Stressmas

We live in a very tense, uptight and fast paced world filled with hurry. A Tahoma, Washington newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound a while back. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off for a drive – with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. Motorcycle officer Terry Filbert notice a passing vehicle with something dragging behind it. He commented that the poor basset hound was, “picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could.” He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued. But not before the dog had reached a top speed of 25 miles per hour, falling down and rolling over several times.

Too many of us are living our lives like Tattoo, picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can – rolling around & feeling dragged through life. 

Time magazine noted that back in the 60’s, expert testimony was given to a Senate sub-committee on time management. They predicted that advances in technology would radically change how many hours a week people worked. They forecasted that the average American would be working 22 hours a week within 20 years. “The great challenge,” the experts said, “would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.” Over 40 years later, after major advances in technology – how many of us are wondering what to do with all the excess time on our hands? 

Our world has become the world of the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

How many of us feel like that? How do we cope with all of the stress–the stress of time (where we never seem to have enough), with finances (which are always tight), with families (that place a lot of demands on us), and with our consumeristic culture (which is always pressuring us to buy more and spend more)?

For those in the Owensboro area, I hope you’ll join us beginning this weekend as we take a look at how to keep Christmas from turning into Stressmas.  For service times, check out www.owensborochristian.org.  If you’re not in our area, you can listen online at www.owensborochristian.org (go to “Resources”).