Reducing our stress

This coming week it's my turn to supply the devotional thought for the faculty/staff newsletter on our campus.  I thought I'd share the message with y'all here as well.  Has a bit of a college campus tone to it, but I tried to make it applicable to all or our self-imposed busyness of life.

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Focus for our Lives

by David Sellnow

On a college campus, the time around midterm can be an especially stressful time – for faculty, students and staff.  In churches and schools, a hectic pace can be constant, with so many duties dominating the schedule.  In the professional life of lay people and the home life of all God’s people, chasing from one thing to the next rules daily and weekly agendas.

Where is the Lord in all of our busyness and stress?  Do we cause much of the stress ourselves by packing our plans with things that aren’t altogether essential?  Do we plan so much work that we can’t do our work well?  Do we push ourselves and those who live and work with us to pursue assignments and tasks so multitudinous and meticulous that only superhumans could keep up with the demands?

Jesus once said to his dear friend Martha of Bethany (who was distracted by all the preparations that she thought had to be made when Jesus came to visit): “Martha, Martha you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one” (Luke 10:40-42).  The things that we do, the chores that we chase, the details we scramble after—how many of them are crucial to our walk of faith with Jesus, our ministry or training for ministry in Jesus, our life of service to Jesus?  Is the way we plan our lives centered on the cross and empty grave of our Savior?  Or do we think we serve our Savior best by frenetic hustle and bustle?  That would seem a very law-driven way of life.

Can we simplify our lives to be more at rest with Jesus?  Will we?