“As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.”

Patti and I walked by some people lounging in the sun on park benches, just reading books.  My first reaction was, “That looks so great”.  Then I thought that if I was to do that, I’d be not paying attention to the long list of things that I need to do.  And then my mind went to, “Who can really do that?”.  Come to find out, there is a word for my emotion. It is called, “Stresslaxing”.  It’s a verb and it means: “Being stressed that relaxing makes you more stressed because you’re not working on what’s making you stressed.”  Sound familiar?  Our work comes at us today fast and furiously, giving us little time to even consider when and where we might find some downtime or just get away from it all.  There is a move afoot to get a whole lot better at putting work in a place that doesn’t dominate our lives but it’s much easier said than done.  As we manage and lead people, let’s never forget that if we are stressed, overwhelmed and up to our eyeballs, there is a very good chance that they are are too and we are projecting to them exactly what we don’t personally or professionally want to be.

God prescribed (instructed) His people to honor the Sabbath.  And, at the same time, He asks us to relinquish our pressures and stress to Him so that we can attain peace and calm in how we live.  It’s hard to truly turn over our worries, but that is what He is imploring us to do.  Might today be a day to just give Him our stress and see if we can’t lift it off of our shoulders?  We might even find that we can relax  a bit and not get caught “Stresslaxing”.

Reference: Psalm 119:143 (New Living Translation)