A stresser

Let's talk stress for a moment. A quick moment. A moment that takes us away from what we should be doing when we're doing this and we should be doing that and we're..whoa, I'm stressed out, aren't I?

Truth is I have been stressed out for a while. Change does that to me. Perhaps you've noticed that. I know my dear Mary has.

Within a week's time, my favorite television show will disappear, we'll move from our home to a house and life will change again.

King David knew about stress, though he didn't know what it was called. Stress is a modern invention to describe an age old thing.

In the Message paraphrase of Matthew's Gospel, the fourth chapter, Jesus says this: And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it. The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it."

Stress is a killer, literally, science has discovered. Stress strangles what we know to be good for us and kills that which is meaningful to us.

Stress can be overcome by one thing, non-drug related at that. Peace is the great solver of stress-related problems. Peace comes from one thing, and that one thing is a person named Jesus.

In John's Gospel, Jesus says to his friends, "I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught."

peace is what he left us. Peace is what he gave us. Peace was his parting gift to us. Peace overcomes stress.

Oh, but that I could find some soon. Oh, but that I could kick back and relax. Oh, come Jesus come.