Rest and Joy found in the Sabbath

Rest.  Joy.  Trust.  Faith.

Beautiful words that should mark the life of each of us as believers in Jesus.  Unfortunately, most of us are still working on these character traits.  Notice I said working!

Yesterday we looked at why we need to take a Sabbath rest each week as presented in Exodus 20.  In this passage, God declared that He created everything in six days and then rested.  Thus, we should labor six days and rest on the seventh.

I think this concept is hard for all people, in all time periods, to understand and believe.  Thankfully, God gave us another rationale when the Ten Commandments were restated in Deuteronomy.  As God's Word states,

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work, ...
You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out from there
with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Deuteronomy 5: 12-15

Why would a different rationale be given here?  I think it is the same point, but it comes from a different perspective.  It could be argued that God can create in six days, but I am not God.  I need to labor to complete all my work constantly because I am so weak and human.

I have heard this perspective many times.  I would say from the context of the bible, such talk is false humility.  It reveals our lack of faith in God to provide and complete our work.

Why?

In Deuteronomy, Moses gives us the rationale of God's incredible provision for Israel in rescuing them from slavery.  These people had nothing.  They were slaves who were forced to work everyday.  They had no military and no power.  They were under the thumb of the greatest military power in the world.  In other words, they could not bring rescue, they could not provide for themselves, and they could not finish their tasks.

So what happened?

God miraculously rescued them, provided for them, and finished the call of bringing them back to the promised land.  Against all odds, God worked and brought His people rest, freedom, joy, and the blessings of the promised land.

If He can do that with such helpless people, could He provide for you?  Could He take care of the details?  Could He provide abundantly beyond all you could ask or imagine?  By the power of His Holy Spirit, He can do all of this and more.

Again, I encourage each of us to give this a try.  This week, take a full day to seek the living God and to repent of your fears, doubts, and control.  Repent of your hard-heartedness which denies that God can and will work without you.  Learn to enjoy Him and rest in His strength.

He will honor such faith with the gift of His presence

and the power of His Holy Spirit to bless your labors.

Remix: Stress, Friendship, and the Gospel

As I graduated from high school, one of my friends was asked the meaning of life.  His response, "To find out who and what are true friends."

This is a great observation.  We are made for companionship.  We are made to love and to be loved.  Yet, we live such lives of quiet isolation.

My guess is the C.S. Lewis was correct in his observation that hell will be marked by isolation and complete self-regard.

Today, I repost (with corrections) my second most popular post from 2014.  May the Lord use it in your life.

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

I have been reading an interesting book on the consequences of stress on the human body.  In particular, the author was commenting on the relationship between bad stress, which raised various "flight or fight" hormones in the body, and heart disease.  He argued that feeling trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless leads to increased stress chemicals in the body, which eventually lead to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).  

To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listened to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make.

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves from others while retreating into time with only our families.  I believe we do so to our own harm.  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the "feelings" of having many friends and fellow travelers without causing real engagement with others.  I believe it is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.
We need real friends.

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard.  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?

This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship.

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.

Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease.  It lowers your chances of sudden death.  It also increases joy, freedom, and creativity.  

With that in mind, what can you do this week to nurture true friendships?

Stress and Margin

Richard Swenson has made a living preaching the values of Margin a person's life.  I believe he has written four books on the subject!  Margin is the space on the outside of the pages.  It is the area not written upon.  Swenson, who is a medical doctor, argues that giving 100% of our energy and resources is pure foolishness.  It is like writing on every square inch of a page!  Unfortunately, life without margin is the new normal.  As Swenson states,

As a result, like in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space.  Not the Star Trek kind- the sanity kind.  Overload is the new normal.  We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress.  We have too much speed and hurry.  We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media.  And we have too little margin.

But if overload is the disease, then margin is the antidote.  To balance today's lifestyles, restoring our margin is a needed first step.  The vast majority of us are healthier if we draw a line somewhere short of overload, i.e., if we preserve some margin.

In Search of Balance, 90-91.

So how do we know if we struggle with not keeping margin in our life?  I find it is always easier to see how others struggle with this concept than it is to see it in ourselves!  Swenson gives us a great test to help us gain an accurate diagnosis.

When our margin is depleted and our reserves are gone, we shift emphasis.  Instead of being compassionate and caring in our attitude, we become apathetic or rude.  Instead of being outwardly focused in our service, we become self-protective.  Instead of pursuing innovation and productivity in our job, we become irritable and fatigued. (91)

I know at times in my life, I have really struggled maintaining proper margin.  In my life, one of the big causes of my lack of margin was my health.  For years, I struggled with a gluten allergy that I just did not know about.  In the past five years, it got so much worse!  The result was that my physical strength was limited because I was poisoning my body with the food I ate.  I tried to eat well, but what is good for others (whole wheat grains!) was death to me.

