February First

Today marks a beginning—the spotlight is shining, and the pressure is on.

Pressure, pressure, pressure. Speaking of pressure, over the past ten years my perspective on “the pressures of life” has changed a good bit. I’ve lived some life. Not to say that I’m ancient—I am wise enough to recognize the foolishness of such a claim—but I’ve been processing ideas intentionally and seriously for about a decade. Here’s some of the fruit.

Back in the Day

Back in the day, think fifteen years old, I felt as if the world had been placed squarely on my shoulders. I felt pressures from every direction: where to go, how to live, how to talk; I couldn’t escape.

I felt pressure to be a missionary. I felt pressure to be a politician. I felt pressure to be married. I felt pressure to prophecy. I felt pressure to be good enough for God. I even felt pressure to buck pressure!

It eventually lead to bursts of tears…yes, it was very confusing, I felt like a girl. I didn’t even know why I was crying. All could feel was pressure!

Ten years later, no longer am I overwhelmed by numerous powerful pressures. I don’t have a comprehensive explanation, but I have an experience and two thoughts.

ONE: External Pressure Is Magnified by Internal Pressure

Have you every made a small comment that rocked someone’s world. And certainly not because of the profundity of the comment, but because of internal questions and struggles and insecurities in the hearer himself.

When I was fifteen I felt the weight of hundreds of pressures; now at twenty-five, I feel some, but mostly they don’t feel “heavy”.

What changed? Has the world changed in its outlook towards me? Has everyone I interact with radically changed? Maybe a little. But I find it difficult and egocentric to answer yes to either of the latter two questions, at least in a meaningful way.

I conclude that the answer to the first question must be me. I have changed.

Sure, some of the external pressures influencing me at fifteen are no longer in existence, at this point I’ve graduated from school so I’m not trying to decide on a major. But mostly those have been replaced by other pressures. (Now I’m that guy who still lives at home after college graduation…and I don’t even have a car!)

How have I changed? I am single-mindedly living for Jesus. Although I don’t know what life will look like or where I will be in a couple of years, I know that I will be serving Jesus and that is all I really care about. (Not to say that I wouldn’t mind knowing, just that those questions are of little consequence relative to what I do know.)

Back in the day, I wanted to live for Jesus, but I was severely conflicted, confused, and insecure; thus the pressures of life felt unbearable.

An Analogy

Imagine you are standing on one foot. And not just one foot, but you are also standing slightly elevated on the the ball/toes. (You know, wobbling with extended arms to maintain balance. Got the picture? Good.)

I am a two hundred pound man, but in this precarious context a small child could readily push me over. A small and trivial external pressure could shake my entire world, so to speak.

Now imagine you are standing on a firm gym floor, legs thirty inches apart, and knees slightly bent. It would take either an intense amount of force or a very tricky force to rock one’s world.

Likewise, when we are confident of our identity in Christ, when we are single-mindedly pursuing Him, these external pressures are often resigned to status not unlike that small child pushing an adult assuming an athletic posture.

Internal Pressures

If someone suggests I may be called to missions, and I feel like they just dropped a massive weight upon my life, I have come to realize that much of this pressure comes from within me.

Maybe I have an overwhelming desire to please this person as opposed to a focused desire to please Jesus. Maybe I want to do missions to “look cool”. Maybe God is legitimately calling me to the field and is actually putting the desire on my heart.

I can’t explain it all, and I think it is complicated. But what I have learned from experience is that if my concern is pleasing God, if I’m not trying to be cool, and if God isn’t drawing me…when someone suggests something, it doesn’t feel like a massive weight…I just keep going. (I almost don’t even notice.)

TWO: Pressures Will Always Be Here; Fortunately Not All Pressures Are Negative

There will always be pressures—both external AND internal. Want to know why we sin? It is because of internal desires. Sure there are things in the world calling to us. Satan actively entices too. Peer pressure calling for us to be normal or to be extreme.

But the Book of James says the root of our sin is our own desire. There might be an external pressure, but there is an internal pressure that corresponds to it.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He HImself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (James 1:13-15).

Good Pressure

The truth is, pretty much EVERYTHING is some sort of pressure.

Expectations. Encouragements. Desires. Rules. And more.

Want to live for Jesus? Spend time in His presence. Be open to the direction of the Holy Spirit. These are pressures, but boy are they good!

Peer pressure is legit too. Maybe you stopped hearing about it after you left middle school, but it doesn’t stop. The people around us influence us.

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

Interestingly, we’re admonished to actively perpetuate peer pressure, only for good. Check out the following well known passage in light of our current conversation.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Stir up, gather together, and exhort, these are all describing applying pressure.

Some Sort of Summary

1. Pressure is unavoidable
2. The most significant of pressures are often internal
3. Having accepted #1, don’t flee pressures; seek out the good stuff