Stress
John Eldredge has a post on his blog today about stress and returning from vacation back into the matrix. While we are away, life changes. We make plans. We say "I'm going to change this" - less TV, more family time, more games, more exercise, etc. And then - in just a few days back in the world - we revert back to our old ways.

I can relate. This life is a killer. The stress is all consuming. I hate it and fear we cannot truly escape it in this life. A good friend and mentor of mine is a CPA here in town. He told me one time that God revealed something to him about how his life was consuming him. He was very active in Young Life. Kids were at their house every week. Their home was a sanctuary for kids and he built relationships with them. Many a night, he'd get a call from a kid in distress and would go to the jail or to their home to help them work out issues with parents or friends. He taught (still teaches) Sunday School. He was very active for the Kingdom. And then, January came along. The calendar rolled over into a new year and it began to be "tax season". For 4-5 months, he shut down. No Young Life - or if he was there, he was checked out. Sunday school was an after-thought.

And then God spoke. He revealed to him this - "When I die and get to heaven, God is going to sit me down and review my life. He'll say - 'I am so proud of you - you led Young Life and taught Sunday school faithfully. You ministered to so many and were so selfless....for 8 months. Where were you those other 4 months?" My friend would say, "Lord, I had a job to do. I wanted to be a good steward of the career you gave me and the people you entrusted to me. I had to help them with their taxes."

And God replies..."Taxes. What are taxes?"

Hmmm. All these things that consume us on this earth have absolutely no value in heaven. Taxes - we all know what they are. Entire industries are built around taxes. Millions of Americans - in some capacity - spend their careers working on taxes. And yet the Lord will say, "Taxes...What are taxes?"

It blew my friend away. No, he didn't quit his job but he went right back to Thursday night Young Life. He went right back into the mode of being available 24/7 for kids. Sunday school went back to being a passion rather than a duty.

I work in the market. It is a killer. I wear the responsibility of my client's life savings on my shoulders each and every day. The market stinks right now. It consumes the airways. CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News everywhere you look there is "the market crumbles, oil surges, inflation is everywhere, crash is coming"...doom, doom, doom. Then we'll get into the season of greed when it is going up and the airways will be filled with greed. It is consuming. We all are touched by the market. I bet you have thought about it in the past 30 days. "Wonder how bad my 401k has been hit?" It simply consumes us.

I came home yesterday after a very tough week and went out on the porch with the dogs. I love my black lab. He is a happy dog. He loves unconditionally. All he wants to do is spend time with me. He savors those hour long play times we have each night. I was petting him last night and thought "You don't worry about (or even know what they are) the market, Iran, mortgages, gas prices, taxes - all you want to do is love me".

In many ways my dumb old black lab showed me the face of God. All these things we humans get consumed with are not even in His vocabulary. All He wants to do is love us and spend time with us.

Soar!