I share this because many people confuse how their spirituality works.  As humans in a fallen world, we are so interconnected between our physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions.  I meet so many who struggle with their faith, but I think the reason for this struggle is a physical, mental, or emotional problem.  In my case, the physical issue robbed me of margin and left me without the energy to engage as I would wish.  No amount of spiritual, mental or emotional fixing was going to change my physical problem!

So, as we pursue margin in our lives and as we seek a deeper walk with God, check your physical, mental and emotional resources!  If you struggle with depression for chemical reasons, seek to fix the physical problem.  If you have emotional scars from past abuse, find a pastor or counselor to help you work through these emotional and mental bottlenecks!  Having issues in any area of life is not a sign of inability or laziness or lack of spiritual depth.  It is a mark of living in a fallen world.

I will conclude with Swenson's word about regaining margin.

Margin, rightly conceived, is not about laziness, mediocrity, and noninvolvement.  It is about focus, discipline, and self-control.  But mostly is it a prioritizing space where we concentrate on the things that matter most (balance!).

Restoring margin to overloaded lives is possible if we are willing to think creatively, live differently, act intentionally, and stop following the crowds to the malls.  Hundreds of practical margin suggestions have been written elsewhere to assist in such a lifestyle direction.  But the first step, as always, resides within each human heart. (93-94)

Pray for the grace to see if you need to regain margin.  Pray for the grace to see what is robbing you of your margin.  May the Lord bless you as you regain capacity to love others well!

Maintaining Margin in Life and Ministry

Richard Swenson has been so helpful to many in his proclamation that all people should maintain a margin in their life.  What is margin?  Margin is the space on the outside of the pages.  It is the area not written upon.

Swenson, who is a medical doctor, argues that giving 100% of our energy and resources is pure foolishness.  It is like writing on every square inch of a page!  Unfortunately, life without margin is the new normal.  As Swenson states,

As a result, like in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space.  Not the Star Trek kind- the sanity kind.  Overload is the new normal.  We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress.  We have too much speed and hurry.  We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media.  And we have too little margin.

But if overload is the disease, then margin is the antidote.  To balance today's lifestyles, restoring our margin is a needed first step.  The vast majority of us are healthier if we draw a line somewhere short of overload, i.e., if we preserve some margin.

In Search of Balance, 90-91.

So how do we know if we struggle with not keeping margin in our life?  I find it is always easier to see how others struggle with this concept than it is to see it in ourselves!  Swenson gives us a great test to help us gain an accurate diagnosis.

When our margin is depleted and our reserves are gone, we shift emphasis.  Instead of being compassionate and caring in our attitude, we become apathetic or rude.  Instead of being outwardly focused in our service, we become self-protective.  Instead of pursuing innovation and productivity in our job, we become irritable and fatigued. (91)

I know at times in my life, I have really struggled maintaining proper margin.  In my life, one of the big causes of my lack of margin was my health.  I had always been a fairly healthy dude.  At least until I entered my mid-30s.  At that time, I struggled with a host of issues.  Thankfully, I figured out all of them were caused by some strange gluten allergy.  This untreated allergy caused my physical health to suffer, which impacted every area of my life including my spiritual fervor and devotion.  In my experience, it is hard to hear from God when you are too tired to stay awake!

I share this because many people confuse how their spirituality works.  As humans in a fallen world, we are so interconnected between our physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions.  I meet so many who struggle with their faith, but I think the reason for this struggle is a physical, mental, or emotional problem.  In my case, the physical issue robbed me of margin and left me without the energy to engage as I would wish.  No amount of spiritual, mental or emotional fixing was going to change my physical problem!

So, as we pursue margin in our lives and as we seek a deeper walk with God, check your physical, mental and emotional resources!  If you struggle with depression for chemical reasons, seek to fix the physical problem.  If you have emotional scars from past abuse, find a pastor or counselor to help you work through these emotional and mental bottlenecks!  Having issues in any area of life is not a sign of inability or laziness or lack of spiritual depth.  It is a mark of living in a fallen world.

I will conclude with Swenson's world about regaining margin.

Margin, rightly conceived, is not about laziness, mediocrity, and noninvolvement.  It is about focus, discipline, and self-control.  But mostly is it a prioritizing space where we concentrate on the things that matter most (balance!).

Restoring margin to overloaded lives is possible if we are willing to think creatively, live differently, act intentionally, and stop following the crowds to the malls.  Hundreds of practical margin suggestions have been written elsewhere to assist in such a lifestyle direction.  But the first step, as always, resides within each human heart. (93-94)

Pray for the grace to see if you need to regain margin.  Pray for the grace to see what is robbing you of your margin.  May the Lord bless you as you regain capacity to love others well!

Dry Spirituality, Illness, Depression and Hope

"Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God."

