Cider Press

Over the past few months I've felt under pressure on a variety of fronts. It seemed as though whenever I turned around there was some kind of problem to deal with. Sometimes it wasn't a bad problem but in fact something good. Yet it came with its own version of "positive stress." When a friend asked how I was doing I described how I felt by comparing it to an apple in a cider press. Getting squashed but hopeful the resulting cider will be good.

Two of the pressures included my kids. One had surgery and the other was to leave home for the first time. Both were good things, but they came with their own measure of stress. Fortunately the surgery went well and my son is healing in a good manner. As for my daughter, her leaving home meant traveling to Australia. Her first international trip and all on her own. I am excited for her and this new stage of life, yet it was also difficult to let go of my little girl. She arrived safe and sound (in spite of going through LAX) and is loving all-things Australian.

It was in the midst of the stressors, perhaps at their peak, that I was spending time with the Lord and reading in Matthew 4 about the temptation of Jesus. Talk about a time of stress! He was in the wilderness without food or companions for 40 days and Satan shows up to tempt him.

As I read the account I paused to prayerfully consider what the Lord might want me to learn from Jesus and how he handled the stress. As I looked at his responses to Satan's temptations some things struck me.

"Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Jesus truly meant this. That life is lived fully only when a person is in intimate, conversational relationship with God. This means listening to God. Something I don't do very well, but especially when there's pressure.

The next thing that I noticed was that when Satan tempted Jesus to prove his identity by throwing himself down in order to get the Father to protect him, Jesus said "don't put God to the test." Now I realize there are a lot of ways to put God to the test but I think that the main point is that a person is trying to make God do something. For me that temptation occurs in prayer. I try to use the right words or say the right things in hopes of getting what I want. This attempt at manipulating God gets ratcheted up when the pressure is on. Which is not to say that I should not pray during hard times, just the opposite. But that when I pray I need to simply ask. Honestly, straight-forward, ask. In doing this I communicate my desires to God but without trying to manipulate him. Its respecting who he is.

Finally Satan gets right down to it and promises Jesus the world if only he will submit to and worship Satan. Jesus' response? "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God , and serve him only." Worship, then service.

In my journal I wrote these four things out as an acronym to help me remember it: Listen; Ask; Worship; Serve (L.A.W.S.) Kind of corny, perhaps, but it has helped me in the past month to get my focus where it needs to be when I feel the cider press pushing on me.