Let the Lord help you beat the heat

Throughout any given day we each experience some level of stress, from the easy to manage to the type that causes you to pull out a brown paper sack and start breathing into it. The source of stress is sometimes easy to identify. Other times it is more elusive. Good life-changing events can cause as much stress as the negative. Stress is a part of life that bears a direct effect on body, mind and spirit.

Jeremiah, the prophet of old, describes the characteristics of handling life and stress that brings about blessing. "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green."

These ancient words give some great insight into handling the stress of the extremely technical modern day.

The heat is going to come. Life is going to get hot. There will be periods of drought and rain. The question is not will the heat, the stress come, but when will the heat come. There will be days in all of our lives that are hot enough to fry an egg on the parking lot. This passage freely and openly confesses that.

Late spring and early summer are the best times of year to walk through a yard and feel the grass between your toes. Following the hot days summer the soft grass becomes a blanket of needles. The grass that once embraced your toes now wants to pierce them through. The difference between the two is heat.

Heat can dry you out. It makes things brittle and fragile. The illustration of this tree in Jeremiah is that its leaves do not dry out but remain green even when the heat comes. In other words the one who trusts heart, soul, mind and strength in the Lord will not just endure but be blessed. A blessing in this case is a descriptor of success, prosperity and longevity.

The key to sustainability is not creatively managing the heat but staying continually connected to the source. The tree stays green because its roots have stretched down deep into sustaining waters. The Lord strengthens and helps you endure the heat.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.