Ps. 42: 5

Psalm 42 begins with the affirmation and cry, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?"

Today this Psalm brings to mind some other questions.  If I belong to Jesus, the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who reigns forevermore at the right hand of the Father, why don't I always feel like it?  Why are some days and even seasons of life so spiritually dry?

In other words, I sometimes find that reading Ps 42 and others like it makes me feel like God and the scriptures are mocking me.  Why?  My heart does not thirst for the living God!  My soul is downcast, and I don't want to praise Him.

What am I to do?  What are you to do if you find yourself in the same place?

I firmly believe that all of us end up in this place.  If our vision of spirituality does not have a place for these feelings, we won't know how to process where we are and why we find ourselves so down.  As a pastor, this place is where I find many honest, sincere, and scared believers.

There is hope!  Jesus does reign and He is Lord.  He loves you.  We must hold to these truths even if we don't feel like it.

The problem is that we live in a fallen world where is victory is already here, but not yet complete.  Have no fear.  In fact, have faith and claim the reality that God is working through it all.  Our struggles, fears, and doubts can purify and perfect our very imperfect faith.

So why do we feel this way?  There are many reasons.  Let me give one.

As I wrote in my journal many moons ago, "It is amazing the tie between our spirituality and our health.  I feel this is so often forgotten or ignored.  When I do not feel well, it is hard to feel Your presence and love.  You might be carrying me (think of the poem Footprints in the Sand), but I do not feel the embrace."

Every week I have the privilege and calling to deal with folks who struggle with depression and anxiety.  I find these folks feel the same way I do when I am sick!  Their physical issues cause a spirit of dryness.

In Psalm 42, the Psalmist confesses that he has been crying and he feels taunted by those who ask, "Where is your God?"  I do not think these folks are mocking him, but saying, "Where is your faith?  Don't you know that God is faithful?"  How often as believers do we do the same to those who are struggling!  How often do we as believers beat ourselves up when we are struggling!

The Psalmist answers his doubts and struggles with an affirmation of the gospel.  He confesses where he is: struggling for his very life and faith!  He then reminds himself over and over again of God's faithfulness in the past.  He also affirms that this present reality of struggle will not last forever.  In fact, he affirms God's faithfulness by repeating the same verse twice in this Psalm.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.

Ps 42: 5 and 11

Please remember there is a direct tie between our health (physical and mental) and our spirituality.  Such a tie is a result of being embodied spiritual beings!  Jesus understands as he also was at times tired, emotionally drained, hungry, and deeply saddened.  Illness is not weakness.  It is a result of the Fall, but it is common to us all.

When struggling confess you are struggling and look to the gospel!  Remind yourself of God's past work and His promise of a good future.  I encourage you to use Psalm 42 as a guide.

Stress, Community, and Friendship

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

I have been reading an interesting book on the consequences of stress on the human body.  In particular, the author was commenting on the relationship between bad stress, which raised various "flight or fight" hormones in the body, and heart disease.  He argued that feeling trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless leads to increased stress chemicals in the body, which eventually lead to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).   To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listened to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make!

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves from others while retreating into time with only our families.  I believe we do so to our own harm!  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the "feelings" of having many friends and fellow travelers without causing real engagement with others.  I believe it is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.  We need real friends!

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard!  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?  This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship!

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.  Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease!

With that in mind, I am thankful for a week of rest in the midst of the holidays.  Time with friends.  Time to laugh.  Time to be myself.  I pray each of us enjoy these same blessings!

The Fruit of Suffering? ... Growth

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing 

with the glory that will be revealed in us." 

Romans 8:18

Suffering.  Even as I mention it, I recoil.  It is not a subject I enjoy thinking about, and I enjoy going through it even less.  Often it seems like all I can do is endure.  Right in the midst of suffering, I don't even learn that much.  It takes time and reflection to learn, and in the midst of intense suffering I often lack the strength for reflection.

Perhaps this is why many Christians avoid the subject of suffering.  Entire breeds of Christians have banished all talk of suffering under the guise of spirituality by claiming Christ suffered for us so we do not have to suffer.  All I can say is, tell that to Paul!  He endured beatings, imprisonment, rejection, and other sufferings for the lost and for the Church.  In the preceding verse, he mentioned that "we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."  For Paul, sufferings were a way into deeper dependence and identity in Christ.

So what does this mean for us?  In the midst of broken relationships that cause so much pain, in the midst of the death or impending death of those we love, in the midst of our bad decisions, how should we deal with suffering?

First, admit to God, yourself, and others that you are suffering.  Understand that we live in a fallen world marked by suffering.  All of creation "groans as in the pains of child birth" and is subject to "frustration" by the effects of sin.  

