympics. The long jump gold medalist from the 1992 Olympics, Mike Powell, is competing against Carl Lewis. Powell is behind and is coming up for his last jump. In the previous jump he pulled a muscle so he can only limp as he rushes toward the board. In an instant, Powell lifts off and then due to a wave of pain, crashes face down in the sand far from the point he needed to reach. The camera focuses on Powell as he grimaces with pain and as he pulled himself out of the sand. Then the camera follows him as he limps away from the competition, dragging his injured leg. No coach comes to console him, no trainer comes to provide atowel to wipe sand and grime from his face. It was a very telling picture of a man buried deep in his failure with no hope for redemption or reconciliation.

This is our antidote against the stress induced by our failure. We are not necessarily insured against the natural consequences of our failure. We may lose relationship with other people, we may lose the gold medal, but we do not lose relationship with God. God will meet us with towel and comfort as we limp away from the fray. God comes to us in our failure and offers forgiveness … but also offers reconciliation.