Start Each Day New
In my experience, most stress comes in the form of baggage dragged with us from yesterday. Failing that, we worry overmuch about tomorrow, as if we knew our future and could control it. God's baptismal covenant promises that each day we are made new. As we rise yesterday's burdens are washed away, drowned in the baptismal waters, and we are given new life.
This means every day is a fresh chance. Old problems may follow us, but they don't have to have the same shape and weight they carried the day before. If I worry all through the day, carry those problems with me through a restless sleep, and then wake up weighed down just as much as I was before, I haven't given the new day a chance.
Instead I wake up trying my hardest to trust that this day will be new and different. If familiar problems arise, well, new opportunities will too. I don't want to miss my calling in this day because I'm still carrying the last one front and center. Each day when I wake up I say a quick prayer that God will relieve me of my burdens and show me what he wants me to do in this day. Privately I also ask that he'll relieve me of the folly of forcing every day to be exactly the same and then wondering why nothing ever changes.
Plan For Big Things
Part of acknowledging the new opportunities God gives us is admitting that they just might matter. Even if I pretty much know what I'll be doing in a day--for better or worse we live by schedules and tasks--I don't assume that I know how all those things will go. I'm prepared for them to make a big difference. I'm ready for something significant to happen. Maybe I meet a new person. Maybe I see a person I've met before in a new way. Maybe I'll say something, or hear something, that will change a life. Maybe I'll be delighted or disappointed. Whatever happens, I've never experienced this day before.
Life is kind of like a board game in this way. You know the basic forms of Monopoly or Yahtzee just like you know the basic pattern of your life. You're familiar with the cards and categories. But you never know how those elements will combine each time you play. You can't predict how the dice will roll, how landing on a certain space or filling in a certain line on the sheet will change the game. It's the same way with your life, your job, your relationships. Each morning is like setting up a new game board. I may know the rules and I may have seen most of the cards, but I'm going to be interested in how it plays out and I'm going to do my best to play well. Who knows if this will be the round where something special happens, creating a story that will last a lifetime?
If the Big Things Don't Go Right, Make the Most of Little Things
Sometimes things don't work out like we hope. Life falls apart. Hopes go unanswered. Worries come true. Stress increases. We don't always get good days.
When this happens my first thought is, "If I can't have a good day, can I maybe find a good 10 minutes in there somewhere?" Even one or two things going right can give you something to lean on. You have a cup of coffee with a friend. You stop for an ice cream cone. You hear a song that you love. Somebody smiles at you unexpectedly or lets you cut ahead of them in a long grocery store line. Even a small reminder of goodness can be enough to get you through a bad day. Yucky stuff happening for 23 hours and 30 minutes doesn't rob us of the ability to appreciate the other half-hour. Given a choice of what to build my life on, I'm going to take the good 10-minute experience over the yucky, day-long drag. That good event still happened. Goodness still exists. If I hang on through the other stuff, even if it's a crushing, inexorable burden today, then eventually I'll find the good again.
If the Little Things Don't Go Right Either, Get a Hug and Pray
Sometimes things just don't go right in a day, not even one little bit. Overwhelming bad news, unexpected sorrow, a series of unfortunate events, at times it's just too much.
In these situations I need a hug, maybe a pat on the back...just some kind of human contact. I also need a little divine contact in the form of prayer, even if that prayer is just, "Help! I can't do it!" Most folks see that as a sign of failure. That's actually the purest, truest prayer we can offer to God. "Help! I can't do it!" is the reason Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us. None of us can do it even though we spend much of our life pretending we can. When we couldn't do it ourselves, when we were lost beyond hope, Jesus came to us and saved us. Those moments when we have nothing else end up being the moments we're closest to God. We don't necessarily feel it, but it's true.
It should be mentioned that hugs and prayers are available in plentiful supply from your pastor and most of your friends at church too.
It's also interesting to note how many of those days come when we literally have nothing left but to get a hug and pray versus the number of days we call "bad". For most people the former situation is far more rare than the latter. Stress accelerates us down the ladder more quickly than circumstances do, which is why it's important to head back up to the top of the list and start each day fresh and new.
Here's hoping your stress level is low and your contentment-and-love level is off the charts during this holiday season.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
No comments:
Post a Comment