Making Diamonds from Coal

[GraceAbounds]

Making Diamonds from Coal

I have been.in hunger and thirst, often without food..Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.

2 Corinthians 11:27,28

Does pressure ever get to you? It gets to me. Let me share a slice of our lives that I recorded in my journal several years ago:

A plumber has just informed me our house could explode any minute because of a faulty gas line. A corner of the wallpaper is peeling above the shower. On the way to work I hit every red light possible and arrived late. As I entered my office, an associate informed me of two urgent situations needing immediate decisions. A three-inch pile of unanswered letters on my desk cries out for attention-pressure. Barbara is on the phone needing a decision from me on refinishing our hardwood floors: "What color of stain should we use? When should the floor man come? Should we do the kids' closet?"

As if that wasn't enough, after being on the road for eight weeks, all six of us were leaving in 24 hours for a family camp in California where I was scheduled to speak.

That day, Barbara started sneezing. Ashley and Samuel chorused in, and by midnight half of the Rainey Zoo suffered from asthma. In less than eight hours we were to leave for camp. We prayed about canceling.

The next morning the lawn still needed mowing, the kids were still sick and Rebecca was crying for Cheerios. Leaving for the airport, the phone rang as we locked the door, but we had to ignore it or miss our plane. The kids chimed in unison, "Could you stop for doughnuts, Daddy?" Secretly I thought, Who needs family camp, hardwood floors or doughnuts?

The apostle Paul allowed God to use the pressure he faced to make him stronger, much like pressure transforms coal into diamonds.

The question is: Do we allow God to use pressure to transform us?

Discuss: Can you recall a scene like that above, when all sorts of pressures seemed to pile up at once? What situations cause the most pressure for you?

Pray: Take the time just to sit quietly and meditate on God's peace. Then pray His power will help you transform stress into strength.

If you are Christian you can answer the questions from that perspective, if not you can still respond/participate by answering the questions relating to the stress in life and how you deal with it.

 

[dt3]

Discuss: Can you recall a scene like that above, when all sorts of pressures seemed to pile up at once? What situations cause the most pressure for you?

Absolutely. The only way to deal with it for me is to suck it up and keep going. Dwelling on things won't make the situation better.

 

[All Else Failed]

I normally just listen to music or jog.

 

[Tim]

Yes, there are very stressful times that I have had to deal with... but through the years I have learned to change my perspective on how I look at things.
I'm a thinker, I always have been. Most of my life has been spent devoting my thoughts towards knowledge, logic and order. Everything works together if you can only see the pattern... but this can lead to stress and hard times when you don't see the problems for what they are...
Let's take the above story as an example...

The plumber told you the house could blow-up because of a faulty gas line. That's not stressful, that's enlightening. You now know about the problem which is the first step towards correcting it. It would be MUCH more dangerous to not be aware of it and having the problem persist...

Hitting every red light? Be thankful you have a car to drive, money to gas it and a job to go to...

The emergencies and the amount of paperwork you have waiting for you at work shows that the company is busy and your employment is secure. An empty desk would be much more stressful. If you don't have any work to do, then you may not be needed by the company anymore. I know that I have too many quotes to complete in the next few days... but instead of stressing over the amount of work, I'm thankful that there will be more than enough work to keep our shop busy through the winter months, which means a much bigger bonus for me.

Worried about choosing a stain color for your hardwood floors??? Isn't that the same as worrying what color to paint your BMW? Again, the focus is on a material decision... instead you should be thankful for the beautiful things your family is blessed to have.

etc...


I'm only using the above examples to get my point across... not to pick on you Grace. I guess the whole point is... It's all about perspective. Instead of us being thankful that we are busy at work, we complain about the amount of work. Well try having that conversation who is unemployed or has lost their job due to company cut backs. Complain about hitting every red light to someone who has lost their sight and cannot drive. Complain about what color your floors are going to be to someone who is homeless. Complain about having the time to go to camp to someone who lives in the inner city, a person who will never be able to experience such wonderful trips. And to sum it all up, talk about your children who have colds to someone who is watching their child die from cancer....

Like I said, over the years I have learned to change my perspective on how I view the world around me. Things that used to stress me no longer do. I have learned to look beyond my pitifully "problems" and enjoy my life for what it is...

 

[GraceAbounds]

The more thankful we are, the more positive, loving, and joyful our lives are that is for sure.

Even good things or changes can be stressful. Stress does not always mean something negative or that someone is viewing things in a negative fashion.

The busy-ness of life is stressful. We can make it worse or better by our perspective as Tim has pointed out. I'm the same way.

 

[Peter Parka]

The question is: Do we allow God to use pressure to transform us?

Discuss: Can you recall a scene like that above, when all sorts of pressures seemed to pile up at once? What situations cause the most pressure for you?

Pray: Take the time just to sit quietly and meditate on God's peace. Then pray His power will help you transform stress into strength.

If you are Christian you can answer the questions from that perspective, if not you can still respond/participate by answering the questions relating to the stress in life and how you deal with it.

I get stressed very easily, especially when things happen unexpectedly. I just can't seem to cope when they do, especially when everyone else are running around like headless chickens over it. I like to calmly just deal with one thing at a time. I can't do any more than that so it's tough shit if anyone expects more of me. If they do, I usually end up completely shutting off from all of it and go and get pissed to block it all out. Not the best way, I know but I've tried loads of coping strategies and none of them work for me. I know what I do is not to be recommended but I'm just being honest here.

 

[GraceAbounds]

Honesty is good my friend.

 

[Silious950]

I would like to listen to Music like AEF, or just sit and really think about why I'm stressing out.. Most of the time it's for stupid reason's. I can see how praying and applying good life lessons from the bible can help you in stressful times.

But yeah myself I like to think of music as my release and relaxation

 

[dt3]

Man, my stress situation has changed since this morning