Stress Awareness Month and the path to transforming hope
US stock futures fell and oil prices rose this morning after President Trump announced a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. His statement came after marathon talks with Iran failed to reach an agreement that would end the war.
In better news, Russia and Ukraine observed a truce in their war across the Orthodox Easter weekend. However, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin ruled out extending the ceasefire beyond Sunday.
Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? You won’t be surprised to learn that apparently unsolvable problems like war not only cause significant stress, but worrying about them also impairs cognitive functioning and makes things worse. I presume this is why counselors typically focus on stress management techniques we can control, such as deep breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation.
However, many people seem not to know that there is a cause of anxiety which underlies nearly all our stress. Like worrying about unsolvable problems, attempting to control it only makes it worse.
But when we choose the opposite of control, we discover the transforming hope available to every anxious heart today.
Including yours.
The central problem of political science
In American Dialogue: The Founders and Us, historian Joseph J. Ellis discusses what John Adams defined as the central problem of political science. According to Adams, “In every society known to man, an aristocracy has risen up in the course of time, consisting of a few rich and honorable families who have been united with each other against both the people and the first magistrate.”
Our second president believed that all societies eventually produce social and economic elites who, if left unchecked, achieve political dominance at the expense of everyone else. Adams, therefore, designed his version of government—the one (which became the president), the few (which became the Senate), and the many (which became the House of Representatives)—primarily to counter this ever-present pressure toward oligarchy.
However, the root of the problem lies not with wealth but with the reason we desire it. In Adam’s view, “Ambition springs from the desire for esteem and from emulation, not from property.”
Aristocracies motivated by this quest for esteem and the wealth that secures it behave in the same way the world over. I would point to the ruling classes in the supposedly classless societies of North Korea, China, and Cuba, for example.
But this quest for power is by no means limited to governments. C. S. Lewis identified the lure of the “inner ring, ” the quest to be on the “inside,” to be one of the “people who know,” a goal for which many compromise their integrity and become what Lewis called “scoundrels.” As King Solomon wrote, most certainly from personal experience, “A man is tested by his praise” (Proverbs 27:21).
Adams’ observation calls to mind management theorist Warren Bennis’s warning that there exists in every organization an “unconscious conspiracy” to preserve the status quo for the future benefits of current participants. Having pastored five churches and served on the boards of several organizations, I can attest to the accuracy of his assessment.
“What good deed must I do?”
So far, so good.
As a vocational minister, I have neither the financial means nor the personal opportunity to join a wealthy oligarchy that aspires to control society for its benefit. And I am now a writer rather than a megachurch pastor, so Bennis’s warning seems less relevant to me.
You may feel yourself to be more like me than the powerful people we have been discussing thus far.
But the will to power behind Adams’s concern is just as prevalent in us as in anyone else. For me, it takes an insidious form illustrated by the “rich young ruler” of the Gospels. Because of his means and social status, he was apparently among the oligarchy of his day. But this was not enough for him when he asked Jesus, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16).
Like this man, I want to know what I can “do” to earn favor with God. I want to place myself in the position of a worthy employee before my obligated employer rather than admit that I am a needy creature before my omnipotent Creator. And I want to impress others with my good deeds out of the “desire for esteem” Adams identified.
Accordingly, I am tempted to write this article to earn God’s favor and yours. And to pray, read Scripture, and perform other “spiritual” activities for the same reason.
But the King of the universe will not be obligated by his subjects. Spirituality for selfish purposes is a contradiction in terms and cannot lead to the transformation my fallen soul needs. And like the rich young man, I know that there is something I “still lack” (v. 20). Nothing I do is ever enough to fill the vacuum in my heart.
“Nothing short of Christ”
The good news is that Jesus stands ready to help. The most powerful person who ever lived could obviously have created an oligarchy of the highest rank for himself and his disciples. In fact, this seems to have been the desire of his followers even after his death and resurrection (Acts 1:6).
Instead, he is ready to infuse my character with his, my spirit with his Spirit.
The key is to seek Christlikeness as our highest purpose, then to submit ourselves so fully to the Spirit that he can effect such a miraculous transformation in our lives (Ephesians 5:18). The way to know he is doing so is to measure our motives: Are we serving to be served or to serve? Are we praying to be blessed or to be a blessing? Are we reading Scripture to fulfill a religious duty or to share God’s word with someone today?
The paradox is that the more we seek to serve, the more we become the people we long to be. The more we strive to be a blessing to others, the more we are blessed in all the ways that matter most. The more we work to improve our world, the more our lives become their most missional and significant.
By any objective measure, Jesus of Nazareth changed the world more than any single individual in history. What if millions, if not billions of us, continued his life and ministry today?
Imagine the impact on our fallen world. This and nothing less is God’s purpose for your life.
Charles Spurgeon was adamant:
“The Christian should take nothing short of Christ for his model.”
Do you agree?
Quote for the day:
“To become like Christ is the only thing in the world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain.” —Henry Drummond
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