The Bethlen Home Messenger, The Messenger, 2003 (1-5. szám)
2003-07-01 / 3. szám
Cfjaplatn'ö Corner by Rev. Dr. Joseph Posta THE SOLVING OF THE STRESS PUZZLE: (READ II TIMOTHY 3:1-11.) We all have made mistakes, and we will continue to make mistakes, but the glorious message of the gospel is that God redeems us by His Grace... Stress is part of the human dilemma, and we here at The Bethlen Home are not excluded. There is the tension between what we are and what God desires us to be. We are part of the fallen human race, corrupted by sin, and in need of reconciliation to God. Because of sin we also find ourselves out of harmony with nature, with others, and even with our own selves. Stress comes from our human inability to fully grasp the peace of God. But II Timothy 3:1 ...gives a picture of the stress puzzle and then shows an example of how to work through it. Stress can be categorized as being both a mental and physical condition. The spiritual and psychological focus on the mental, and the health and energy of the individual focus on the physical. Stress can be produced by what has happened, is happening and what is anticipated to happen. There are the biological. the environmental circumstances, the real life situation, behavioral problems and the cognitive domain. All of these interrelate to make up multiple attacks from negative stress in each of our lives. But God’s work, and the support of God’s people here in our Christian institution can assist greatly in coping positively with stress. Our Scripture from II Timothy, mentions the whole battle field of stressors, as it says: “For people will love only themselves and their money...” This is a very true description of humanity, isn’t it? And the Apostle Paul didn’t have the TV to watch, the newspapers, nor was he living in the year of 2003. Is it any wonder things are so stressful? One type of attack from stress comes from biological variables. Some people are more stress oriented genetically than are others. Every person is unique, and some people are more emotive and emotional than others, and stress sets off an alarm system more readily in the body. Because of imbalances and physical disorders many people just feel like they are exploding within themselves. Secondly, there are environmental circumstances. Stress can come from monotonous work, boredom, or from excessive coping with seemingly unresolved difficulties, that feeling of not enough time in the day, not enough time to take care of my patients on my floor, which I hear every day. The loss of the necessities, food, housing and not enough income can be very stressful. Loss of income, sickness, deep indebtedness, death or departure of a loved one, and other environmental circumstances can create stress. The third type of stressor comes from real life situations. There are things that stress us! Even sometimes people deliberately try to cause us stress. There are people who are very stressful to just be around. We read that: “people will love only themselves and their money”...Now money is not in itself evil, but it all depends on our attitude toward money. The Bible doesn’t say: “Money is evil, but that the love of money is the root of all evil”. Have you met people whose whole life focused around the “Me, I and Mine?” They were the center of the Universe, everything rotated around them. The scripture says they are proud, arrogant and boastful. Is there any wonder we have stress, because we continually get out of tune with God? We miss the mark of perfect perfection in everything we do. That is why the great verse of salvation from Ephesians 2:8,9 is so important which states: “for grace are you saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast...” The fourth stressor is that of the behavioral problems. We have to cope with stressful situations, where people are: disrespectful, unthankful, untruthful and hypocritical, as described in II Timothy. And we have to fight within ourselves that we might not yield to these negative behaviors. These factors are stress creators. One of the valuable social mores of our society from the days of the inception of our nation was that children were taught to respect their parents, the elderly, and the laws of the society. This was the basic in building a society that highly valued responsibility. But, because of many factors, our society has increasingly become more disrespectful, less thankful, more indecent, more dishonest and very shallow in commitment to anything positive. The fifth stressor is that of the cognitive domain. This is how you mind works! And it overlaps with all the other stressors. But here is also found the place to solve the puzzle. When I was teaching in high school continued...
