Pastor Dave Ginter
 
Preaching Today has several illustrations capturing the stress of life today.

In 2005, a store called MinneNAPolis opened in Minnesota's Mall of America. It rents comfy spots where weary shoppers can take naps for 70 cents a minute. Founded by PowerNap Sleep Centers of Boca Raton, Florida, the new store includes themed rooms such as Asian Mist, Tropical Isle, and Deep Space, and the walls are thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children outside (it wouldn’t work for me cause if I were paying good money to try and sleep, I’d be tossing and turning, stressing over the waste).

The company's website says, "Escape the pressures of the real world into the pleasures of an ideal one." "It's not just napping," reads the press release. "Some guests will want to listen to music, put their feet up, watch the water trickling in the beautiful stone waterfall, breathe in the positive-ionization-filtered air, enjoy the full-body massager, and just take an enjoyable escape from the fast-paced lifestyle."

We are busy people, looking for some peace and quiet….some rest!

In data collected from over 20,000 Christians in 139 countries (though mostly in America) and between the ages of 15 and 88, The Obstacles to Growth Survey found that, on average, more than 4 in 10 Christians around the world say they "often" or "always" rush from task to task. About 6 in 10 Christians say that it's "often" or "always" true that "the busyness of life gets in the way of developing my relationship with God." Christians most likely to agree were from North America, Africa, and Europe.

By profession, pastors were most likely to say they rush from task to task (54 percent), which adversely affects their relationship with God (65 percent).

"It's tragic and ironic: the very people who could best help us escape the bondage of busyness are themselves in chains," said Dr. Michael Zigarelli, who conducted the study at the Charleston Southern University School of Business.

Christians could learn something from the nuclear submarine Thresher . It had heavy steel bulkheads and heavy steel armor, so it could dive deep and withstand the pressure of the ocean. Unfortunately, on a test run in 1963, the Thresher's nuclear engine quit, and it could not get back to the surface. It sank deeper and deeper into the ocean. The pressure became immense. The heavy steel bulkheads buckled; the Thresher was crushed with 129 people inside.

The Navy searched for the Thresher with a research craft that was much stronger than submarines. It was shaped like a steel ball and was lowered into the ocean on a cable. They finally located the Thresher at a depth of 8,400 feet: one and a half miles down. It was crushed like an egg shell. That was not a surprise, for the pressure at that depth is tremendous—3,600 pounds per square inch.

What was surprising to the searchers was that they saw fish at that great depth. And these fish did not have inches of steel to protect them. They appeared to have normal skin, a fraction of an inch thick. How can these fish survive under all that pressure? How come they are not crushed by the weight of the water? They have a secret. Their secret is that they have the same pressure inside themselves as they have on the outside. Survival under pressure.

The Apostle John assures us, "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." We will be victorious in the battle against evil and the Evil One because Jesus poured his Spirit into our hearts. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

If you get a ticket for speeding and have to go to traffic school in the USA, one thing you learn in the defensive-driving part: they created a scenario: "You're stopped at a stop sign. You look in your rearview mirror and see a car careening toward you that you realize is going to rear-end you. What should you do?"

Almost everybody in the class will say you should keep your feet off the brake, so that when that car hits you, you would go forward, absorbing some of the shock.

That is the wrong answer!

Here is what they will tell you: Put your brake on as tight as you can and brace yourself for that collision. If your car is rigid and braced—if it's on its foundation, in other words—then when that horizontal pressure hits, there will be less damage to your car and to the occupants. If your car is not braked, you get the whiplash effect.

What our Lord has said is that when our lives are anchored into the rock—when we have found his faithfulness and his love, and we have made that the foundation of our life—then we're better able to handle the horizontal pressures of life. As the Psalmist implores us:
5    Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
    for my hope is in him.
6    He alone is my rock and my salvation,
    my fortress where I will not be shaken.
Psalm 62:5-6
 


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