The title of this article ought to capture your attention. We all carry stress. We hate stress. Even folks who claim they work better under stress, don’t wake up on vacation and say, “How can I build stress today?
Stress is not the standard setting for a healthy life. It gives us high blood pressure. It causes us to fret. It even causes comfort eating, which causes weight gain. Maybe America is fat because we carry so much stress.
So what is this “great stress reliever?” Is if the faithful following of Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
This is not a text that simply exhorts us to be a diligent worker at our job. It is also about doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done. It is about fixing the broken places when you first find they are broken.
Sometimes we only fix urgent things. We treat things like a slow leak on a car tire. If we just put air in that slow-leaking tire, we won’t need to worry about it for another week or two. So – we air up the tire and kick the problem down the road. Then one day what could have been fixed at our own timing becomes an emergency on the side of the road while traffic is busy and people somewhere are waiting on us. This is a stress-inducing situation. It could have been avoided if only you had done “whatever your hand finds to do” with your might and good timing.
I am saying this, not just to you, but also to me.
Lonnie Davis