It’s Not About The Stress…
"Be still and know that I am God."
—Ps 46:10
Pausing for Growth…
Making space requires pausing, stopping, listening, waiting. God makes it clear that he wants us to do this with commands and stories and teaching throughout the Bible.
"Be still and know that I am God." (Ps 46:10) Hard to be more explicit than this.
"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying." (Mark 1:35) If Jesus did it...
Moses "led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush." (Ex 3:1-2) Moses was not in a hurry with the flocks.
"The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day." (Gen 18:1) Abraham had margin for interruptions.
"...Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon." (Acts 10:9) Peter clearly had a rhythm of stopping and praying.
I could go on and on with examples. At times, God intervenes in people's busy schedules, and, at other times, people force their way into God's presence, which reminds us to refrain from over-emphasizing one idea or way. But here I am bringing this up to highlight an important aspect of thriving as humans.
STRESS
We are anti-fragile creatures, i.e. we are strengthened by stress. Stress is not good or bad. It is normal and even necessary. Stress is not a problem to deal with or to try to avoid. The challenge or problem is getting rest and recovery. Without stress in our lives, we will weaken and die. Consider the difference between someone who lifts weights regularly and one who sits on the couch eating chips and streaming YouTube or TikTok. Our muscles need the stress to grow and strengthen. Every part of us grows in this way.
However, someone who works out the same muscle continuously will destroy it. It isn't the workout that makes the muscle strong. The workout breaks the muscle. The muscle gets stronger during the recovery. The same is true of our spirit and soul. Stress in our lives breaks us down. In rest and recovery, we get stronger.
This means a constant low stress situation is much more damaging than major stresses spaced out over time with adequate opportunity for recovery in-between. Thus, our challenge is to make space for rest and recovery rather than trying to be stress-free, which is impossible. When we make that space, God meets us, and his Spirit touches us bringing healing.
LIMITS
Part of this means we need to recognize our limits and understand that the breakdown is slow and invisible. If I don't make space today, I won't notice it. Same for tomorrow, but eventually it will end me. Recognizing that I am finite and have a breaking point, and God doesn't expect me to be infinite, but our world often does, is vital to bring about reformation.
ACTION STEPS
We can take a few steps to deal with this:
Know yourself and do what you need to do to schedule in space for rest and recovery. Be intentional and ruthless. This is difficult because we often need it long before we feel it, and few people, if any, will encourage us in this direction.
Learn breathing techniques and practice them. Recognize and take seriously the connection between all parts of your soul. We are spiritual and relational and spiritual and psychological, and we have a physical body, and they all are interconnected. What you do to one will impact the others. This means for example that I don't just take a pill when I have a headache, but I consider what else is going on. The pills may take the headache away, but they don't change the underlying issues.
Share this with those in your circles and work together to help each other.
Implement the practice of a Sabbath day each week. No need to be legalistic but making space in this way will have long-term benefits. God knows how he designed us, so we should listen to his instructions. Perhaps they contain wisdom beyond what we understand.
Enjoy! The parts of us that don't want to rest are not healthy; they are not seeking our flourishing. Strength and flourishing come in proportion to our work/stress and rest rhythm.
May we "know God" well through our times of stillness.
JOIN FOCUSTSOUL
One way to help make this happen is to join Focustsoul and engage with the community and resources.
"Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen - that stillness becomes a radiance."
—Morgan Freeman