Too Blessed to be Stressed

As I sat impatiently in my car, internally begging the red light to change to green, a bumper sticker on the Subaru in front of me caught my eye.

Too Blessed to Be Stressed

For some reason, it annoyed me. After all, I’m a Jesus-loving woman from the South U.S. We eat, drink, and breathe blessed! 

I knew I was blessed – because God made me and Jesus died for me and I have so many wonderful things to be grateful for. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t also totally stressed.

At the time, I had lots of blessings that were also “stressings.” Here are a few:

• The indoor plumbing I was very blessed to have stressed me out when the kitchen faucet leaked and flooded the kitchen.

• The top rack of the dishwasher I was blessed to own broke, preventing the appliance from running the day before my extended family came into town for Easter dinner.

• The motor home I was blessed to live in while student leaders used my house as a training center flooded when its kitchen sink also broke.

• The mechanic informed me that the blessing of a vehicle my two sweet intern girls were about to use for their first solo-trip needed repairs that couldn’t be completed before their assignment.

• The inbox for the dream job I was blessed to have was overflowing with responses I needed to get back to – while my phone was full of texts reminding me to respond to those emails.

• A voicemail from a blessing of a friend’s husband came in, letting me know her long-term illness was leading to final hospice this week.

• The blessings of medication and doctor appointments for my husband’s complex medical issues needed extensive management.

Every single one of those things could have been worse. But none were restful. They didn’t all feel like blessings, and they were certainly contributing to my stress levels as they all piled on.

And to top it all off, I was hurrying home (well, stopped at the red light) to finish preparing for another blessing: the opportunity to facilitate a day-long seminar for Christian women in leadership about rest. 

I couldn’t help but feel like a bit of an imposter as I sat staring at that bumper sticker, thinking about my seminar. I wanted to practice what I preach. 

I think that red light – and the moment to reflect on what I read – was a gift from God in that moment. A reminder of all the reminders I was currently adding to my workshop.

I thought of my notes: “Cast all your cares on Him. He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)

He cares. Maybe that’s enough. The God of all creation cares about my little mess. He cares about the women I’m preparing….hoping… to encourage. He’s God. And he cares. He cares about more than my productivity and my performance. He cares about me.   

He wants me to quit fighting and sit still with him. Because he cares. He invites me to come to Him when I’m weary. To call to him in the middle of the storm – two flooding kitchens in two days sort of feels like a storm. 

He cares that I have more to do than hours in the day and I feel overwhelmed. He loves me. Not for what I accomplish. He loves me extravagantly – for me. And He cares about my cares. 

While I’m still often impatient, red lights have become a regular reminder to pause, breathe, and have a brief conversation with God about my cares for the day. To cast them his way and see what he does with them. To remember that he’s on my team and can handle the “stressings” and turn them into blessings.

It was a vital call back to resting in him, which ultimately benefitted both my seminar and my personal life. 

Maybe I am “too blessed to be stressed” after all.

Share with me in the comments: Have you ever felt God calling you back into rest in him? What was that experience like for you?

Dr. Teresa Moon, founding President and CEO of the Institute for Cultural Communicators, is an internationally-recognized seminar speaker, education consultant, author, and leadership coach. Each year, she travels globally equipping students, teachers, and parents to become “cultural communicators,” helping Christians get ready to speak as extraordinary communicators and authentic leaders.