I was asked to speak to 25 leading Southern Baptist ministers who were very much interested in what laymen were thinking about. I told them that in managing career stress laymen learn to balance the exterior circumstance with the internal condition. When external circumstances build up pressure and become more threatening, then we have to turn our attention to strengthening our internal condition or we will be like a doctor who during an epidemic gets so involved in curing the sick that he neglects his own health and dies from the disease he was treating in others. Or it reminds me of the television commercial that Mary Alice and I enjoyed featuring the young eager beaver executive who grabs the phone and says, "Hello, Harry! Milwaukee Monday? I can do that. Los Angeles Tuesday? I can do that. New York Wednesday? I can do that. And as he hangs up the phone he grabs it back and says, "How am I gonna do that???"
In a submarine to achieve zero pressure you must pressurize the inside as it goes down against the pressure of the outside water or else the water will crush it. As long as the two are balanced inside and outside then you have zero stress. For example, a potter finds that there is great skill in matching the pressure of the inside hand against the outside hand - too much pressure from the inside and it bulges out - too much from the outside and it caves in.
So often we become so involved in the external circumstances that even our spiritual life gets to be prayer for that pressure to decrease rather than for our internal condition to strengthen. One of the saints used to pray the burden not become lighter but that he might become stronger. In an somewhat profane way this is what Tommy Armour, the "Silver Scot," taught. When other pros were talking about weakening the right hand to keep from hooking, he said, "No, strengthen the left hand and then whap the hell out of it with the right."
Building internal strength requires:
1. The joy of contemplation
2. The mutuality of meditation
3. The pragmatism and mysticism of prayer
4. The solid foundation of scripture and
5. The spiritual gymnasium of fellowship
I want to focus on the contribution of fellowship. The devotional life that builds internal strength cannot just be an individual matter between us and God, but must be worked out and built up in the fellowship of fellow believers. We have to come down from the Mount of Transfiguration into the valley where the sinews and muscles of our faith are developed. When we pray "our father" we are talking family, community, body life. I have on my wall a beautiful little one-line drawing involving the verse "bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of God." We are to share each other's burdens. We are to help each other build an exercise regimen that will create spiritual and emotional equilibrium.
As Christians we can become "full friends." I, like you, have several non-believing friends but I cannot have these as full friends such as I had with Jim Smith who would start a phone call with "hey, brother." In the fullness of this relationship we can be truthtellers and encouragers. We can uncover areas of external pressure and work through the process of building internal counterweights for each other. Gene Getz is a pastor, professor and radio teacher. Early in his ministry he wrote on the power of the "one anothers" in the Bible. We are related and responsible to help bring one another to maturity. Solomon reminds us that "iron sharpens iron."
Avoiding implosion is a vital part of maturity and growth. Understanding the principle of offsetting external pressure with internal balance allows us to hold strong under intense storms. The fellowship of believers provides a learning lab in which to develop.
