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Revelations from My Rose Garden:

 

On Work & Stress

 

By Abigail Zachritz

 

 

    I realize that for all my life, I have equated Work to Stress. After all, I'm not REALLY getting anything done if I'm not properly stressed, right?

 

    If Work = Stress, then Stress = Work. Therefore, all stress is productive work. 

 

    Except it hit me that this is the wrong equation. Things like this tend to hit me when I'm working in my rose garden. It's my place for prayer and meditation, connecting to nature and to God.

 

    Most stress actually comes from the mind and the emotions, rather than the physical body.  Yet it is your physical body that actually accomplishes tasks. This is true even if it's a task that primarily involves your mind. Take writing this post for example. I have the thoughts in my mind, but it takes my fingers to type them or my mouth to dicate them. My body still has to be involved, even in a task as mind-oriented as writing. 

 

    As a recovering academic, I always placed such mind work above any mere physical activity. Therefore, I realize now I always subconciously equated physical work as a sort of supreme stress. Not only was your mind taxed to the extremity, but so would your limbs! 

 

   

 EXCEPT...........

    

    This is all utterly false! As it turns out, we humans generate most of our stress from relational dynamics, performance anxiety, fear of not being enough, you name it! But this isn't how it is supposed to be. Jesus is meant to carry all the stress of our minds and hearts. That's one of the reasons He died on the Cross - to take away our sin and shame. And that includes fear, anxiety, procastination, and difficult coworker situations. JESUS is supposed to carry all that, while we calmly do whatever our hands find to do. 

 

 

    In Matthew 11, verses 28-30 (in The Message translation), Jesus asks "Are you weary? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me!" He goes on to add, "Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a REAL rest. Walk with Me and Work with Me - Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (emphasis mine).

 

    I could write a whole post what I've learned from those verses alone, but the upshot is this: Productivity and accomplishing our necessary tasks, what we refer to as "work", flows lightly from a place of peace in Jesus. This is how it's meant to be. 

 

    The correct work equation is:

    Work + Flow = Productivity 

 

    Hooray!

 

    However, per the law of mathematics, when changed around it becomes:

    Productivity - Flow = Work

 

    As I look at that, I realize this last equation is actually the equation for stress. If our goal is productivity, but we have no flow, the result is work that is stressful. 

 

    Stress is forced productivity. 

 

    Ohhhh. Gulp.