A while back my son's middle school had a big event with water balloons, food, games, etc. Afterward, I found this and thought it looked cool (because I'm weird that way). The rainbow bands are evidence of tension and stress. The balloons were stretched or filled beyond their capacity and burst.
We all face hard situations and sometimes feel like we are on the verge of hitting or surpassing our limits, about to break like those balloons. While I believe it is good and healthy to be transparent about things like stress, burnout, relationships, etc., I also wonder if sometimes we sabotage ourselves with the power of suggestion and our drive to diagnose and help ourselves.
Occasionally, I receive free Christian books for Kindle. Several recent titles I received deal with such topics as burnout, stress, expectations not being met, failure, forgiveness, disillusionment, and disappointment. They all had lists of symptoms so readers could self-diagnose. It occurred to me that the more focused I became on some of these, the easier it became to "see" myself in them. My grandmother used to say if you look hard enough for something, you'll find it. I began to feel like maybe I wasn't helping myself any by spending my time focusing on all that stuff. Maybe I wouldn't feel so tightly stretched mentally and emotionally if I spent less time and energy fixating on the problems.
Yes, I live in a hard place and have stress and fatigue. Yes, I have had unrealistic expectations and the ensuing disappointments. We all have. But I am learning that the solution is not to jump on the burnout bandwagon or the stress train, but to go to Jesus. Continuously. He promised if we turn to Him with our weariness of all the stupid stuff in this world, He will give us rest.
Those books I read were all good and were written to help people. I would even recommend some of them to others when appropriate. But I think I have had too much of a good thing lately, and it began to supersede the best thing in my thoughts. For now I am giving myself a rest from the "self-help" genre of literature. One less thing to stretch my mind around. I tend to let them have too much prominence in my considerations when I should be thinking on what God has to say to me in His Book.
Very well stated, Nancy. I would imagine not enough time spend with God can result in those maladies, and repenting would lead to healing. Thank you for this visual!
ReplyDeleteWhen I began my journey as a psychologist 55 years ago, I was warned that when studying we could all see a little of ourselves in every mental illness or in the problems that others face. That was so true! We all feel a little "paranoid" sometimes, we all hear voices in our head (God is that you?), we all know what it's like to be hungry even if for a few hours, and we all feel stressed--just like you say in this blog. The key is to do exactly what you did Nancy. The key is to step back and gain perspective. We get so "into" our own problems that we forget to put them into perspective and look at our whole lives. We need to remember that problems are typically transient, that we are clever beings who can find alternatives (like David fixing the dryer), that guidance can be found in both faith and friendship, and that ultimately we are loved. Nancy, you are soooo loved! Thanks for sharing your wisdom! Aunt Janie
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