Choosing to Stress or Choosing to Trust
@bethvogt
Life stopped abruptly for me last week, thanks to unrelenting muscle spasms in my jaw. Forget powering through the pain – sleeping was the wiser choice, curling up in my bed with either a heating pad or ice pack pressed to my face.
Not how I planned to spend the week.
Several days in, I was in bed – where else? – half awake, half asleep, wrestling with the reason for my muscle spasms.
Stress. Yep. Stress was causing me to clench my jaw so hard that my muscles spasmed.
Up until the pain got so bad I couldn’t ignore it because I couldn’t eat or talk, I thought I was managing what life was throwing at me.
We all have life stressors right now. The ongoing pandemic turbo-charges the stressors of school, work – even our attempts to relax. We’re all trying to manage our lives today and into the foreseeable future.
But “coping” with life stress is not the same thing as trusting.
That’s the realization I faced when I couldn’t make the muscle spasms stop.
I was managing my stress. Shifting it from one shoulder to the other, day in and day out. Waving at God and saying, “Don’t worry. I got this handled.”
Truth was, I needed to shrug all that stress off my shoulders and lay it at God’s feet. Admit, “This is way too much for me to carry. I need your help.”
Okay. Time for a story.
Years ago, when I was first dealing with my abuse, struggling to accept the reality of what happened, a friend shared this story with me:
A young man was walking along a road carrying a sack of rocks on his back. After a while, an older man came along in a wagon. He stopped beside the young man carrying the sack of rocks on his back and offered him a ride in the wagon. The man accepted, climbed up into the wagon, still shouldering his load of rocks. They road along in silence for some time before the older man said, “You are welcome to set that load of rocks down in the back of the wagon.” But the younger man declined. “No, thank you. I can handle this load myself.”
Why do we needlessly shoulder burdens we were never meant to carry – especially when help is offered?
If you’re stressed today, consider doing two things:
Rest. When our bodies are stressed out, we need to allow them to rest. It’s not weakness to acknowledge we’re worn out or that we can’t push through emotional or physical pain. Let’s accept we’re human and that we have limitations.
Trust. We don’t have to go it alone. Pause and consider who you trust enough to ask for help. And yes, it’s difficult to reach out and admit that life stressors have taken us down. Sometimes I even struggle to find the words in a private, whispered conversation between me and God, who has proven to be trustworthy time and time again. Trust isn’t always the easiest choice … but realizing we can ask others for help can provide instant emotional breathing space.
If you’re facing tough days – and most of us are – know that I prayed for you as I wrote this post. And I’m praying for you now. Yes, you.
Choosing to Stress or Choosing to Trust https://bit.ly/3gqZxlD #encouragement #choices
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'Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.' Quote by @BrianTracy https://bit.ly/3gqZxlD #stress #choices #trust
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