Stressors

The first six years of our marriage, my husband and I were truck drivers for the moving company Bekins Van Lines. We had a cab over Kenworth semi tractor and owned our own trailer too. As newlyweds, it was quite a learning experience. Our cab had a queen size bed, that you crawled in and out of on your hands and knees. It had a little closet off to the passenger side where we put our uniforms. That same side had a little shelf where we put our 6 inch screen black and white television and Atari game system. Do you know how fun it was playing Pong on a 6 inch screen?

We also learned how to argue properly, as one person cannot leave the room when you are traveling 65 miles an hour! Some times it came down to this is my of side the cab, and that is your side, and pretend there was a wall in between.

I was so ripped back in those days, as we also moved the people’s furniture, load it in our trailer, and unload at the new place.

Studies say some of the biggest stressors we encounter in life are marriage, having a baby, divorce and moving, and death. Well I’m going to share two of those moving stories today.

Denial

We arrived at the house, and my husband knocked at the door. Sounds of crying came from the other side. The woman refused to open the door to let us begin. She told us we were not taking her from her home. Well now, that cuts into our day. We only have a limited amount of daylight to load the truck, begin driving, find a truck stop to eat, and park for the night to get some sleep. Back in the early 1980’s there were no cell phones. (Gasp!)

We were not going to move the truck to go find a pay phone, because once it is lined up and parked, the pads are out to wrap the furniture etc, that big baby is going nowhere. So my husband went to a neighbor’s and called dispatch. They got the husband on the phone, and he had to leave work and talk his wife down, before we could begin. All in all, it took about an hour and a half. He stayed to calm her down and she cried through the whole process.

Control

The other memorable story, is a lady we moved from Denver to Dallas. Her husband was in charge in Denver when we loaded, but in Dallas he went to work and left this formidable woman in charge. Normally our busiest season is the summer. Kids are out of school and so it is more convenient to move. Well that day in Dallas it had to be close to 90 degrees. Inside the metal trailer it is even hotter, the sun beating down on the metal box the furniture is in. We got three workers from the local Bekins agency to help us unload. All of us were sweating. Goes without saying. This woman actually came out and told my husband with a firm tone, that he needed to make sure when the helpers came in the house with a piece of furniture, they needed to stop sweating, so as to not bump into a wall and make a mess with their bodies in her new house! Wow! I didn’t know we came with a switch to turn it on and off! Did my husband have some sort of magical powers to accomplish this amazing request? I guess having a sense of entitlement and being clueless has been around a long time.

The other morning while reading a daily devotional by Henry Blackaby, he wrote, “Death relocates us into the presence of Jesus for eternity.” Gosh, two of the stressors of life, moving and death. Based on the two stories I shared above, denial and control, people act in the same manner when it comes to Jesus. Both responses come down to the same thing though. Some folks don’t think they need the Resurrection power of Jesus to relocate them to heaven for eternity.

They deny their deep seated need for a Savior, or feel they are in control of their own life and thereby deny their deep seated need for a Savior. Crying about it does not make it go away. Making unreasonable demands does not make it go away. And so subsequently they live with constant, underlying stressors that only go away when they accept Jesus into their hearts.

Jesus said, “My Father will give you the Holy Spirit—who will be a friend just like me. He will never leave you, but you know him intimately because he will remain with you and live inside you. Loving me empowers you to obey my word, and my Father will love you so deeply that we will come to you and make you our dwelling place. The Spirit of Holiness, the one like me who sets you free, will teach you all things in my name, and he will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you. I leave you with the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled—instead be courageous!” (John 14:16-17 & 23-27 [TPT])

You don’t need to fear death. Denying it doesn’t make it go away. You can’t control it. It happens to all of us. The difference is if you have accepted Jesus in your heart. That gives us the courage to not worry about it. The best part is we don’t even have to stress out about this move, because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in us and will keep us safe and at peace until we die. And there’s only one moving company that can relocate you to the eternal presence of God for eternity, Jesus.

“We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, ‘First I believed, then I spoke in faith.’ So we also first believe then speak in faith. We do this because we are convinced that he who raised Jesus will raise us up with him, and together we will all be brought into his presence.” (2 Cor. 4:13-14 [TPT])

“Look up, for our redemption is drawing near! Hallelujah!” (Thanks Pastor Greg for your inspiration for this post!)

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