We must begin by calling sin, sin.  Sin is much more than our willful actions.  It is missing the mark for the way things should be.  In yourself, in others, and in events confess what has missed the mark of perfection.  Confess what is not according to its created good.  Cry out to God about the pain of separation.   Ask Him to restore and redeem what the consequences of sin have brought about.  We were not created to suffer through separation like death, but God can relate as He and Jesus were separated on the cross as Jesus suffered to do away with sin and death.

Second, remember the gospel.  We have a taste of redemption, adoption, and freedom now in Christ.  One day, He will set all things aright, and we will know in full a restored relationship with God, others, ourselves, and creation.  If you have not believed, repent and accept His love!  Then, hope in the ultimate reality that you belong to Christ.  This life is fleeting.  Eternity is forever.  Pray for grace to "wait patiently" for our final hope.

Third, pray.  This is how the gospel gets applied to our life.  Take time to be before God and ask the Spirit to lead you to pray for what is really needed (8:26-27).  Pray for healing of your soul.  Pray for restoration of broken relationship.  Pray in confession of your sin and the sins of others.  Whatever the cause of the suffering, take time to pray about it.  We were made to live a life of faith.  Prayer is the avenue into an active faith.

May the Lord use our sufferings to bring about our growth in grace, truth, and love.

Stress, Community, and Authentic Living

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

Last week I began to repost some material from Richard Swenson regarding stress, overload, and our need to find margin in life.  This week I am on a much needed vacation where I hope to live out some of these principles.  I often find I am better at helping others deal with their stress than I am at diagnosing and working through my own stress.  Alas, I think most of us struggle at this point!

I wish to conclude this discussion with some comments on the nature of stress and how to best deal with the effects of stress.

When it comes to stress, I find that many people misunderstand the whole concept.  There is a great difference between good stress and bad stress.  Good stress is temporary, it sharpens our focus, and it can actually increase our performance.  It is that temporary rush that helps us deal with a crisis.  

Bad stress is different.  It arises from a lifestyle of living as a "stress junky."  It can also be caused by those feelings of being trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless.  Bad stress is a chronic condition.

Bad stress causes elevated "fight or flight" hormones within the body.  This in turn has been strongly linked to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).   To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  Swenson also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listen to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make!

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves with our families from others.  I believe we do so to our own harm!  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the feel of many friends and fellow travelers without making any of them engage.  It is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.  We need real friends!

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard!  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?  This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship!

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.  Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease!

Stress and Depression as Signs of Information Overload

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading Richard Swenson's book, In Search of Balance: Keys to a Stable Life.  I find that his book is not one to quickly pour through because it is somewhat repetitive.  Still, I have enjoyed reading the book, and I recommend it as great food for thought.

Swenson's primary thesis is that our modern world has proliferated the amount of information and activity in which we can and seemingly must engage.  Such proliferation causes great stress because we as human individuals have not really changed in our ability to do or process more.  In other words, we have a limit!  

Meanwhile, the amount of  technology, information, options, and work has increased exponentially in the past fifty years and promises to continue to increase moving into the future.  Technology and our global society demand such proliferation.

So, how do we deal with this modern condition?  Most of us don't.  We just accept it.  Then we wonder why so many people are depressed, full of anxiety, and overwhelmed.  In my experience as a pastor, depression, anxiety, and overly full lives are epidemic!  

I have often been asked if I think we have more depression, anxiety and overload now than in the past.  I believe we have much more of these conditions now than people experienced fifty or one hundred years ago.  It is not because we are better at identifying the conditions, but because the proliferation of technology, information, and options have overload our systems.  It might be the new normal, but it is obviously not healthy.

So what should we do about it?  In answer to this, Swenson gives many helpful suggestions.  I know I have heard many of these suggestions before.  The real issue is implementing the suggestions. 

One of Swenson's best points is that each of us need to take an inventory of the stress in our life.  I think many of us keep purposely busy so we can avoid such an exercise!  I believe the following quote provides a good illustration of two different ways of dealing with stress.

A friend and I were discussing the pressures of life, and I asked how his stress was doing.  He has a national leadership role in a denomination and is required to make difficult decisions on a daily basis.  He said there are two quantitative ways of handling stress.  The first is when we keep stockpiling it in a warehouse.  The warehouse fills over time and finally the roof explodes and the walls fall down.

The other strategy involves a train station.  As the train moves down the tracks, the stress builds.  But when it comes into the station, we unload our accumulated pressures onto the platform.  Then we get back on the train as it pulls out of the station.  I asked which illustration described him.  He was a train-station guy.  Personally, I'm a recovering warehouser.

Balance, 148.

How do you deal with stress?  Is your warehouse almost full?  Do you build into your life a train station approach where you deal with emptying the stress out of your life?

Today, more and more people do not take vacations.  If they do, it is a weekend away, which actually adds to the stress of life!

Today, the idea of a Sabbath seems crazy.  My kids have to play hockey and Sunday is the best ice time for the little ones!  

