Undue Stress

I've heard someone say that a majority of our stress is based on things in our head that have never happened, or based on something in the past that you cannot change anyway.

So today, Lorie and I had a wonderful meeting at Immigration. We've known about it for over a month. We've prepared. We brought 8 binders of information (yes, 8). We sat in the waiting room while people were separated from their families, lawyers told people what to say or not to say, and even while one guy found out his father was taken into custody and detained.

You can guess where our stress level was at (more Lorie's, I just made bad jokes that made her stress worse). So we finally get called in almost 90 minutes after our appointment was supposed to start.

We were there 10 minutes.

I kid you not, we had a great time, the officer who talked with us was really nice and totally understood what we were going through, in fact, the part that took us the longest was having our officer photocopy some forms. We left smiling. No problems whatsoever. So where did the stress come from?

We made it.

And it's a sign of our society in my mind. I noticed yesterday the A.E.D. at the high school (the portable paddles to start your heart, "Clear!") and started wondering when we got those things. Then I started wondering when did we need those things? Have we put so much stress on ourselves that our hearts might give out at any time? And is it proper stress or completely undue? We have to have machines at any public place in case our hearts give out. I don't think we were built that weak, so what can the reason be? Are our lives too stressful? If so, what's the answer?

"I leave you peace; my peace I give you." ~ Jesus (John 14:27)

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