Daren Lindley

 

All my life, I have hated stress. I feared it. When I was young, I watched my father struggle as a business owner. He lived a life saturated with stress. It seemed to hang over our heads like a glooming cloud of doom threatening, always threatening, to suffocate us and completely snuff us out.

Scripture: ^{2Corinthians 2:4} For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

 

Observation: We are, of course, now in 2 Corinthians. Paul is referring to his last letter, 1 Corinthians, where he spoke strongly regarding sin in the church. It had to be dealt with or the church’s very life was at stake. Now he tells us a little about the condition of his heart as he wrote those words. We see Paul struggling with stress. He is grieved and filled with anguish of heart to the point that he was weeping. He was willing to speak these things and risk rejection because of his love for the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1:11; 3:3; 4:14). If he hadn’t loved them as he did, he would have avoided the topic in order to preserve their fond opinion of him.

 

Paul took a great risk in confronting this church. He had labored hard and long to see it established and now, by confronting this evil in their group (a man was having an affair with his father’s wife), he was running the strong risk of them rejecting him. After all, they looked so loving, caring for this man and allowing him to stay among them  (1 Corinthians 5:1&2). But by allowing this man to continue unchecked in their group, they were presenting the enemy with the opportunity to totally destroy them. They were sending a very mixed message to themselves and the community around them.

 

Paul was willing to endure this stress to preserve the true gospel in this group of believers and see that they move forward in their love relationship with Jesus.

 

Application: All my life, I have hated stress. I feared it. When I was young, I watched my father struggle as a business owner. He lived a life saturated with stress. It seemed to hang over our heads like a glooming cloud of doom threatening, always threatening, to suffocate us and completely snuff us out.

 

When I started Good Catch Publishing, I knew that there would be plenty of stress. I knew from working with people over the years that you cannot have human interaction without a degree of stress. You most definitely cannot produce books filled with the intimate stories of people’s life struggles without experiencing their fear, frustration and at times, rejection. Those times are painful. Tears sometimes come to our eyes and we long to be free from the pain.

 

In Paul’s statements in 2 Corinthians, we see a man who is far different from the one in 1 Corinthians. He is happy now. Why? Because the stress he endured was worth the victory that was obtained. The Corinthians had changed and moved toward the Lord in their lives. They were no longer harboring evil; they were pushing forward and living in God’s full blessing.

 

I used to want my life to be free from stress, and while I still find stress stressful, I have come to realize that without some stress, life would be so boring. I’ve also come to recognize that stress is evidence of caring. If Paul hadn’t shed tears or had some concern about whether they would respond, would he have cared? I don’t think so.

 

While we definitely need to see resolution to our stress-filled times and experience times of rest and refreshing, we also need to make sure that our goal is not to live a stress-less life. If we care, we’ll experience pressure and pain. It’s worth it to love.

 

Prayer: Dear Jesus, please forgive me of my selfishness. I so often just want to live in a sterile environment where fear and pain cannot touch me. But Jesus, you left all that comfort and willingly entered this stress filled life because you simply love us. Thank you Jesus! "For the joy set before him he endured the cross." Your stress came from love. Thank you.

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