Can you remember when your parents had complete weekends off?  When they would relax at home after work?  Why don't we have these weekly times of rest anymore?

I challenge you today to take an inventory of your life.  Come before the living God and ask the Spirit to give you some wisdom with the stress in your life.  I find the best way to do this is with a pen in hand so you can write down what you think about.  Maybe it is time to let some of "the new normal" go.  

A balanced life provides the emotional energy to love well.  It allows you to enjoy each day.  It gives you space to deal with unplanned events.  It also reflects a trust in the Living God to provide for you and take care of you.

Stress, Friendship, and Community

A new year is almost upon us!  In keeping with many forms of media, I will re-post some of the top "hits" from the past year.  As the year has progressed, I have gained many readers from all around the world.  I am thankful for your time and reading!  What this means is that a top "hit" list from this year would be greatly skewed toward newer material.  So, I will start the list with one of the most read posts from the first three months of 2012- January 30th to be exact.  

May the Lord bless us as we prepare to move into a new year.

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

I have been reading an interesting book on the consequences of stress on the human body.  In particular, the author was commenting on the relationship between bad stress, which raised various "flight or fight" hormones in the body, and heart disease.  He argued that feeling trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless leads to increased stress chemicals in the body, which eventually lead to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).   To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listened to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make!

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves from others while retreating into time with only our families.  I believe we do so to our own harm!  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the "feelings" of having many friends and fellow travelers without causing real engagement with others.  I believe it is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.  We need real friends!

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard!  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?  This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship!

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.  Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease!

With that in mind, I am thankful for a week of rest in the midst of the holidays.  Time with friends.  Time to laugh.  Time to be myself.  I pray each of us enjoy these same blessings!

Stress, Physical Overload, and Spirituality

Today is the day after Thanksgiving.  It is also the 11th day since my body had its adrenaline let-down after the birth of the baby.  That do I mean?

Two Monday's ago, my physical body completely crashed.  After six month marked by moving, getting my children adjusted to a new place and new school, assisting my wife through a long and difficult pregnancy, being concerned for the health of our coming baby, and then finally the joy of having a healthy baby girl, a healthy mom, and release from my burdens, I hit the wall.

Even as I write, I am sure some "spiritual" person will say, "Don't you know that you should pray about all these things and give them to the Lord."  Of course I know this.  Of course I did.  Over and over I prayed for and through all of these stresses.  In fact, I did not feel that stressed as I moved through many truly stressful events.  

Yet, stress and fatigue were quietly waiting for me.

Why?  We live in a fallen world and I am a fallen man.  Our bodies feel the effects of stress even if our wills seek to hold its effects at bay.  Eventually, the piper must be paid!

Here is where I found myself last Monday.  So tired.  So weary in body, emotions, and spirit.  I needed rest!  Thankfully I have received this rest.  In fact, today is the first day since then that I awoke early, before the baby, and felt like praying!  I might be coming out of the tunnel!

Today I wrote in my journal for the first time since right after the baby was born.  Today I felt like praying and speaking with the Lord.  Today my physical body does not ache.

All of these symptoms come from not getting enough sleep.  As I sleep more, as I get back to regular exercise and health eating, as I create some space to get away in quiet, I am feeling restored.

I am constantly amazed at the connection between my physical health and my spiritual condition.  I wonder how many people do not have an active and healthy spiritual life because they do not have a healthy and balanced physical life?

Today I wish to repost and share some thoughts concerning stress, margin, and spiritual vitality as shared by Richard Swenson.  I have found them true in my life.  I wonder if they might help you?

"As a result, like in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space.  Not the Star Trek kind- the sanity kind.  Overload is the new normal.  We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress.  We have too much speed and hurry.  We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media.  And we have too little margin.

But if overload is the disease, then margin is the antidote.  To balance today's lifestyles, restoring our margin is a needed first step.  The vast majority of us are healthier if we draw a line somewhere short of overload, i.e., if we preserve some margin."

In Search of Balance, 90-91.

So how do we know if we struggle with not keeping margin in our life?  I find it is always easier to see how others struggle with this concept than it is to see it in ourselves!  Swenson gives us a great test to help us gain an accurate diagnosis.

"When our margin is depleted and our reserves are gone, we shift emphasis.  Instead of being compassionate and caring in our attitude, we become apathetic or rude.  Instead of being outwardly focused in our service, we become self-protective.  Instead of pursuing innovation and productivity in our job, we become irritable and fatigued." (91)

I know at times in my life, I have really struggled maintaining proper margin.  In my life, one of the big causes of my lack of margin was my health.  For years, I struggled with a gluten allergy that I just did not know about.  In the past five years, it got so much worse!  The result was that my physical strength was limited because I was poisoning my body with the food I ate.  I tried to eat well, but what is good for others (whole wheat grains!) was death to me.

