May 9, 2008

Stress - everyone has it, to one degree or another. Some people deal with it better than others do. Some people just don't have as much of it as others do.

Lately, things have been pretty stressful in the lives of my family, due to various illnesses and such. Some days it is easier to deal with, other days, not so much. What can you do?

Some years back, Walt Disney World was having one of their big press events, where they invite radio stations to come down and broadcast live from one of the parks. And they have different celebrities available for the local guys to talk to for the benefit of the folks back home. The station we listened to at the time was one of those stations that was broadcasting from there, so of course we were listening in to see what all was going on. And on that particular day, it was hot and humid, even by Florida standards.

One of the guests that came by to talk was Bill Nye the Science Guy. The radio guys asked him, "What can you do about the humidity?"

He answered, "Run around in circles and scream!" And then he did. Or at least it sounded like he did. Rather hard to see exactly what was going on over the radio. But from all I know about Bill Nye, he actually was running around in circles screaming.

I think his point was that there really wasn't much at all you could do about the humidity that day. You could complain about it, you could scream about it, but none of that really did any good. Ultimately, you just had to deal with it in one way or another.

And I'm learning that stress is much the same way. You can complain about being stressed out. You can scream, jump up and down, stomp your feet, or anything else you can think of, but that really doesn't take the stress away. Eventually, you have to settle down and deal with whatever is causing your stress. Whether you deal with it by working through the situation, or perhaps finding a way to remove whatever is causing your stress, or maybe by removing yourself from the situation in one way or another.

And perhaps stress is just a reminder that God is really in control. Stress is really just feeling like we are powerless to do something about the situation. A lack of control. Turning your problems over to God is a great way to relieve stress.

Of course, sometimes we have to run around in circles and scream before we realize that.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6

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