Biblical stress relief is a thing

Stress is normal, right? It’s how we’re supposed to live. It’s how we demonstrate that we’re effective workers.

I mean, if I’m not stressed out about something, does that make me a sub-standard employee? Does that make me lazy or disinterested? Everybody knows that the best employees are always rushing, always exhausted, always stressed about something, right?

I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re physically capable of carrying that kind of stress for an extended period of time. So how do we change it? How do we fix it?

I’m not an expert, but I have lived with a lot of stress in my life. And I’m tired of it. I don’t want to do it anymore. I know that following Jesus isn’t easy (John 16), but Jesus also says that His burden is light and those who seek rest should come to Him (Matthew 11:30). So where’s the middle ground?

That’s how I found Exodus 14.

Yes, Exodus. The Old Testament, Moses and the Burning Bush, ten plagues of Egypt–Exodus. Just about everybody knows the basic story.

The Basics

Moses (Charlton Heston) and Rameses (Yul Brenner) in The Ten Commandments

God tells this shepherd dude, Moses, to go to Pharaoh (King of Egypt) and demand the release of the Hebrews, the slave nation Egypt was working to death. (Cue Charlton Heston: “Let my people go!”) Pharaoh, of course, doesn’t budge. (Cue Yul Brenner: “So let it be written; so let it be done.”) God smites Egypt with fleas and frogs and boils. Oh my! Pharaoh relents, and the Hebrews go free. But that’s not the end of the story.

God tells Moses to lead the Hebrews (a.k.a. Israelites) to the Red Sea. Basically, God directs them into a dead end. The Israelites don’t know that. But God makes sure that Pharaoh knows. And God sets it up so that the Israelites, His beloved people, are like sitting ducks. Even more than that, He “hardens Pharaoh’s heart” so that the King of Egypt will come after the Israelites.

Pharaoh does. He and his whole army chase them down, and God parts the Red Sea so that His people can safely cross. Then, God collapses the Red Sea on the Egyptian army as they’re in pursuit. Not a single one survived.

It’s sobering to remember just who God is and what He’s capable of, isn’t it?

So where’s the stress relief?

Look. God got them into this situation. He told Moses where to set up camp. He knew it was a dead end. He knew they were vulnerable. And then He went and ensured that Pharaoh and his entire army would come after them. Why?

“I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!” (Exodus 14:17-18)

God put His people in this situation so that all of Egypt could know who He is. God let the Israelites face terror and annihilation so that the world could know His great name and know that if they turned to Him, they could be saved.

But what matters about this whole story is the fact that God got them into that mess, and He was the only one who could get them out of it again.

[su_pullquote]God got them into that mess, and He was the only one who could get them out of it again.[/su_pullquote]

Are you following Jesus today? Are you living for God, doing your best to keep His Word, to trust Him? I am. But that doesn’t make life easier. In spite of doing everything God asks of me, I usually get more trouble. But instead of handing my troubles to God, I clutch them tighter. I try to fix them myself. But I didn’t run into this trouble because I was doing my own thing. I ran into trouble because I was following Jesus.

That means it’s not my trouble to fix. It’s His.

I shouldn’t stress myself out trying to solve problems I can’t solve. But that’s where my stress mostly comes from. Instead, I need to trust that God will provide a solution My when it’s time.

It’s not a “get out of jail free” card, though. You can’t look at every situation in your life this way. The first thing you have to do is check your heart. Are you actually following God? There’s a chance your own actions have led to this difficulty you’re facing.

But if your heart is clean before Him, if you’re honestly following Him with everything you have and trouble still finds you (it will), remember this.

“The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:14

Isn’t it possible that the things that are stressing you out right now—the ones you can’t control—have actually come from God? Maybe God wants to show how awesome He is through your life. Maybe God wants everyone to know His name through you.

Hold on to that with both hands. Recognize that He’s the one who calls the shots. Let Him work. Get out of His way. Stop trying to control things yourself and trust Him like you say you do.

My God moves mountains and parts oceans. He can do the impossible because that’s who He is. And when I consider all the trouble in my life, I need an impossible God to help me. And if that means He has to let me sweat a bit in order to help everyone else recognize who He is, bring it on.

My life is in His hands. So why should I be afraid of anything? He got me into this. He can get me out of it.

Nothing’s certain but death and taxes

When I was a child, I never really understood what people meant when they told me that death and taxes were the only certainties in life. Now, as an adult, I get it, although it seems to me lately that the only certainties are death and raising taxes . . . but that’s a topic for another blog post . . . .

I find it very interesting that most people in the college age group don’t think about death. Even high schoolers think about it. And practically no children think about it. It find it fascinating because death was something I thought about a lot, even as a child. I’m pretty sure it started with the death of my great grandmother — we called her Grandma Great because she was so cool.

I remember very clearly the day that she died. She was in Wichita. My family and I still lived in Houston at the time. We got the phone call, and my mom told us that Grandma Great had passed away. And for the first time I remember feeling the odd paradox of sorrow mixed with joy, that strange unexplainable feeling a believer gets when someone who knows Christ has died.

I wasn’t very old, but I was old enough to comprehend the fact that Grandma Great was in heaven and that she wasn’t in pain anymore and that she was probably up there dancing the Charleston again, like she hadn’t been able to do in years.

From that moment on, I think I looked at death differently. For that reason, I think I was able to survive the deaths of friends in high school later on, knowing all of them had been believers, knowing I would see them again.

I’m not sure how many people in my age group now think about death. Probably more than people who are in college. Normal college and high school age kids tend to think that they’ll live forever. But I do know that a lot of people are scared of it.