I share this because many people confuse how their spirituality works.  As humans in a fallen world, we are so interconnected between our physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions.  I meet so many who struggle with their faith, but I think the reason for this struggle is a physical, mental, or emotional problem.  In my case, the physical issue robbed me of margin and left me without the energy to engage as I would wish.  No amount of spiritual, mental or emotional fixing was going to change my physical problem!

So, as we pursue margin in our lives and as we seek a deeper walk with God, check your physical, mental and emotional resources!  If you struggle with depression for chemical reasons, seek to fix the physical problem.  If you have emotional scars from past abuse, find a pastor or counselor to help you work through these emotional and mental bottlenecks!  Having issues in any area of life is not a sign of inability or laziness or lack of spiritual depth.  It is a mark of living in a fallen world.

I will conclude with Swenson's world about regaining margin.

"Margin, rightly conceived, is not about laziness, mediocrity, and noninvolvement.  It is about focus, discipline, and self-control.  But mostly is it a prioritizing space where we concentrate on the things that matter most (balance!).

Restoring margin to overloaded lives is possible if we are willing to think creatively, live differently, act intentionally, and stop following the crowds to the malls.  Hundreds of practical margin suggestions have been written elsewhere to assist in such a lifestyle direction.  But the first step, as always, resides within each human heart."
(93-94)

Pray for the grace to see if you need to regain margin.  Pray for the grace to see what is robbing you of your margin.  May the Lord bless you as you regain capacity to love others well!

Prayer Needed!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Ephesians 6: 10-13

Today is my 323 post.  Through it all, I have written about what I am reading, what I am thinking about, and what I think needs to be said.  I have enjoyed seeing people in at least ten countries (only he top ten are listed) reading each day.  I have been amazed at the e-mails and notes from people I have never met.  I thank you all for reading!  We serve a great God.  I am thankful this blog has been helpful to many.

One purpose of my writing was to help me develop the skills needed to write often and well.  For years I have felt called to write for the Church.  Yet, I felt I lacked the ability.  I had learned to write technical and scholarly material, but how do you write so people can read and understand?  In writing two pages 20 times a month, I have gained in experience.  It is far easier to write and to compose my thoughts.  I hope my writing is also more readable!

For the past couple of months I have been looking through my writing to see what topics truly interest me.  Years ago I received some great advice concerning graduate school.  I was told to write a journal about what I am thinking about.  Keep a record.  As time goes on, look back over it to see themes that keep coming to the surface.  From these themes, develop a topic for a dissertation.

This process sort of worked for me.  At least I finished a dissertation!  (I had to change topics because my advisor left, but I retained the same theme)  I started this journal to help me do the same thing with writing for the Church.  I can see that I have three different book topics already prepared through this writing.  I am deeply interested in a Gospel-centered Spirituality.  I also have a passion for both individual and corporate renewal and revival.

Last month I put the outline together for my book on Gospel-centered spirituality.  I think it is a sound outline.  I went about the task of gathering material for each chapter.  I have filled several file folders with notes on each chapter.  I am almost prepared to write this book!

The problem is that I have too much material on one topic- Gospel-centered Spiritual Warfare. I kept looking it over and thinking I could chop some out, condense, focus the material to make it fit.  As I prayed about it, I felt the Lord confirm this is where I need to start.  Don't re-invent the wheel for the first book!  Write about the topic you have been studying for two years.

With that in mind, I really need your help!  Last fall I wanted to start this book, but I got totally beat up spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.  I had a horrible month as I worked through the topic.  The evil one and his cohorts do not want to be exposed.  They also do not wish that believers know their schemes.  As I write, I will be a special object of their attacks.  This makes me not want to start!

I know I am not alone in this problem.  C.S. Lewis shared that the worst six months of his life were during his writing of The Screwtape Letters.  In this short book, Lewis describes the "devil's schemes" to bring a soul away from God.  It is a classic on the subject.  Lewis was a major Christian writer.   If he has such a difficult time in his life and writing, what else could I expect?

Please join me in praying for God's protection and grace as I write.  Pray for peace and purity in my life, the life of my family, and the life of my church.  Pray for the Lord's hand to be upon me and my family as I write.

I also ask that you pray for God's wisdom and grace to guide my thoughts and writing.  This topic is broad and the writing on the topic is full of strange twists and turns.  Please pray that I avoid these strange tangents!  

Pray that I write with clarify, power, grace, and a gospel-centered approach to an important but neglected topic.

As the month of November progresses, I will be posting material concerning the nature of the gospel and its relationship to spiritual warfare.  I pray that the Lord uses it to bring glory to Himself.

Authentic Community as a Cure for Stress?

Be at rest once more, O my soul,

for the Lord has been good to you. 

