According
to the CDC, eleven percent of people aged twelve and over in this country are being
prescribed psychotropic medications (those which treat, among other ailments,
depression and anxiety). That number is
up 400 percent over the past twenty years.
Many more people are self-medicating with alcohol (an estimated fifteen
million are “alcohol dependent”). These
numbers do not reflect those who choose to use various illegal drugs to help
cope with the stress in their lives. Add
to these numbers the fact that according to an article in the May 2, 2013 NY Times, the suicide rate among
middle-aged Americans rose thirty percent between 1999 and 2010. What is going on? The obvious answer is, we are stressing out.
I do
believe life in the United States is incredibly stressful. In fact, I would argue life today is more
stressful than it has ever been.
Period. In all of history. Here’s why…
We are
the beneficiaries/victims of a technological revolution. We have more information at our fingertips
than our ancestors could have ever imagined.
When I prepare a sermon, the amount of research I can do online and via
apps is unbelievable compared to forty years ago when I started preaching. Millions of articles, pictures, maps, word
studies, commentaries, sermons, etc. are at my command. And this cornucopia of
information holds true in every field of work and study. It is mind boggling.
We are
now aware instantly of what’s happening on the other side of the globe. Malaysian flight 370 disappears and every
facet of that disappearance is covered to the point of exhaustion by our news
outlets. The turmoil in the Ukraine is
as familiar to those watching the nightly news as their local weather. We are overwhelmed with a global tsunami of information
that folks living a hundred years ago could never have imagined.
Facebook,
Twitter, and all the “social media” now available tell us way more than most of
us care or need to know about the lives of hundreds or thousands of “friends”
and “followers.” Many Americans live
with their face buried in the screen of their smart phone, thumbs moving
rhythmically as they text away.
Automobiles have become weapons of mass destruction as people attempt,
unsuccessfully, to text and drive, unable or unwilling to lay their phone down.
Our
smart phones and tablets and other wonders of communication have become
portable prisons. They go with us on
dates. They go with us to bed. They go with us on our so-called vacations (a
recent survey found sixty percent of Americans now continue to work while on
vacation courtesy of technology). They
are tethers which from which we find ourselves having an increasingly difficult
time being free (do you feel guilty or anxious if you leave your cell phone at
home or in the car?).
In
other words, we now have opportunity to worry about situations and crises our
ancestors would have had no way of knowing about. We can, voluntarily, place ourselves under
stress 24/7 in the name of being caring friends, employees, denizens of the
planet, etc. Add this to the very real
stresses of high unemployment, high taxes, inflationary prices, increasingly
crowded roadways, intrusive government regulations, school and workplace
violence, and, well, is it any wonder people are stressing out at record rates?
When
Jesus walked this earth things were very different. I’m not saying there was no stress. Jesus wouldn’t have had to preach about worry
(see Matthew 6) if there was no stress.
But we have artificially added multitudinous pressures upon ourselves
that first century people never faced.
When
Jesus went from town to town, he wasn’t plagued by paparazzi trying to take his
picture. He didn’t have reporters at
every stop wanting interviews. There
were no cameras or hidden microphones picking up conversations around the fire
at night. He wasn’t required to carry a
cell phone and maintain a twitter account.
He didn’t need an associate to spend hours answering e-mails and texts. When he preached there was no concern about
mike checks and portable sound systems.
He was never critiqued over His use of Powerpoint or videos.
When He
and the apostles travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem, I would assume they
walked. It probably took them several
days. There was plenty of down time to
visit and ponder and pray. I’m sure
there were crowds at times. We know from
the gospels Jesus was at times so exhausted He could sleep in a storm, so
hassled He would escape at night into the hills to pray. But there also existed down times, built in
by the way they travelled and communicated that we have managed to all but
eliminate. I do not believe we are the
better for it.
A
friend of mine recently returned from a few days stay at a remote cabin in the
hills of southeastern Oklahoma. With a
smile on his face and wonder in his voice, he shared how blissful it was to
have no access to television, internet, or phone. “It was wonderful,” he said.
I
believe too many of us are allowing a crazy, driven, culture to rob us of
peace, to fill our lives with self-inflicted, unnecessary stresses that rob of
us joy and ruin our digestion. It is
past time to cut the cords that bind us.
May I
make some practical suggestions for extracting ourselves from some of the
stresses we face?
Check
the Drudge Report once or twice a day.
All the blatherers on talk radio and the evening newscasts clearly pull
the majority of their stories from Drudge.
He’s become the de facto news editor for the U.S. It will save you a ton of time and angst by
not having to listen or watch stuff that just drives you crazy anyway.
Do you
really have to Facebook and Twitter? I
don’t do either one, and I remain a functional human being with additional
quiet time on my hands. Honestly weigh
the benefits and negatives of most social media. You’ll dump it or cut way back. Do you really need to know where Susie buys
her wine or what Donald’s kids made on their latest report cards? Do you really want to witness verbal
catfights between ignoramuses on subjects you could care less about? Really???
Leave
the cell phone in the bedroom when you sit down for supper. Don’t take it with you when you go for a
walk. Take a cell phone free vacation
(they’re wonderful!). You will find the
world does not come to an end. If
someone really needs you, they’ll leave a message or send a text.
Many of
the stresses thrown at us in this life are inescapable. But many are not. We just the need the strength of will to say
“no” to some of the technological “blessings” that have evolved into “curses.”
May God
grant you a quiet and peaceful life with Him (1 Timothy 2:2).
Dan
Rouse
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