I suppose, on one hand, it should be scary. I mean, it’s something unknown, and it’s not exactly something you can prepare yourself for. I suppose you can read books about it, but stories of near-death experiences vary a lot. Some people see lights. Other people hear voices. Some folks see angels. Others float through tunnels. I’m not discounting any of those stories, but to me that doesn’t sound like a lot of detail.

I guess I’ve just gotten to the point in life where I recognize that death will come sooner or later (if Christ doesn’t come back in the mean time), and that there’s no point in being afraid of it, even though I don’t understand it. Because, at the end of the day, what is death? I think I mentioned this yesterday. Death is one of those terms that people misunderstand and misuse a lot. On Earth, we get the idea that death is the end of something. Like the death of a dream. Or the death of a tree. Or the death of a salesman. No, wait. =)

But death isn’t the end of anything. Death is simply separation. When we die, the person we really are keeps on going, keeps on living, and simply relocates either to heaven or to hell. There’s no in between. There are no ghosts haunting the earth. There’s no purgatory. We die. We go to heaven or we go to hell. That’s it.

So as long as you know Christ, heaven is where you’re headed. And I guarantee that’s nothing to be afraid of. Do we really believe it, though? That’s the part that’s hard to get sometimes. But we, as Christians, have nothing to fear from death. We shouldn’t be afraid of it. Because death is powerless over us. It can’t control us and it can’t stop us.

The verse this morning is out of 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory?
      O death, where is your sting?^[a]”

 ⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to this, death has power over people because of sin. And sin has power because people can’t obey the law.

And that’s true. God gave us the Law, the Ten Commandments, to show us that we can’t be good enough to get to heaven on our own merit. No one has kept the Ten Commandments. People have tried, but everyone has failed. No one on Earth is perfect enough to keep all ten of them every moment of every day for their entire lives. And if you wanted to get into heaven on your own, that’s what you would have to do.

So because we can’t keep the Ten Commandments, our sin keeps us separated from God, and if we die physically our broken souls with our dead (separated) spirits can’t be in the presence of God as He is holy and perfect and we aren’t. Death has power over people because we sin.

But what is the Bible about? What is the story of Jesus about?

People who believe in Jesus aren’t subject to the Ten Commandments. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, “I am not under law but under grace.” Christ came to Earth and lived a perfect life. He never broke one of the Ten Commandments. His life was flawless. He was innocent. And because He was innocent, He had the capability to sacrifice Himself for us. Because He had never sinned, He could pay for those of us who had.

So those who believe in Jesus are freed from our subjection to the law, freed from the power that sin has over us. And since we are no longer controlled by sin, believers are no longer controlled by death.

It comes down to how much you love your Earthly life, I guess. If you love your family more than God, I suppose death is a frightening prospect. I struggle with that one. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m afraid to leave my family and friends behind . . . even though most of them know Christ. I feel like my presence in their lives keeps them safe. But that’s silly. What can I do to protect anyone? God is the one who is in control. And when He says it’s my time to go, I will go, and I have no say in it. And we just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing, that He’s got a plan, and that He really can take care of everything after we leave this Earth.

Death can’t control me. It can’t control you. And we shouldn’t be afraid of it because when the time comes for us to die, we will be with God if we believe in Jesus.

Let me sum up.

So where did spring go? It was just here and now it’s gone again, and I let myself get used to warmer weather. Now I’m freezing . . . . Oh, well. I should have known. Kansas has the strangest weather on the planet. In one week last week we had a temperature differential of 95 degrees. We were around -20 on day and then seven days later we were at nearly 80. It’s ridiculous. But it’s not cold enough for my fingers to be numb, so I’m a happy camper.

I love the movie The Princess Bride, and I love the character Inigo Montoya (of “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” fame). And every time I have too much to say in too short a time, I always try to let loose the famous: “No, is too much. Let me sum up.”

I feel kind of like that’s what Paul is saying in the verse of the day this morning.

Romans 13:9-10

⁹ For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.”^[a] These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[b] 10} Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

God gave us the Ten Commandments for a number of reasons, but it was mainly to prove to us that we were unable to keep them. That we needed Someone perfect to take our punishment in our place. Through the years, there have been people who say that they have kept all the Ten Commandments, but it’s not possible. It’s good to strive toward something, and they are good moral commandments to follow. But they don’t exist to make us perfect; they exist to show us our need of a Savior.

But since people are always asking for an easy way to understand things, I like how Paul (and before him, Jesus) sum up the Ten Commandments. Actually, why don’t I list the Ten Commandments so we’re all on the same page?  You can find them in Exodus 20 (and elsewhere, but Exodus 20 is generally the book used to refer to them).

Exodus 20:1-17

 ¹ Then God gave the people all these instructions^[a]:

 ² “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
 ³ “You must not have any other god but me.
 ⁴ “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. ⁵ You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. ⁶ But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those^[b] who love me and obey my commands.
 ⁷ “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.
 ⁸ “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ You have six days each week for your ordinary work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
 ¹² “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
 ¹³ “You must not murder.
 ¹⁴ “You must not commit adultery.
 ¹⁵ “You must not steal.
 ¹⁶ “You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
 ¹⁷ “You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

Ten commandments. Ten rules for living. They’re very specific, and even though some of them may be obvious, they are only obvious because most of us Americans have grown up in a culture shaped by Christian thought. Adultery, theft, lying and even murder in some cases is looked on favorably in other cultures.

But if you look at the Ten Commandments and really get down into what they mean, you can sum up the last six of them by what Paul said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love your parents. Love your spouse. Love your neighbors. Love your cooworkers. Love the people you go to school with. Love the people you go to church with.  Love them as much as you love yourself, and you will abide by the Ten Commandments automatically.

The first four commandments can be summed up by saying Love God, like Jesus did in Matthew 22:37-40.

 ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’^{[e] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[f] 40} The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Like I’ve said before, love God and love people. That’s how a Christian should live.