Ps. 116: 7

This week has been a week of discussion concerning the relationship between margin, stress and our spirituality.  This week I am traveling across the United States moving from the East Coast to the West Coast.  In fact, all next week I will be making the same journey!  I pray that I am not finding stress even as we put one stage of life behind us and head toward something new.

I wish to conclude this week with a discussion of what stress is all about.  I find that many people misunderstand the whole concept.  There is a great difference between good stress and bad stress.  Good stress is temporary, it sharpens our focus, and it can actually increase our performance.  It is that temporary rush that helps us deal with a crisis.  

Bad stress is different.  It arises from a lifestyle of living as a "stress junky."  It can also be caused by those feelings of being trapped in a job or a situation where you feel powerless.  Bad stress is a chronic condition.

Bad stress causes elevated "fight or flight" hormones within the body.  This in turn has been strongly linked to heart disease, strokes, and other major problems (such as death).   To me, all of this makes sense.  The question is how do we avoid such stress?

To begin, we should make some obvious life-style changes.  If you are in a job that makes you feel trapped and not respected, change.  Also, increase your exercise levels as this makes a major positive change in the body's response to stress.  He also recommended the drinking of wine with dinner, as moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to lower the stress chemicals in the body.  If you have listen to the news, all of these positive factors have been mentioned for quite some time even in popular media.  These are changes that we can and should make!

What I found interesting was his emphasis on developing good social networks and friends.  He observed several groups of people with what we would call horrible eating habits who have very low levels of heart disease.  He argued that these people have one thing in common: they are well integrated into a community where they have love, support, and fun.  

In the past thirty years, studies have shown that Americans increasingly are not integrated into authentic communities.  We isolate ourselves with our families from others.  I believe we do so to our own harm!  The problem is that friendship and community take time to develop and nurture.  With all the kid's activities, work responsibilities, and general busyness of life, how do we find the time to develop and nurture friendships?

First, we have to admit and confess that we need real friends and community.  We need to ask God to help us find real friends and true community.  Most of us do everything we can to live in denial of our need for others.  We remain so busy, and we allow our children to be part of every activity under the sun so they are not deprived.  Even at church, we go and leave without really engaging people.  This is one great draw of the large church in that it facilitates the feel of many friends and fellow travelers without making any of them engage.  It is also the draw of Facebook and other social networks that promote "connectedness" without really helping us connect.  We need real friends!

Second, we have to be intentional in searching for friendships and community.  We have to find people that we can "be ourselves" around.  Wow is this hard!  Where would we find such people?  How about in our church communities?  This presupposes that we will develop church communities that are not fake or shallow.  Places where it is O.K. to be known with all of our issues, needs, and strengths.  We will find people in these churches that we do not "click with," but we should continue to search until we find folks who will love us and relate to us where we are.  Again, ask God for wisdom in finding friends and companionship!

Third, we have to continue to develop and nurture friendships and community.  This takes commitment on our part and on our friends part.  Get together and laugh.  Enjoy time together not necessarily "doing stuff" but being.  I think this is becoming a lost art.  True friendship and community is found in spending time.  In today's age, time is our most precious commodity.  We horde it to our own detriment.  Spend time with friends and lower your chances of heart disease!

With that in mind, I am thankful after a busy Sunday for several hours with friends sitting around a bonfire, talking, laughing, and swatting bugs.  On this Monday, I ask that the Lord help my soul to be at rest once more!  God is truly good to me.  May each of us take time to reflect so we can say the same thing!

Living (and dying) with Stress

For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading Richard Swenson's book, In Search of Balance: Keys to a Stable Life.  I find that his book is not one to quickly pour through because it is somewhat repetitive.  Still, I have enjoyed reading the book, and I recommend it as great food for thought.

Swenson's primary thesis is that our modern world has proliferated the amount of information and activity in which we can and seemingly must engage.  Such proliferation causes great stress because we as human individuals have not really changed in our ability to do or process more.  In other words, we have a limit!  

Meanwhile, the amount of  technology, information, options, and work has increased exponentially in the past fifty years and promises to continue to increase moving into the future.  Technology and our global society demand such proliferation.

So, how do we deal with this modern condition?  Most of us don't.  We just accept it.  Then we wonder why so many people are depressed, full of anxiety, and overwhelmed.  In my experience as a pastor, depression, anxiety, and overly full lives are epidemic!  

I have often been asked if I think we have more depression, anxiety and overload now than in the past.  I believe we have much more of these conditions now than people experienced fifty or one hundred years ago.  It is not because we are better at identifying the conditions, but because the proliferation of technology, information, and options have overload our systems.  It might be the new normal, but it is obviously not healthy.

So what should we do about it?  In answer to this, Swenson gives many helpful suggestions.  I know I have heard many of these suggestions before.  The real issue is implementing the suggestions!  

