I just dozed a minute in my cozy chair (I promise you -- that chair is a sedative!), and I awoke suddenly because I heard: "No pressure!" At first I wondered what that meant, because I sure don't, any longer, see my life as pressured. But then I heard it as a clarion call to caution my beloved friends and family. The answer came quickly. Life is full of opportunities to be stressed-out, but sometimes, voluntarily, we bring on the added pressure.
I thought about the added pressures we got ourselves into because of that BIG, beautiful, must-have home we purchased. It came with all that extra cleaning, the added maintenance of things that would break-down like the garage door motor, the air conditioner as well as the larger lawn and landscaping requirements, and God forbid -- that the home came with a gorgeous pool that was surrounded by pine trees that when the needles shed.....landed in the pool. Those were the added pressures we experienced with our dream home in Canada. But, we loved our home for entertaining and had wonderful family times. But was the added pressure really worth it?
And, who doesn't crave career "opportunities" along with titles and fat paychecks? We surrender our evenings and weekends to speed-climbing up the ladder or to promote our services if we're self-employed. The long hours are often grueling and the added pressure comes when we have to miss family time, school activities and celebrations, and it even affects our quiet times with God. And, often in even doing the right things in taking on more volunteer commitments in organizations and church -- we spread ourselves so thin that we leave little for those God placed in our lives as first priority. Again, I speak from experience -- though I can count on one hand the number of family opportunities we missed because of work. We did strive for prioritizing our family.
We can learn a lot about being in "hot water" from a frog. If you drop a frog into a shallow pot of boiling water, he'll jump out immediately. But if you place him in water at room temperature, then gradually bring the liquid to a boil, the frog doesn't notice until it's too late. Farewell, Sweet Prince!
If we have succumbed to the pressure cooker lifestyle and aren't noticing the signs of the heat being turned up, then maybe it's time for a closer look, especially because we are not only living a pressure-filled life, but we are modeling this life and teaching it to our kids. It doesn't take rocket science to recognize that years of pressure and stress will manifest in our behaviors and even in our physical bodies. Other legitimate signs of lives filled with pressure may be insomnia, excesses of food and drink, a troubled marriage and children straying off right paths.
It seems to me that we've become frogs -- creatures in some great experiment that we didn't sign up for. If we don't start paying attention, the outcome is predictable. Sure, some pressures are unavoidable and we handle them with wisdom, faith and strength. But we can strive to be free of pressure cookers by placing priority on what's most important in our lives -- God, our family, our peace. When we do have time for our loved ones, we can choose to disconnect from our phones and computers. We can talk to our spouses and our children face-to-face at meals. We can purposely make time for God in our prayer-times together and "no excuse" mentality in attending church where our spirits grow stronger and He gets first-place priority. We can say no to perpetual overload and in its place, say yes to turning down the temperature -- before we find ourselves pressured cooked alive.
“Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name." Psalm 86:11.
