Thumpety thump thump, Thumpety thump thump, look at Christian’s heart rate go!
What a great start to a blog post! A Christmas jingle-themed song about chronic stress! If you thought for a moment this would be a remake of Frosty the Snowman, my apologies for the inconvenience. Yet, if you came to this post, questioning what thankfulness and scripture can do to combat stress…ah! you came to the right place.
First, before we begin, I want to share a funny moment that happened today.
Just after lunch, I stepped outside my house with my daughter, Ava, to finish a few Christmas lights. We fastened a few candy canes to the front railing; the last of the Christmas decorations we had left. As I tied the last string to a candy cane, I smelt a terrible, decaying-like smell. At first I thought it was a dead rodent or something of that nature, hidden underneath our steps. However, since I am not feeling the best today (fighting off a virus) I decided to not explore the smell any further and instead, head indoors.
Later on that day, I went outdoors again (this time to put out the garbage). Yet again, I caught a whiff of this terrible smell. My son, Isaac, (who was with me this time), decided that we needed to investigate this curious odour thoroughly. So I went inside, grabbed my flashlight (as it was dark), and started to peer under the steps outdoors, search around the rotting hostas, and watched as Isaac sniffed random plants. Suddenly, he stood erect, and with the most curious facial expression and voice exclaimed, ” I think ______ is dead…”
He turned and faced me, repeating the same thing, “I think…_____…is…dead……”
First off, the ______ is my neighbour’s name, which I do not reveal here for privacy.
Second, I was really weirded out by his detective, Dick Tracy kind of coolness to the whole idea that he could smell my dead neighbour.
Third, I’m convinced now it was a manure smell coming from my cousin’s horses, five houses up.
How about we now start talking about combating stress? I hope you enjoyed my little anecdote.
Stress, stress baby!
Have you ever battled against chronic stress? If the answer is yes, then most likely you will relate to some of the things I’m about to mention here. I will not pretend like I know all the in’s and out’s of stress, however, I have learned a few things over the past couple of years. One of them is – stress can strike you in many ways.
Whether you are a full-time, working dad, with bills to pay and mouths to feed, in an economy that makes you second guess your grocery store visits – well, you get the point, stress can follow you everywhere – especially into the cereal isle.
I first found out that I had an issue with stress when working as a Telecommunications Operator with the RCMP. I would take intense, traumatic phone calls at times, and then transition into a family man, walking through his front door, greeted by eager kiddos wanting daddy to play with them. Yet, even after playing for five minutes or so, I found it increasingly hard to stay focused, and even harder to stay calm when someone wouldn’t listen to me – after all, I was always in control of the phone call at work.
Now I want to pinch something in the bottom right now *PINCH*. I do not regret my seven years service with the RCMP. Hard stop. I gained so many life skills, met amazing people, and developed some awesome friendships along the way – plus I know, I made a difference with every emergency call (add a Texas drawl here – inside joke) I received and worked on.
Yet, every task that deals with stress, life and death situations, and scary moments takes a toll on you. All you have to do is ask someone who works in a high-stress environment to find that answer. So one of the things I started to develop as a result was stress buildup.
Let’s fast-forward a little here.
I finished up with the RCMP and just after a year of teaching at Anchor Academy, I began to feel the stress come forward; after the years of it being buried down and piled on, now it was starting to be released. So this is when I started to realize I needed to take this head on.
So here was my new strategy – thankfulness and reading scripture (combining singing and prayer).
Don’t worry, be happy!
The scripture I turned to the most was Philippians 4:6, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”
There are two key parts to this scripture – pray about everything and thank him (God) for all he has done.
When you do both of these things, you are doing something quite remarkable: you are taking the situation of stress (maybe even anxiety) and flipping it on it’s head. You are moving a chess piece, so to speak, and lining it up perfectly, putting the opposing king (stress) in checkmate.
You take the situation that you are struggling with, and then you take it, Him. You are lifting your eyes to God above, asking Him for help, instead of relying on your own ability. Because, lets be honest – our ability is nothing compared to His. I’ve found that out many times in my own life – the never ending cycle of me trying to fix my problems.
I personally found this next part the hardest to do; yet, it completely changed my outlook. The second part of the verse says, “…and thank him for all he has done.” By doing this, you completely take all attention off the present situation and reverse it. In fact, you are operating in the opposite spirit. That means, the negative, downcast feelings you are experiencing are then changed when met with saying to God, “Thank you for my family,” when you actually feel like your kids are going to make you haul out your hair.
No, you are not denying reality, rather you are taking a different outlook: one of thankfulness to the one who gave you what you have in the first place.
Paul said it best in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” This is coming from the guy who was imprisoned multiple times, beaten, shipwrecked, stoned (with rocks not weed) and assumed dead at one point, due to the stoning he received.
To tie this all together…
“Christian, it’s easy for you to say, ‘Be thankful’, tell that to me when I don’t have food on the table, or my son is putting the house up, or my daughter is addicted to drugs. Where is the thankfulness in that?”
Valid concerns.
Yet, even in loss (which my family knows well) and chronic stress (which I have experienced), and health concerns (*raising my hand*), God is in control – not me. I thank Him for the time I had with my late mother-in-law; I thank him for my former job as a RCMP dispatcher, even though it was tough, but yet I was blessed greatly through it; and I thank Him that He holds my health and body in His hands.
Do I have this down-pat?
Nope.
Am I on a journey?
Yes.
Is it easy?
Nope.
But I will get through it, and so can you; because there is a promise attached to that last part of Philippians 4:6-7. Let’s read it now:
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
Wowza! That’s some good news today. I pray that you will be blessed today, and if you are struggling with stress, anxiety, or pressures of other kinds, I encourage you to pick up a bible (or download the YouVersion Bible App, https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/, and start exploring what God can do for you, right now in your current situation.
If you want to check out a local church in the CBS area, come out to Revive Church, located at the Legion on Legion Rd, service starts at 11 a.m. (coffee & goodies at 10:30 a.m.) Some of us want more of a personal connection, rather than a virtual one. Maybe your tired of being alone and need someone to chat with. Well, come on out and met some new folks. https://revivechurch-nl.com/
I have this HOPE, that Jesus Christ will carry us through.
Have a great day!
Christian
The Eason Clan 