One of Swenson's best points is that each of us need to take an inventory of the stress in our life.  I think many of us keep purposely busy so we can avoid such an exercise!  I believe the following quote provides a good illustration of two different ways of dealing with stress.

A friend and I were discussing the pressures of life, and I asked how his stress was doing.  He has a national leadership role in a denomination and is required to make difficult decisions on a daily basis.  He said there are two quantitative ways of handling stress.  The first is when we keep stockpiling it in a warehouse.  The warehouse fills over time and finally the roof explodes and the walls fall down.

The other strategy involves a train station.  As the train moves down the tracks, the stress builds.  But when it comes into the station, we unload our accumulated pressures onto the platform.  Then we get back on the train as it pulls out of the station.  I asked which illustration described him.  He was a train-station guy.  Personally, I'm a recovering warehouser.

Balance, 148.

How do you deal with stress?  Is your warehouse almost full?  Do you build into your life a train station approach where you deal with emptying the stress out of your life?

Today, more and more people do not take vacations.  If they do, it is a weekend away, which actually adds to the stress of life!

Today, the idea of a Sabbath seems crazy.  My kids have to play hockey and Sunday is the best ice time for the little ones!  

Can you remember when your parents had complete weekends off?  When they would relax at home after work?  Why don't we have these weekly times of rest anymore?

I challenge you today to take an inventory of your life.  Come before the living God and ask the Spirit to give you some wisdom with the stress in your life.  I find the best way to do this is with a pen in hand so you can write down what you think about.  Maybe it is time to let some of "the new normal" go.  

A balanced life provides the emotional energy to love well.  It allows you to enjoy each day.  It gives you space to deal with unplanned events.  It also reflects a trust in the Living God to provide for you and take care of you.

Margin, Faith, and Spirituality

Richard Swenson has made a living preaching the values of Margin a person's life.  I believe he has written four books on the subject!  Margin is the space on the outside of the pages.  It is the area not written upon.  Swenson, who is a medical doctor, argues that giving 100% of our energy and resources is pure foolishness.  It is like writing on every square inch of a page!  Unfortunately, life without margin is the new normal.  As Swenson states,

As a result, like in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space.  Not the Star Trek kind- the sanity kind.  Overload is the new normal.  We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress.  We have too much speed and hurry.  We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media.  And we have too little margin.

But if overload is the disease, then margin is the antidote.  To balance today's lifestyles, restoring our margin is a needed first step.  The vast majority of us are healthier if we draw a line somewhere short of overload, i.e., if we preserve some margin.

In Search of Balance, 90-91.

So how do we know if we struggle with not keeping margin in our life?  I find it is always easier to see how others struggle with this concept than it is to see it in ourselves!  Swenson gives us a great test to help us gain an accurate diagnosis.

When our margin is depleted and our reserves are gone, we shift emphasis.  Instead of being compassionate and caring in our attitude, we become apathetic or rude.  Instead of being outwardly focused in our service, we become self-protective.  Instead of pursuing innovation and productivity in our job, we become irritable and fatigued. (91)

I know at times in my life, I have really struggled maintaining proper margin.  In my life, one of the big causes of my lack of margin was my health.  For years, I struggled with a gluten allergy that I just did not know about.  In the past five years, it got so much worse!  The result was that my physical strength was limited because I was poisoning my body with the food I ate.  I tried to eat well, but what is good for others (whole wheat grains!) was death to me.

I share this because many people confuse how their spirituality works.  As humans in a fallen world, we are so interconnected between our physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions.  I meet so many who struggle with their faith, but I think the reason for this struggle is a physical, mental, or emotional problem.  In my case, the physical issue robbed me of margin and left me without the energy to engage as I would wish.  No amount of spiritual, mental or emotional fixing was going to change my physical problem!

So, as we pursue margin in our lives and as we seek a deeper walk with God, check your physical, mental and emotional resources!  If you struggle with depression for chemical reasons, seek to fix the physical problem.  If you have emotional scars from past abuse, find a pastor or counselor to help you work through these emotional and mental bottlenecks!  Having issues in any area of life is not a sign of inability or laziness or lack of spiritual depth.  It is a mark of living in a fallen world.

I will conclude with Swenson's world about regaining margin.

Margin, rightly conceived, is not about laziness, mediocrity, and noninvolvement.  It is about focus, discipline, and self-control.  But mostly is it a prioritizing space where we concentrate on the things that matter most (balance!).

Restoring margin to overloaded lives is possible if we are willing to think creatively, live differently, act intentionally, and stop following the crowds to the malls.  Hundreds of practical margin suggestions have been written elsewhere to assist in such a lifestyle direction.  But the first step, as always, resides within each human heart. (93-94)

Pray for the grace to see if you need to regain margin.  Pray for the grace to see what is robbing you of your margin.  May the Lord bless you as you regain capacity to love others well!