Hi my name's father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
I imagine you're probably stressed at some point in your life.
Maybe even right now...
because you should be doing your work but you're watching a YouTube video...
soooo...*laughs* busted!
But, a lot of us experience stress.
In fact, when they ask across the country -- country being the United States,
although, thanks for watching from other places than the United States --
people report high levels of stress.
You know, it's interesting because
when you start diving into research about stress,
something you find is that
there is such a thing as "eustress" and such a thing as "distress."
So, eustress is the good stress, right?
It's the anxiety or the anxiousness we feel before we are gonna perform.
It's the eustress, the good stress we experience that actually
gets our body prepared to act, right?
So, eustress is the kind of stress that prepares our bodies for action.
But there's distress.
And one of the things that distress does is, distress can paralyze us.
It does the opposite of eustress (or good stress).
Distress makes us feel incapable of moving. It makes us feel paralyzed.
It makes us feel afraid and anxious to the point where we don't move
instead of "I'm anxious so I need to move" (eustress).
Distress is the kind that paralyzes us.
And I imagine that the distress is the one that we complain about,
'cause eustress is not so bad.
That's why it's called "good stress" ... 'cause it's... it's good.
But I think a lot of times we approach ALL stress as the same,
and our approach to stress is:
I just need to get done with this project or get done with this thing,
get past this moment and then I won't be stressed so much.
I think about that a lot, because I often times -- and just a confession here --
I'm often concerned about the next thing.
I'm often concerned about what's the next project,
what's the next task, what's the next thing that's really weighing on me that
when I look at it, I have the distress, right?
So I find myself getting paralyzed in the face of it.
And so once I get done with that, though, then I'll be fine.
Once I get done with this thing, I'll be able to move on with life.
And there's something about that,
that I've been praying about a lot, and thinking about a lot.
And the conclusion I came to, the realization that I kind of came upon,
was that life isn't about avoiding stress.
Stress is just a part of life.
Life isn't about avoiding stress. It's not about getting around stress.
It's about, like, no, this is life -- to experience stress is to experience life.
In fact, we NEED stress to continue to live.
There was this research, was it at Stanford I think -- maybe?
One of those, you know, big schools --
Harvard, Stanford --
but I think is was Stanford that did this research on
very very simple celled organisms, single-celled organisms.
And they put it in a place of stasis, right — or homeostasis
where there was no stress whatsoever on the organism, on the simple organism.
And with absolutely no stress —
with all the environments that it needed just to simply be "in stasis"
-- to be just alive and comfortable essentially —
They died. They corrupted.
They were destroyed ultimately, because they needed stress to be alive.
And you and I need stress to be alive and to remain alive.
And so, life isn't about avoiding stress, it's about how we engage with stress.
Our perspective can really matter a lot, right?
There is a bunch of studies --
I was reading this book recently that talked about this,
that people who see stress as something to be avoided
versus people who see stress as a challenge to be engaged with,
makes all the difference.
If I see my stress, my projects,
the things that worry me and the things that cause me anxiety
as something to be avoided, then I'm gonna run away from them.
And what I'm gonna have? I'm gonna have DI-stress.
I'm gonna be paralyzed
versus "I see stress as a challenge to be engaged with"
well then what am I gonna have? I'm gonna have EU-stress
or stress that leads me to take action.
So my invitation is this — is to ask yourself when you experience stress,
the next time you experience stress:
can my perspective on this thing that is causing me stress,
can my perspective actually affect how I'm gonna engage with this?
Ultimately it comes down to: how do you see yourself, how do you see this world?
This is where the scripture comes in, right?
How do you see yourself? How do you see this world?
Am I a person who is a victim of the stressful situation?
Am I a person who's a victim of what causes me anxiety,
what causes me worry?
Am I someone who's powerless? Or do I have agency?
Am I stuck here, paralyzed, or do I have a power?
Do I have a certain agency where I can actually make a difference?
I can engage stress as a challenge and ultimately
not only will it give me life, but I'll be able -- better able --
to become the person God wants me to be and bring life to others.
We can do this because we know who our Father is;
this is the crazy thing about life as a Catholic Christian.
We know who our Father is in fact.
Go all the way back to the psalms of David,
just take one of those popular psalms -- psalm 23.
He says "Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
Think about that.
David's not saying "If I walk through, like, the sunny valley of...
Anne of Green Gables... something like this....
He says "Even if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil."
Why? Because you are at my side.
As Catholic Christians we have this profound conviction,
this profound awareness,
that in every situation, even the worst -- the valley of the shadow of death --
I won't fear. Why? Because God, you're with me.
Nothing to be afraid of because you are with me.
I can engage the situation because you are with me.
All my ability to have agency, to engage the stress as a challenge,
doesn't have to do with just me. I don't have to just be
pulling myself up by my bootstraps.
It has to do with "We believe something about this world"
and that thing is:
there is a father in heaven who's also present to us here and now,
in the midst of every situation.
So even in times of distress that are terrible,
he is at my side,
and what can I do? I don't have to fear.
I can go from this place of being paralyzed by my situation
to be able to be activated by his presence.
In James chapter 1, he's writing and he says --
James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4 -- he says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers
when you encounter various trials..."
Consider it pure joy when you encounter various trials...
"for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."
The trial itself, right, the stress?
It does something in you: it produces perseverance.
"And let perseverance be perfect so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
I know the father's with me.
I have agency.
And if I enter into this -- whatever trial it is, whatever challenge it is --
if I enter into this with him and with that agency,
this trial becomes a challenge that produces fruit,
both in your life and in the lives of the people around you.
We are all stressed out, which is a great way to say
all of us have the opportunity at all times to become perfect,
as James says, lacking in nothing,
considering it pure joy that I have the next task to do,
pure joy that I have the next challenge to meet,
pure joy that I have the next work to do. Why?
Because it all leads -- has the power to lead -- to him.
But only if I walk with him.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.
And like, subscribe, do all those things people do on the internet,
like, you know, thumbs up.
Thumbs down if you don't like it. Whatever
I mean, that's an option.
You can take that option. Why? 'Cause you got agency yo. *clicks* Ha.
Yo? Who says yo? Dumb.
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