“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” (Psalm 18:7)
This psalm is a reminder to let go of stress before it becomes
distress. As many of us know, stress from our job, relationships, the
larger community or life in general can weigh on us and cause us to worry and
fret. Stress generally makes most of us uncomfortable, unhappy and in some
cases physically and emotionally ill. If left unresolved, or if ignored,
over time stress can lead to “distress” and manifest itself in feelings of pain
and suffering.
So it’s good for the psalmist to remind us that the Lord will hear
our voices when we call out in distress. Does the Lord make the stress go
away? Not really. If you are stressed because of a job, or
financial issues, or a rocky relationship, or if you feel stressed because of
poverty, or immigration, or the death penalty, or the threat of war or terror,
the Lord doesn’t remove those stresses from your life.
So what does the psalmist mean by saying the Lord hears our
voices? Is God a sounding board, absorbing all the prayers of humankind,
cataloging them in an unimaginably large data bank? We share our woes with
the Lord – how does that help relieve stress?
One way, I think, is that knowing the Lord hears enables us to have
perspective. Our stresses seem pretty large to us as individuals, but are
not terribly significant in the grand creation of the universe. Knowing
the Lord listens can provide us with a calming sense of the true insignificance
of our current worries.
The Lord also listens by sending us examples of how to handle
stresses. Jesus is perhaps the greatest example. He has reminded us
of the need to let go of worry – the parable of the birds singing without a
care in the world is a beautiful reminder of the grace of detachment from
worries and cares (Matthew 6: 25-34). Note also what He does in John’s
gospel (John 10: 31-42), challenging the accusers to evaluate the works done in
the Lord’s name. Jesus rhetorically asks – “How can I not be who I say I
am and still perform the miracles that I do?” This causes us to think –
what actions do I take and how do people understand who I am by those
actions? What can I DO in reaction to the stresses in my life, and how
can I make a difference in reducing these concerns? The old saying “God helps
those who help themselves” is a reminder that we can reduce stress by acting in
concert with God.
The Lord also listens by inviting us to let go of our stresses – to
turn them over to the Lord, our rock of refuge. To do this requires us to
give up control of our stresses and to let the Lord “own” them. It
requires us to have the faith to let go, to believe that the worries of our
everyday lives are insignificant in God’s wonderful design. Recall a time
when a stress was removed from your life, and the relief you felt.
Isn’t that what God calls us to do through the psalmist?
So, Lent can be a time when we are reminded of these things – when
through our prayer and fasting and good works and repentance we identify the
stresses in our lives, when our faith grows so we can turn them to the
Lord. Lent reminds us of our dependence on the Lord for all the truly
meaningful succor and sustenance of our lives – the peace that comes from
reunion with our Creator God by our conscious and faithful surrender to our
call from our Lord.
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