"Beating the Election Day Blues"
November 3, 2016
When I thought, "My foot slips," Your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul. Psalm 94:18-19
Well, folks, there is less than a week before the good, old U.S. of A. has its elections.
For some of us that day can't come soon enough. Recently, some pollsters did a sounding on our nation's millennials, that is, those born in the decades before the calendar rolled over to the year 2000. The report was interesting. For example, one in four young folk say the "earth being destroyed by a major meteor is better than having Hillary or Donald in the Whitehouse."
That same percentage said picking someone by "random chance" is better than having one of those two take on the mantle of President.
And it's not just the young folk who are bothered by the pre-election falderal. As proof, I can refer to a report by the American Psychological Association, which shares that more than half of the adults in the United States say the election has been a large or significant source of stress for them. This stress is so common it has even been given a name: "election stress disorder."
Of course, not all stress can be laid at the foot of the election.
Almost 75 percent of us can remember getting stressed out by money, or the lack of it. Eighty percent of accidents at work and visits to the M.D. are built upon stress. Stress, the authorities tell me, is a foundation stone for headaches, heart conditions, depression, worry, asthma, arthritis, and more than one type of cancer. Stress costs U.S. businesses more than $300 billion a year.
Now I can tell you, in preparation for this Daily Devotion, I searched the Scriptures to see what it says about stress. Would it surprise you to know the King James Version doesn't use the word "stress" once? Neither does the English Standard Version or the New International Version or the New American Standard Bible or Young's Literal Translation.
So, I hear you ask, does that mean stress is a figment of our imagination?
Well, yes, in part, it does mean that. It means that when we get all worked up about things which have not, nor will ever, occur. Still, stress is with us to stay. That is because we sinners, with our incredibly limited view of the future, find it easy to get stressed out about the unknown and things that are beyond our control.
And that, my friends, is why we need the Savior.
You see, although we may not know about the unseen disasters of the future, the Lord does. More importantly, He who has saved us has promised that none of those stress factors can conquer His love, nor can they remove Him from our side. Knowing that, the Psalmist could write, "When I thought, 'My foot slips,' Your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul."
It is why St. Paul could write that nothing else "in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:39b).
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let me realize that when the Savior conquered sin, death and devil, He also defeated anything and everything that tries to use stress to drive a wedge between us. Let me be comforted by the knowledge that You care for us. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.
