Today @ The Gathering: How to Manage Stress

What better subject to talk about the week after the devastating floods here in Nashville than the subject of stress?  It’s not how to avoid stress that’s the concern.  You can avoid stress by being dead.  Every living thing is under stress of some kind.  Stress all by itself is not a bad thing; it’s stress that is out of control.

We get stressed in three ways.  We get over-loaded, over-extended, over time.  One of these three isn’t bad.  We’ve all been over-extended.  There are certainly times that demand that we work harder.  Overloaded: we’ve all carried heavier loads at times than others.  It’s the over time: doing it every day.  That’s what we’re in danger of here in Nashville; of being overloaded, over-extended, over time, trying to hurry up and recover and act like this never happened.  The truth is, we now live in a different world, and we need to embrace it and make it a better world.

Stress is not only bad when it goes unmanaged, it’s really terrible because of what it does to us.  It makes us sloppy, stupid, and short-sighted. Put all three of those things together in one person and you’ve got a prescription for disaster.

So today we talked about how to manage stress.  We do it daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. The goal in life is not to go as fast as we can, as hard as we can until we break; then get fixed and go do it all over again.  The goal is to live well every single day, over time to grow the kind of life that enables us to go through the floods of life (and there will be more) with strength, dignity, hope, and joy.

Bottom line is, Ladies and Gentlemen, as much as we don’t want to hear it here in Nashville, it will rain again.  And for you, if it’s not rain, it’ll be a mother-in-law, a loss of a job, discovery of cancer, or some other stressor.

You need to manage your stress and turn it to your favor, or you can let it manage you, and rob you of everything life has to offer.

I’m Proud to be a Part of a City of Servants; and Here’s How You Can Help

I’ve listed below, some connection-points for those of you who want to get involved.  Many of us have been working this week in Bellevue, River Plantation, Pennington Bend, and other hard-hit areas to help people recover.

We’ve had so many people ask us, “What can we do?” Here are some links to some places where you can get connected and get involved.

www.fema.gov

Community Foundation Establishes Flood Relief Fund

Volunteer With Hands On Nashville

www.GraceWorksMinistries.net

www.SarmaritansPurse.org

StorPlace Self Storage is offering flood victims one month’s free rental at any of their 10 Middle TN locations.  To find a location near you, visit their website at www.StorPlaceSelfStorage.com.

Middle Tennessee Red Cross Chapters

We Will be Gathering This Weekend at Our Regular Place, at Our Regular Times

Well what a week this has been!  It’s hard to believe we’re living in a city that has suffered the greatest non-hurricane devastation in history, from a weather-related event.  Who could have ever imagined that we’d live to see between 18 and 20 inches of rain in less that 48 hours?  But we have and we are, and we’re engaging this crisis with care and compassion.

I just want to let all of you know that The Gathering will be up and running this coming Sunday at 9:00 and 10:30 AM at the Carmike Theaters in the Cool Springs area. We’ll be sharing hope and gathering to thank God for the good things that He’s done.

It’s ironic that this past weekend I was going to be speaking on How to Manage Stress.  And even though this weekend is Mother’s Day, I’m going to go ahead and stay with that same talk.  I think it’s appropriate for what we’re all going through.

Again, this weekend will be a great time to gather to worship.  It also will be a great time to gather your friends and bring them with you, particularly people who have suffered loss.  And not just gather together to bemoan and become bitter, but gather together to worship and find reasons to be grateful and reasons to go on.

Why I Love My Sweet, Soggy Tennessee

By now the whole world knows that Nashville and surrounding areas have experienced what the Weather Service called a “once in a thousand years” event.

It’s like an inland hurricane where, in less than a 48-hour period, between 15 and 20 inches of rain have been dumped on our area.  And when you dump that much rain anywhere, flooding is bound to happen.

On the one hand, it’s really sad and heartbreaking to see people’s homes flooded, and businesses of the downtown area marred by such a climactic weather event.  But on the other hand, this reminds me one more time why I love my sweet, soggy Tennessee.

Everywhere, I am inspired by people who are taking the initiative to help. The phone lines have been buzzing, emails, texts, Twitters; and people are getting connected to people who need help.  First-responders are doing their usual, amazing job.  We’ve seen them do this before, and they are a sight to behold.  We thank them: all the firefighters, emergency personnel, all the first-responders who, without regard for personal well-being, throw themselves in the breach.

I’m also talking about the ordinary neighbor, the guy next door, the buddy who sits next to you at church; people who do what needs to be done when it needs to be done, without having to be asked.  I’ve been inspired to see people put their boats into these new rivers and risk their lives to go rescue their neighbors, their friends, their elderly relatives.  And this is just the beginning.

One of the reasons I love Tennessee is because Tennesseans help each other, watch each others’ backs.  We don’t wait for a government program, we don’t try to point the finger at who’s to blame.  I haven’t even heard too much finger-pointing at God, or why would He let this happen.  Just good people rolling up their sleeves and helping each other.  And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

This is a sad day in our city, but we’ll get over it.  Not only will we get over it, we’ll turn it into something beautiful, something better than it is today.  When you’re going through tragedy, be reminded that if you face it alone, you’re screwed.  But if you have people around you to help lift the load, a bad day and a terrible adversity can be turned into an advantage.

How to Get to the Nursing Home Ahead of the Crowd

I am a firm believer; an avid advocate.  You might say I’m obnoxious about this truth: getting older is a privilege; getting old is a choice.

Maybe it’s the stage of life I’m in.  But I seem to be hearing more and more people in their thirties, forties, and fifties talking way too much about retirement, or saying way too often that the life of their dreams has passed them by because they are “too old.”

Have you found that in life, you’re either too young, too old, or too tired?  It’s almost as though people are planning to live the last years of their life in a nursing home, but they want to schedule a visit and make an appointment as soon as they possibly can.  Not me.

I am going to live until I’m dead.  I’m going to live all the way.  I’m going to work, try, plan, aspire.  I’m going to have a mission.  I’m going to have a big vision.  And I’m going to have goals that support it in every area of my life: relationally, spiritually, physically, and financially. You should too.

As Paula and I launch more and more into helping married people grow great, we’re discovering that people married 10, 15, 20, even 30 years feel that the dysfunction and the pain of their past has doomed them to a marriage that’s below average, or even terminal.

Let me just say this to you. It is never too late to aspire to amazing. It is never too late to have the marriage of your dreams.  It is never too late to have the career that you’ve always wanted.  Age has absolutely nothing to do with it.  As a matter of fact, age works to your advantage because the older you are, the more experienced you are, the wiser you are and the more of the things you know you do not want.  You have to focus on the things that really now matter.

Hey, cancel your subscription to AARP and all of those insurance programs that give you money for your house and whatever else it is these people are hawking these days to people in their advancing years. I’m talking about 35-plus.  Haha.  Stay alive.  Stay young.  Stay hopeful.  Have fun.  Be foolish.  Dance, skip, run, dare to be a child all the way.  Dare to contribute.  Dare to make something amazing of your life in the second half!