Post-Pandemic, New Decade and Century,
Aging but not so gracefully…
Everyone talks about the bad times
But forget all the good.
Stress for the already stressed out
Baldness, when your hair has been pulled and pulled
Body aches and secret problems tromp through
And everything you thought was wrong… just got worse.
Take the word Stressed, and spell it backward
Isn’t this what you prefer? Desserts. Sweets. Satisfying.
Comfort food, like Bread Pudding or Lemon Merangue
Instead, you are loaded with the weight of a stressed-filled life.
Stress is not the enemy,
Especially when it comes at the right time.
Show up at the wrong time,
And depending on how we react and respond
Stress becomes the killer because we don’t handle it well.
I suspect the identity of stress as an enemy.
It relates to the amount of stress that comes.
How long it stays around, lingering, a harbinger
Of what stress can truly do.
End results of too much stress can destroy your life.
Peace is drowned with worry. Joy was wiped out by fear.
We learn the power of not counteracting with strength
To stand up to the stressors. We struggle.
We do not live better when stress is non-existent.
We are challenged to grow, improve and go
When stress steps in at an appropriate time.
And in appropriate amounts, we learn to handle it.
Too much comfort is dangerous. Literally.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley
did an experiment some time ago
that involved introducing an amoeba
into a perfectly stress-free environment.
Ideal temperature,
the optimal concentration of moisture,
constant food supply-
the amoeba had an environment
to which it had not to adjust whatsoever.
So you would guess
that that was a happy little amoeba.
Whatever it is that gives amoebas
ulcers and high blood pressure were gone.
Yet, oddly enough, it died.
Apparently, there is something about
all living creatures, even amoebas,
that demands a challenge.
We require change, adaptation, and challenges
the way we require food and air.
Comfort alone will kill us. [Source]
Life without stress harms and kills differently
Over life with stress. It’s all about how much.
And how we learn to handle it.
So the big question is…
How Much Is Too Much
How much stress is too much?
It depends on you, me, life, and
The situations we find ourselves dealing with.
It depends on the amount of stress recently handled.
Only you can answer this question.
Know your limits, but know this…
We need stress, but also learn how to handle it.
I’ve learned my limits, and when I sense the limit,
Only I can take steps to manage them effectively.
Time teaches us how much we can handle
And the times themselves dictate how much we can expect
We learn our limits, and if we are wise,
We learn how to control our response.
Horatio Spafford shows us a unique approach to loads of stress.
We’ve heard his story often.
He loses his 4-year-old son in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871,
then loses his financial base because he invested in the area the fire destroyed.
A few years later, planning an overseas trip,
he sends his wife and daughters ahead…
and their ship sinks.
Only the wife survives.
When he sails afterward, he comes to the part of the ocean
where the accident occurred.
The words of his song speak volumes
of how to recognize and deal with stress.
It Is Well With My Soul
It Is Well With My Soul (emphasis mine)
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
A song in the night, oh my soul!
A Long Time Ago
A long time ago, yet it seems only like yesterday,
The stresses of my life kept me up way too late.
Twirling through the night, my mind would not quit.
It left me tired, exhausted, and worn to a frazzled life.
But in the midst of an extremely hard test,
A trial that seemed like I would crumble and fall,
That strong hand of God reached into my heart,
And lifted me safely out of the fray.
Like David of old, from that miry pit of life,
He put me on a solid foundation that would not crack.
From that day forward, it’s been easier, step by step
Each moment stress threatens, I remember my base.
On the solid rock, I do stand, and all other is sinking sand.
Though storm-tossed through life, there is peace in the midst.
In the middle of every midnight, I look for the light.
Nothing will rock my world as long as He is My Right.