Pressure

Have you ever thought of how many things in this life are named with the word "pressure"? But think about it, we have atmospheric pressure, low pressures, high pressures, blood pressure, pressure gages, pressure cookers (remember those fund things!!), peer pressure, and the list can go on, and on, and on. There is even a song about pressure "Under Pressure" by David Bowie and Queen. It seems like no matter what is going on or what is not going on there is pressure everywhere. Pressure to make a decision, pressure to cook dinner, pressure to get up, pressure to go to bed....and if you don't think you're under pressure....think again. At some level in my life, I hope that the pressure lessens, that the pressure dissolves and goes away, wishful thinking huh?! I am, for lack of a better description, built with a pressure gage (and I think we all are-some of us just control it better than others). And like pressure gages, I have in different parts of me different types of gages. Currently, I have the one with the red area that tells you when to shut off the pressure and stand back (or as with me, you really can't see the pressure gage but you know when it's in the red). Its not, believe it or not, by choice. The pressure seems to build up quickly, especially lately, and it seems like just when things kind of even out, the pressure starts back up. The song 'Under Pressure' talks about pressure in the same way (if you have never read the lyrics look them up-very interesting). And when I get to the red, I'm generally like a pressure cooker..... the steam has nowhere to go but out. So why so much pressure? I thought I knew the answer to this question when I started typing this morning.....that changed in this paragraph and quickly. But in looking up the lyrics to the song 'Under Pressure', I found that I wasn't on the right track.

David Bowie & Queen, as wierd as they are, talk about pressure of the world and how it puts us in places that we never thought were possible and how pressure can destroy us. A very cool song really, not what I thought the words were when I first looked them up this morning. The lyrics begin "under pressure pressing down on me, pressing down on you no man ask for under pressure - burns a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on the streets" - not what you were expecting huh? Paul was under pressure too (as with many others) but he writes to his friends in 2Cor 1:8 "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We are under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despair even of life." I wonder if Paul and his followers in Asia were under pressure similar to what Bowie and Queen talk about? So much pressure that they were on the streets or families were split in two? Truthfully, I was surprised to see the word "pressure" when I looked it up. Paul says "we despair even of life", that seems like a lot of pressure and similar to the pressure in the song lyrics too. And I bet Paul was under such pressure in Asia that he felt like he was loosing his faith. I don't know for sure but this passage seems to talk about such strain that Paul's only out was to write to his distant friends, to detail what kind of position ('we') they were in to those far away. We despair even of life, that's pressure, pressure that even though I may not feel to the point of loss of my life, with which I identify. Pressure.

So how does this pressure affect me? Why is pressure so vivid and real in my life? Mostly because I focus on the pressure, really that's the reason. I focus on the pressure just like all of you do too. Focus on the things or thing that brings pressure; see that pressure gage is more real than if first appeared. But I wonder what would happen (not that I am advocating this procedure) if I focused on something other than pressure? Bowie & Queen goes on to sing "Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking, can't we give ourselves one more chance, why can't we give love one more chance....cause love's such an old fashioned word, and love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night, and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves". I bet that through you for a loop!!!! I mean this song is about pressure not love...right? In comparison, Paul writes throughout 2Corinthians to his friends not only about pressure and despair (and only in two occasions) but throughout these letters about love. In 2Cor 2:4 Paul writes "For I wrote to you out of distress and great anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know of the depth of my love for you." Paul uses the word "love" and compares it in difference to the pressure of the times. He, in these letters of 2 Corinthans, challenges and encourages those he writes to continue to love, to show love, to be sincere in love, to be forth right in love, to give in love, love, love, love. Not to unlike my song. Paul used the description of pressure to show his distant friends that he was under and continued to be under pressure but not to bring them the same anguish he was under but to show them that in all the pressure love had to prevail.

Remember I told you that the reason I started this was not what it ended up to be by the end of the first paragraph. The pressure is huge on me right now, for a lot of reasons that I can not go in to detail about, but somewhere in all this pressure, God found a way to show me how to get my focus off of the pressure and on to the real focus, love. Maybe the pressure was suppose to bring me to a breaking point, where I would dash and run under the pressure? I think that was its (I do identify pressure as a thing and active thing-yes) sole initial purpose but somewhere in all the things that I see daily and don't really see, the pressure isn't really the thing I need to be focused on, more over its what I can make out of the pressure. So I wonder what pressures you are facing today? Pressures from work that trickle to home? Pressures from home that trickle to work? Pressures from outside beings that seem to trickle to every other part of your life? Maybe those pressures are designed to tear you apart, I know mine was and to some extent still is, but I think I have the passage way out of the pressure. Just change my focus, maybe you can too.