The Finest Measure

 

Now here you are with your faith

And your Peter Pan advice

You have no scars on your face

And you cannot handle the pressure

~Pressure - Billy Joel~ 

This past week I found myself watching the replays of game four of the NBA finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.  I've never been much of a fan, but with the political slant of the league lately, I gave up watching all together.  Well, in this game, with the Lakers down late but still not out of it I saw yet another example of why I quit watching the NBA.  Lakers star and political commentator Lebron James, seeing his team was down late in the game, simply walked off the court instead of finishing the game.  Now, I've always been a pretty big believer in how you can tell a lot about a person by how they handle themselves in stressful situations, and this only solidified my view of Lebron James.  When the chips are down, when the enemy is at the door...he's not the guy I want on my team.  Granted, this is not the true measure of a man, but it goes a long way to deciding if I will trust him or not.  That brought me into another line of thinking, how is it that I, that we, handle stressful situations?  Most of the time when those times come, many of us don't have the option which Lebron James chose to simply walk away.  Well, you could, but the situation you're running from won't go away.  Believe me, I've had many times in my own life where I have fallen victim to bad reactions to stress.  My friends will attest to that I'm sure.  In the past, my usual first reaction was to immediately try to fix what was happening.  Well, that's not always possible.  So, what do we do when we're faced with those tough situations where there seems to be no way out?  How strong is the person who avoids any and all stressful situations?  I would say that if you do not carry those battle scars of life, then you haven't lived.  In these situations, I've come to look upon Jesus and how it is that He Himself handled tough situations.  Now, there can be no tougher situation that the persecution and death which He endured, but Jesus definitely went through His own share of trials.  A child born out of wedlock.  A young boy growing up in a bad area {John 1:46}.  How is it that Jesus handled the stress in His own life?  All around Him people were trying to meet with Him, trap Him and kill Him.  If anyone were to be driven mad from stress it would seem that Jesus would.  Yet that was never the case at all.  Jesus handled the stress in His life seemingly peacefully and quietly.  At least that is how we see Him in scripture.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."  And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  Philip said to him, "Come and see."

John 1: 45 - 46 NKJV 

We definitely can learn a lot from the way Jesus lived His own life.  Through His example we can learn to deal with the joys, problems and difficulties we all face.  Perhaps there is something to that tired old phrase...what would Jesus do?  For once we began to ponder how Jesus would handle certain situations, we began to see how it is that we can not simply be "like" Jesus...but be Jesus.  One of the areas where I have began to look at Jesus is not how He dealt with life...but in how He deals with life through me.  See, Jesus isn't simply some dead guy who's been brought back to life to live in heaven.  There is a reality to the Jesus of today.  The apostle Paul shared this with us in Galatians.  We need not talk of Jesus in the past tense...but in the present.  He is the Son of the living God {Matthew 16:16}.  More than that, it is Jesus who lives through us {Galatians 2:20}.  It is Jesus who we live our lives as.  So, when we go through those stress ridden situations, we encounter them as Jesus.  This revelation has gone a long way to how I handle stress in my own life.  I no longer see these situations as make it or break it...but as another chance for Christ to reveal Himself through me.  After all, if I live as Jesus, He will definitely take each and every opportunity to reveal Himself.  Perhaps Jesus desires to reveal Himself in Lebron James as well?

~Scott~