I daily chat with people on social media and even in workplace or places where I am presenting, they  tell me that they are bored with with everything around. When I ask them to tell me more, they say that they feel stressed out with their jobs, with their marriages, with their partners who ignore them, they say that they feel wrapped up in thoughts of what could go wrong, and for some they feel like nothing will ever get better in their lives. I empathize with each of these people. I feel that God brought them to my life for a purpose, so I pray for them.

As we live in this life survival journey it is very easy for any of us to generate patterns of fear that can start to seem normal. You get so used to being afraid that you actually start to accept it as a sign that you’re working hard: “Oh, I’ve got to give a big presentation, so I’ve got to be nervous.” That sort of thing. But none of us was born to get stuck in this quagmire of just living for little or journey of going no where. As God’s children, we were created for more than average living. We were created to thrive and do more, yes, more than living under the heavy clouds of fear.

Over the years, I have learnt that when one acts or live under intense pressure one start to create survival environments for themselves. I have seen people who live in survival journey making impulsive judgments, angrily rushing to bring closure to whatever matter is at hand. He or she feeling compelled to get the problem under control immediately, trying to extinguish the perceived danger lest it destroy him or her. When one lives in survival journey they are robbed of their flexibility, their sense of humor, their ability to deal with the unknown. They forget the big picture and the goals and values they stand for. They lose their “cool” or feeling at peace, they lose their creativity.

I can’t help but think that even strong Christian believers are like that when life presses down on us. When the pressure gets too intense, we start looking for ways to bail ourselves out from under the thumb of circumstances that seem too much to handle. And all too often we are tempted to bail in terms of our attitudes, feeling angry, bitter, or even mad at God—or anyone else we can blame our problems on. Or, we are tempted to bail in our actions by refusing to persevere in Christ centred ways.