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Is Our Stress Rooted in Invisible Idols?
The biggest killer: stress
Last year I did a review of cardiac disease and stress, as I was concerned our culture, including my medical peers, were becoming hyper-focused on LDL cholesterol and taking drugs like Lipitor to lower it. While Lipitor is a great medicine when appropriately used, stress is a much bigger killer than cholesterol. Consider this fact: half of all people with heart attacks have normal cholesterol.
Many of us are wired for stress, and the less “survival mode” living we have to do, the more we create idols which Jesus is not comfortable with.
Stress, as defined by Hans Selye, the Canadian scientist, is the inappropriate response to a stimulus. Do our hearts provide a home for stress? They certainly are the sometimes not-so-innocent receivers of stress. What do we harbor in our hearts?
Invisible idols behind stress
You are no doubt completely aware of the concept of stress in your own life, but perhaps are not looking at its insinuative manner. What idols lie in waiting? How do time, social standing, self-consciousness, and monetary status effect the main chambers of our hearts?
Many of us are wired for stress, and the less “survival mode” living we have to do, the more we create idols which Jesus is not comfortable with. The Haitians I was with last year were in survival mode; living in a tent without money or food makes their stress much more identifiable. We, who have been hanging out in the candy store much too long, create idols which become nearly invisible. It is these idols which challenge our faith and our physical and mental health.
Let Jesus reveal your stressful idols
We have moments of ecstasy when these idols have gone running, nowhere to be found. Prayer, worship, and service to our brothers and sisters create some of those moments, and should be experienced daily with more intention than popping Lipitor or Lexapro.
I would propose that we sit down, often and for longer periods of time, and let Jesus shine a light in our hearts on the idols we harbor. His love, kindness, and desire for us to be whole will reveal what lies deep within and does not belong. He will haul these idols out and turn our affections toward him.