The bible addresses worry and stress all the time.  We are supposed to give our burdens to the Lord if we are believers.  I am trying to do this.  I am asking the Lord if I am going the wrong way or the right way.  I am hearing him say, "trust the teacher."  I am hearing him say, "stay in your word."  I am hearing him say that he gives us lived experiences for a reason.  I am hearing him say, “You are concerned about many things, but Mary’s reward will not be taken from her.” I am hearing him say, “straight and narrow is the gate and few find it.”

 

Have you ever heard of cognitive consistency theory?

 

I am an introspective person and so I think a lot.  The thoughts float freely in my mind space while I lasso them one by one, bringing them closer for introspective inspection.  It is a form of reflection for me that helps me move through life.  I like to think and solve problems because it makes me feel better when conflict is resolved.  I, however, currently find myself in a big stink.  I love my job but I hate my job.  I love my life but I despise my life.  I love what I have obtained in my years of sacrifice, but it is getting harder and harder to maintain.  I’m getting so tired.  I am tired of trying to figure it out.

 

I have learned that my brain does not work well under stress.  I’m not able to use my cognitive skills at the level of my attention when I’m pressed on other matters.  I agree with Job when he said “my soul is weary of my life. . .”(see Job 10:1). Science calls it cognitive dissonance when we have conflicting truths that live inside of us.  Our brains are always working to resolve the conflict to make cohesive sense of the issues of our lives.  It could be very tiresome for our mental health, especially in a world that is full of contradictions.

 

For example, someone, let’s call him Bob, can have a conscious understanding that smoking is bad for him.  The war against big tobacco makes it clear that smoking is detrimental to your health. The societal cues that live all around Bob message his brain that it is getting less and less socially acceptable to smoke in public because secondhand smoke is harmful to others.  However, Bob has a habit of smoking two packs a day. Here is a conflict in the mind that we can call cognitive dissonance.  He wants to stop but the strength of the habit causes him to rationalize through the conflict.  To solve this problem, Bob decides that he is going to cut back to one pack a week, which is a significant change in his life.  He feels like this is the healthier choice.  His new thought is that “I am so much healthier because I only smoke one pack a week.”

 

Is Bob living a better, healthier lifestyle, or will he still die of lung cancer?

 

Here goes another.  Nancy works a lot.  She hates her job but she gets a dopamine hit every time she closes a big account.  The money is great and can afford her the lifestyle that she always dreamed of.  However, Nancy is burned out and has attributed her burnout to the long hours that she works. The thoughts that are battling inside of her are: “I need to work to live” and “I can’t live if I keep working these hours.”  So, she threw caution to the wind, and she made the decision to leave her job and start her own business where she could make her own hours.  It worked at first, but three years later, Nancy finds herself in the same burnout space she did before because she never addressed the performance and over-achievement spirit that drove her to burnout in the first place.

 

The point of this story is to say that we can’t solve our own problems.  When we try, we just create new problems. Furthermore, we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.  We need new insight and understanding about our lives.  Ultimately, from my Christian perspective, we all need Jesus so that our thinking is consistent with truth.  We will be less burdened if we have more cognitive consistency.

 

How are we supposed to deal with life's situations when they weigh us down? They weigh us down to the point that we think about solutions all the time.  However, the solutions that we find are false solutions.  We have wearied our thought compacities to the point that we do not think clearly or even have the ability to see that our solutions are still harmful.  I will say it again, we cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created the problem. This is why Jesus tells us to give him our burdens. Anyone who feels like life is too much is supposed to cast their cares upon the Lord. I know this, and I’m trying. How, Lord, do we do this fully?

 

Theses are the questions I have for the Lord:

Why do I blame everyone and everything else but myself?

How can it be my fault that I ended up in the very place I didn’t want to be?

How can I get out of my bad situation?

Why does my hope seem lost?

 

I am on this journey to understand more about the truth.  I am seeking to understand my mental health as well as my spiritual health.  I think we have to pray more direct and heartbroken prayers.  These are the prayers that say: Lord we are wrong, please help your dying children.  These are the prayers that show humility and the willingness to change our minds about how we live this thing we call life.

Narrow is the gate and only a few find it. But Lord, we will keep looking. Amen.

 

7

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7).

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13-14).

 

-until next time

Tamorra

 

I continue to promote and encourage people to seek after the Lord for encouragement, hope, motivation, and food for your soul.  He said that if you really do thirst or if we are too heavy with the burdens of this world, then we can turn to him.  Let us turn to him so that he can restore our souls.

 

 

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