As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.

Psalm 119:143

Dear God, pressure and stress are such relative things. For someone like David (not necessarily the writer of this Psalm), he experienced a level of stress that I will never know. As king in that environment, I can’t imagine what he saw and had to live up to on a day-to-day basis. In my little life, on the other hand, I worry about the financial and operational well being of the place where I work, my own family’s financial situation, my wife, my children, my family, my friends, etc., but in comparison to others, my burden is not that bad. As I’ve taken to saying, my problems are first-world problems.

Yet, I can feel that pressure and stress. Worrying about those things I listed above can get to me. For example, I am constantly concerned about revenue at work. Will we be able to sustain our operations? I always worry about my children and I can’t imagine a day when I wouldn’t. No matter how well they are doing, they are my loves and I think of them constantly. I worry about the health and wellbeing of relatives and friends. But I am learning a little better to do a few things.

1. Turn it over to you, lay down my yoke and pick up your cross. I’m still learning, and as I’ve told some people before, there’s a fine line between living by faith and living in denial, but I’m getting better.
2. Being open about the burdens and sharing them as appropriately as possible helps. For example, as I’ve worried about work in the past, the more I share it with the board the better. The more I share with my wife the better I do. The more I confide in friends. The more I pray to and worship you. You get the idea. It is not good for man to be alone.

Father, I do indeed find joy in your commands because your commands are for my good. Help me to remember to be humble and bring others closer to you as I reach out to them through my own stress and pressure.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen