"When the afflicted man called out, the Lord heard, and from all his distress he saved him."...(Psalm 34:7)
Too blessed to be stressed!
Did you know that stressed spelled backwards is desserts? In that sense, we can take desserts to be the
opposite of stress. Dessert, many people would say, is the best part of the meal. Is it possible in
the middle of all the stress, afflictions and storms of life that we can have the best and live the
blessing that wipes out all the stressing?
Some of the most blessed and peaceful people I have encountered in life were also the most afflicted.
Whether they were poor, from a very broken family and past or suffering acutely and dying, they seemed to
be living the blessing that won out over the stressing. The power of peace was bigger than the affliction
they were facing.
A metaphor for peace is the ocean. At the top of the ocean the storms may rage and torment and make the
water murky but in the ocean depths it is always calm and untouched by the storms.
In our lives it is a question of what we will let reign. We can focus on the storms and afflictions and let
the stress reign or seek the blessing of peace which is always there like the still waters in the depths
of the ocean.
I know this is not easy but it is a choice. It involves constantly choosing the blessing that gives peace amidst
all the stressing. We only have to remember Jesus and how he cried out in affliction and sweat blood in the
garden the night before his death. But, the idea is to choose the blessing and not the stressing. The afflictions
are real and powerful but God is more real and infinitely more powerful. The continual choice is before us each
moment of our lives: choose the stress of the topical ocean storms or the blessing of the deep, still waters.
Let us pray: "Lord, you know my afflictions and sometimes they overwhelm me. Fear, confusion and hopelessness
grab hold of me. In the midst of this, I cry out to you and ask for your blessing of peace. Even though
the storm may rage, deep down I know that you can give me a peace that is bigger than the storm. Please,
Lord, fill me now with your peace. You have promised that you will answer when I call and I call upon you now.
Come with your peace. Amen."
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