Day 6: Meditations on Stress

I've been having one of those weeks were I almost dread to check my email. There is a lot of uncertainty in my life and a lot of relationships to manage in my work. The two of those combined makes email a stressful place.

As life would have it, the kids needed my full attention in the afternoon, so I completely abandoned the thought of responding to incoming emails. Of course, I couldn't help but check incoming ones -- so as I played and walked and cleaned my mind churned, trying to make decisions and trying to figure out how I might respond to each situation.

Evening came and the kids finally went to bed. I was exhausted and my mind a bit blurry. I thought about my devotion time with God....How would I spend it?

It dawned on me that each stressor in life is an invitation to prayer. We stress because we fear judgement or conflict. We worry about our lack of control over life. We worry about uncertain outcomes and try to create more certainty for ourselves.

I decided to meditate on my stress. On each situation, leaning into it, poking it and trying to get at the root of why it was stressing me out. I imagined how God might use each situation either to grow me in my walk or to bring light to the world. I explored my call to be light. The herd of elephants melted off my shoulders and I drifted peacefully to sleep.

Praying through the things that stress you, exploring why they cause stress and allowing a moment for God to speak to you about where he might call you to go can most surely lighten the yolk. I had never imagined my inbox as a prayer list, but have just found it to be a powerful way to invite God to be present in every aspect of my life....

And now the hard part... stepping up to the challenge of writing those replies.