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Currently browsing thread: Thoughts on Seasonal Stress and the End of Time Petersen Nov 24, 2009 12:39:51
Thoughts on Seasonal Stress and the End of Time
Petersen
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Nov 24, 2009 12:39:51 		There is little in this life, in anything, that is under our control. We know this. Right? Why then do we become so angry or afraid? Why do we rage and panic? We cannot make ourselves behave, nor do we keep our promises. Why would we think others will or even should?

I don't want to take anything away from those who are being tortured and physically abused. I am no Marcus Aurelius and I know that itt is easier for emperors to be stoics than it is for slaves. But who reading this is a slave or a prisoner unjustly held in a Nazi concentration camp? Barring those sorts of extreme events, we create our own stress. We blame our boss or the traffic or the pressures of the season. But the stress doesn't really come from without. We create it for ourselves. It is our reaction that is off. We could calm down. We could relax. We could stop dwelling on the ways we've been wronged or are overworked, underappreciated, and so forth.

And if you really can't calm down, you need to get medical help. You may have a serious mental disorder. It may require medication and/or therapy, and probably both. But even then, you are not off the hook. An addict makes choices. So do the mentally ill.

The thanksgiving problem is that we are not thankful but are stressed. We are angry. We are tired. We are afraid. We try to count our blessings and see only disappointments. We think, "well, at least I am employed," but then we take it back with, "by my boss is incompetent," or "no one appreciates me," or "I have to do everything myself," and our paltry attempt to be grateful morphs into self-righteousness. We do the same with our families, our churches, and our country. We don't have to peer deeply to find flaws.

We might nuance it and say stress feels like frustration and a sense of being overwhelmed. But is it really anything other than despair and anger mixed with panic or fear? There is little in this life, if anything, that is within our control.

Here is the solution: repent. You are not condemned. You have not been appointed to damnation but to salvation. Be humbled. To be grateful is to be full of grace. The attitude comes not from counting "blessings" or good things that make us happy for which we should be thankful. The attitude comes from grace, from the undeserved mercy we have received from Jesus Christ. We are not grateful because we are happy. We are happy because we are grateful. .

The problem with our stress is that it is self-righteous. We think we've been singled out, have suffered more than others, work harder than others, and so forth. In fact, we have not. For nothing has befallen you that is not common to man. Our judgment of our brothers, that they somehow have it easier than we do, is simply evil. We might think someone is doing less than we are, is less "busy," or has had everything given to him, but we have no idea what he is going through, what obstacles and hardships are in his way. We don't generally tell each other the things that really disturb us, that we are impotent, that our wives are cheating on us, that our children hate us, that we are mentally ill, that we are addicted to pain killers, pornography, gambling, or internet shopping, or frequent male prostitutes.

There is actually some comfort in this. In the first place, you're not as weird or terrible as you think. Your secret shame is all your own, but is more common than you know, and though you suffer from it and feel as though you can't escape, you are free of others shameful things that afflict your brothers. You are simply a sinner, no worse, and no better, than your brothers. So let up on your brothers, and let up on yourself.

There is no reason to panic, nor to despair. These days will pass. The things you care about now won't be here to care about in a hundred years. Cast your burden upon the Lord. He will sustain you. He loves you. Let Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas be about that: not about who is present or absent, who is angry or who wronged you, what got done and what didn't, who lied or failed, or what has to be done tomorrow. Let it be about the love of God in our Flesh come to redeem us. For that will endure. When we no longer care about the things that now threaten to consume us, when the United States, the Missouri Synod, and even our family names are long forgotten, the love of God in Jesus Christ will still endure, and will be the only thing we care about.  

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