Retyre-ment or Retirement?

Rev Bill Bosker

The evidence is indisputable.  No one anywhere disagrees. The facts are plain for all to see, and to those who look, the proof grows ever larger – undue stress and inordinate worry are issues which create untold havoc and disruption to healthy balanced living.  Read the newspaper, listen to the news reports, and we realise this is a problem which is being experienced by all people everywhere.  These are things from which no race, culture or ethnic group are exempt.

Universities everywhere develop studies and research programs in order to discover possible methods to cope with the stresses of life in a disordered world because there is a deep concern for the growing rates of suicide especially among young people, lost productivity in industry and the breakup of relationships.  In Australia we have the national and well known, respected and independent not for profit organisation “Beyond Blue”, whose mission is to inform people about depression, seek to help those experiencing depression or anxiety, and provide support to those who care for someone who suffers from these terrible afflictions. Little however seems to help. Occasionally the news media will highlight a tragedy and the issue is given some popular attention for a time, but it gradually fades from view because no one has any tangible solution or clear measures of help to offer.

Most people today are living under undue pressure. Where do you turn when you are so stressed you can imagine yourself becoming sick?

The Bible doesn’t hide from us what undue stress, worry and anxiety bring on the soul. Very often these things are what God calls worldly concern — an over emphasis and concern for earthly things, and what these things do is create a barrier against the healing grace of God.  Take a moment and open your Bible to see the teaching of God’s Word on the dreadful spiritual effects undue anxiety causes: Jesus tells us it chokes the Word from reaching us (Matt 13:7,22); it gluts the soul (Luke 21:34); obstructs the Gospel (Luke 14:18–20); hinders Christ’s work (2 Tim 2:4); and ultimately reveals a basic lack of faith (Matt 6:25–32).

What Must We Do?

So what must we do to counteract this common and disabling problem? Of course, we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, to our Saviour. We follow His example. What did He do when He was stressed? Where did He turn during His greatest moments of anguish and affliction? Luke tells us that as our Lord entered into that darkest and deepest time of agony on the cross for the sin of God’s people, and when the sky went dark and the sun stopped shinning, despite the fact that it was around midday, that “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.  The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” (Luke 23:46-47).

In the last, stress-filled, anguished, painful moments of His life, the Lord Jesus quoted Scripture that He had previously memorised. "Into your hands I commit my spirit" is the prayer the Psalmist David prayed. The passage that came to our Lord’s mind at that profound moment was Psalm 31:

“¹ In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.

² Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

³ Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

⁴ Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.

⁵ Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.

 King David, had fallen into a trap of some kind, and he wanted to be freed from this terrible state of mind. Again, open your Bible and glance across the verses of the Psalm and note how he describes his condition.  He uses words like affliction and anguish (vs7); distress, sorrow and grief (vs9); groaning (vs10); and feels like broken like pottery (vs12).

 Worry is such a big problem, and I have known people to worry about worry.

We Confess Great Things

For people who confess trust in the Lord God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the Almighty  –  worry is an utter contradiction of what we believe. We regularly confess that God holds ALL things in His hands and that He works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom 8:28).

We also confess that the consequence of God’s fatherly providential care is that “we can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. All creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they can neither move or be moved.” (Heidelberg Catechism LD 10 QA 28)

King David prays, “Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge” (vs4). He trusts His Lord.  Verses 1-4 express how David may be at an end and in a terrible state, but God remains his place of safety.  And in verse 19 there is the most wonderful statement from the soul of the man, “How great is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you”. God is Good! Very Good! He stores His goodness up so that He might pour it out for those who fear Him and on those who take refuge in Him. “In the shelter of your presence you hide them...in your dwelling you keep them safe.” (Ps 31:20). As a frightened child runs to their father, so we can run to the Lord in our stresses and distress and find in him a hiding place, a place of security, and pray, "Lord, I don’t understand why, but You know why."

We are Christians!

If we are Christians, then this great fact that we are, must always be at the centre of our thinking and living, and we must therefore constantly be seeking to work that principle out into all things – including worry!

We all, to one degree or another have times when we succumb to it, and yet the thing we must learn is that we must not. It is bad. It is a sin because it is a lack of trust in the Lord. It is detrimental to our relationship with the Saviour, and it can also diminish our physical health. Without a doubt it cripples our ability to move forward and act on what we have to know is true about our heavenly Father, and it is utterly without any value or use at all. As such it is a complete waste of energy.

Who do you trust?  The psalmist David prays, “Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit...” The word "commit" means to entrust; specifically, to entrust into another’s safekeeping, to turn over something to someone for their watchful care.

We can and must commit ourselves with all that we are and every life experience that God sends our way into His safekeeping. We can trust Him as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can trust Him as we pass through to the glory of heaven. May the growing conviction of the words of Timothy overtake our confession and living “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2Tim 1:12).

The simple fact is, the Christian must refuse to worry. Of course you will read this and I am quite sure you will agree completely, but still go ahead and fret over things beyond your control – and worry. So how can we stop it – refuse it?

Some Suggestions

Perhaps I can offer some suggestions.

Negatively, we must confront the cause of that over which we are worried, and hold it up. Examine it, and then we must take a determined decision to reject it. This may be rather obvious and yet we fail to do it, and allow worrying thoughts and the cause of fretting to settle over us. Examine this thing. Confront it. Bring it out into the open, and then from a position of conscious awareness we must tell ourselves, “I am not going to worry. It is wrong. The Lord is God.”

Positively, we must attend each day again to the care and nurture of our souls. How many of us are so caught up with activity, be it work related or just being busy, that time for the care and well being of our spirit is neglected? With meetings, travel time to and from work, home duties, children’s activities and homework with the children, a few hobbies and some time out with friends there’s not much time left for the simple yet immensely important care of the soul.

As I listen to people, I am constantly surprised and disturbed about the problem of time and our use of it.  The fact is, that the nurture of our soul is not anything special and unusual, and yet it is not something that comes easily and we must exercise a deliberate effort of self-discipline in order to care for our spirit with at least as much attention as we give to our bodies.

Too often, and by far too much, we are self focused, something which Christians are not to be. Self pity is not something Christians may indulge in.

God has given us gifts. We did not create those gifts, and we are to use those God given blessings in service to the One who gave them. We are to do this with all our mind, soul and strength. Our life is committed to God, and we believe God guides and knows and loves His people. So we serve Him according to His will for us.

If God wills that we serve in a leadership capacity, we must seek to do so honestly. If God’s will is something different, we will serve with contentment and joy, that we are doing God’s will.

Everything we do is to be done to the glory of God. The great discovery of the Reformation was that a servant can sweep the floor as much to the glory of God as any priest can pray in his room. However, the problem of ‘self’ constantly intrudes, and with an effort of sanctified determination we must detach ourselves from ‘self’, and understand that we are part of a greater body – the body of Christ (1Cor 12), so we must become less, that Christ may become more (Jn 3:30).

Self works itself into self pity, self protection, self concern, hypersensitivity, jealousy, envy, and feeling grieved and hurt, fretting and worry, and on we can go. But Christianity comes right to the heart of it. We are to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow our Lord! The Christian faith is the only thing that saves us from our self.

Remember the problems don’t go away, but we see them in a different way. It can be hard, and at times it will be, but we must keep going back to the Lord – read the Bible and spend time in prayer. We have time for a thousand other things, so we must make sure we have time for this and see that it comes first so we may absorb the outlook that God has on life.

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