by Ben Hunnicutt
I’ve gone most of my life thinking stress was the enemy.
I always believed that a “stress-free life” was the ideal. That was until I listened to the latest CDM Podcast episode where I heard what David Watson, co-author of the book, Contagious Disciple Making, said about stress:
“If I’m at a place in my life where I am not experiencing a certain level of stress,” David said, “I examine my life to see if I’m truly walking with the Lord and making a difference.”
Paul’s father, David, has lived overseas for many years with his family to see multiple movements of God take place. The journey of seeing God establish His Kingdom among the unreached is a process fraught with stress, danger, and spiritual warfare. David understands that living a life for God will involve stress.
That led me to think—if my work for the Lord was always easy and comfortable, why would I need His help? God designed His mission to challenge me into absolute reliance on Him.
I’m learning that disciple-making definitely involves stress! Waking up early to pray for the lost is hard. Getting out of my comfort zone to deeply connect with people who don’t know Jesus can be nerve-wracking. Making personal sacrifices to meet people’s needs stresses my budget and my schedule. So, instead of avoiding it, I need to figure out how to properly think about and deal with stress.
How can we deal with stress?
I found the recent CDM Podcast entitled, “The Counter-Intuitives of Dealing with Stress" challenging and helpful. In it, Paul and Rebecca distill key insights from their studies and experience. You can also listen to it on iTunes and PC and Android.
And don’t miss “The Counter-Intuitives of Dealing with Stress (Part 2)" which goes in-depth on how to exchange harmful ways of coping with stress with beneficial ones that will jumpstart your life and ministry. All you need to to is become a supporter on our Patreon page for $5 a month.