God's Boundaries

"God's boundaries" - that's the title of a recent devotional in Joyce Meyer's book "New Day New You." I like this essay and for once, find nothing to argue with her about! In this devotion, she says: "The word stress was originally an engineering term used to refer to the amount of force a beam . . . could bear without collapsing under the strain. In our time, the word has been expanded to refer not only to physical pressure but also to mental and emotional tension. As human beings, you and I are built to handle a normal amount of stress. God has created us to withstand a certain amount of pressure and tension. The problem comes when we push ourselves beyond our limitations, beyond what we were intended to bear without permanent damage. . . . [I]f you become sick as a result of running your body down by pushing it beyond the limits God set for you . . . you need rest as well as prayer to restore your health."

Sometimes, of course, the stress we bear is put upon us by others and circumstances beyond our control. A lot of us tend to think we need to just suck it up and continue to struggle along as best we can. It's at this point that I believe we need to set some healthy limits of our own on whatever portions of our lives we actually do have control over. Your boss is a jerk? You can't change that, but you can think seriously about looking for a different job, or transferring within your company to another department. Your kids or pets are out of control? Sign up for a class on parenting, read a book by whoever is our generation's answer to Dr. Spock, enroll your dog in obedience classes, sign yourself up for a massage. None of those things are options? Then find a hobby, so you can begin to intentionally bring joy into your life on a regular basis.

I mean it - get a hobby. Play your favorite music in the car whenever you're in it. Watch a sunset; eat the ice cream; find something that makes you laugh. By bringing joy into your life, you help strengthen your spirit, your immune system and probably your mental health. All of that strengthening will help you bear the load you have no control over. It may not reduce the amount of stress you're under in a clinical sense, but it will help reduce the effects of the stress. A beam (or a person) may be designed to carry a certain amount of stress or tension, but if that beam (or person) has a supporting pole, or wall, it can hold up a lot more. In this day, we tend to think of a crutch as something we don't want to rely on. We want to support our own weight, our own stress, without a nasty, demeaning, "shows-just-how-weak-we-really-are" crutch. Lots of people consider religion a crutch for the weak along with 12-Step groups, therapy, etc., but the crutch of joy is one that's easy to get in place and it can do a world of good.

No one lives a life that's stress free - the only real question is, are we strong enough to bear our normal level of stress? I mean, let's go back to Joyce's image of a beam in a building. Do you think it groans all day under it's load? If the building has been built properly, the amount of stress on any particular beam is within its capacity to bear it without difficulty. In fact, the building is probably made so that when people or furniture or goods for sale are added to the weight of the structure, the beams are still within their ability to bear the load easily. We're made the same way. There's a level of stress that we're meant to handle regularly, and we're probably strong enough to handle a bit more beside. Joy, friends, a spiritual relationship with the Holy, rest, prayer, and probably many more things, continually strengthen us and help prop us up in the periods when life is harder than normal. Don't be afraid to rest - after all, even God rested on the seventh day. If you're life isn't looking like something you can declare as good, take a break. Rest. Pray. Laugh. And, as Joyce says, remember that the boundaries God sets are for your own good!