Over Pressure

I've decided to break up with Pressure.

He's messing with my head

keeping me from You

and sucking all abundance from this life.

Addition and subtraction of You vs. him

and I've been letting him win the equations.

But we have a history

he's clinging on like a stalker in the bushes

a voice in my ears

a vice grip on my head.

But I'm trading Him in for Privilege,

the honor of trusting You

with the Christmas train whistle bearing down

high pitched and squealing like a tea kettle,

the calendar moving and clicking by too fast

like a broken, flapping film strip,

and everyone's looking for me to fix it.

To give them the big ending to the movie they demand.

And they all want something different.

He's clingy, suffocating and persistent,

bearing down on the palette until it's all blended to goopy brown

never letting up until I'm all dried up.

But Your kind of pressure is liberating

breath-taking, and brings the brightest colors to my brush

leading me to higher ground, untouched.

So I'm trading Pressure in for Privilege today.

seam-ripping through this elastic prison

out in the open with You

because no matter what Pressure says

You got this.

"Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. poor Christians." 2 Corinthians 8:2-3

"Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.” Robert Frost

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." James 1:1-3

“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure.” Tommy Lasorda

"The pressure never let up;
all the juices of my life dried up.
Then I let it all out;
I said, "I'll make a clean breast of my failures to God."
Suddenly the pressure was gone—
my guilt dissolved,
my sin disappeared.
These things add up. Every one of us needs to pray;
when all hell breaks loose and the dam bursts
we'll be on high ground, untouched."

Psalm 32:4-6