God has blessed me with friends from various walks of life.
Some I see quite often.
Others I do not see nearly often enough.
One of the friends that I have made is a truck driver. Because he is on the road so often, I rarely get to see him.
I stopped to have coffee at a restaurant several weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see this friend there.
I took my coffee over to his table and asked if I could join him.
He readily agreed and offered a more than firm handshake developed from years of hard work.
We spent time catching up on what had been going on in our lives.
Suddenly, he broke out in a laugh and said, "I have a great story to tell you about what happened to a friend of mine."
He then proceeded to tell me about what happened to another truck driver that he knew.
It seems that this other truck driver was hired by a potato chip company to deliver their product to a different part of the county on the other side of the mountains.
This truck driver picked up his load of potato chips, drove over the mountains and delivered them to the warehouse that was waiting for them.
When he arrived at his destination, he opened the back of his truck and discovered that every single bag of potato chips had popped open.
At first, he was puzzled by this. After thinking about it, he realized what had caused every bag to burst.
It happened when he went over the mountains.
As the truck he drove gained altitude, the air pressure outside the bags began to drop.
Once he got high enough, the air pressure inside each sealed bag far exceeded the air pressure outside each bag and, as a result, each bag popped open.
We both had a laugh over this. Unless you had experienced it or someone warned you about it ahead of time, this is not something you were likely to anticipate.
"Is he still delivering potato chips?", I asked.
"Yes," he replied, "He just has to travel many extra miles and avoid any roads that go above a certain altitude."
As time went by, my thoughts returned to this account.
I found it more than interesting that it was the extra pressure inside the bags that caused this failure rather than pressure outside the bags.
That’s the way it is with people as well.
Sometimes it is external pressure, the kind of pressure that circumstances and others place on us, that make us feel as if we could burst.
That kind of pressure is easy to recognize.
Sometimes it is internal pressure, the kind of pressure we place on ourselves, that takes us to the point of bursting.
That kind of pressure is not nearly as easy to recognize, especially if we allow it to build up slowly.
So, how do we relieve this pressure?
Start by putting God first. Put Him at the center of your life.
He not only deserves this, He expects it.
Exodus 20:3 (NET) - You shall have no other gods before me.
Remember, an idol does not have to be a carved image. It is anything, or anyone, we use to displace God from His rightful place.
Once we make God the top priority in our lives, an amazing thing happens.
He helps us prioritize everything else.
Once we get our priorities in line with God’s will, we can count on His provision.
Philippians 4:19 (NET) - And my God will supply your every need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Knowing this will help us to stop placing unnecessary pressure on ourselves.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/
Some I see quite often.
Others I do not see nearly often enough.
One of the friends that I have made is a truck driver. Because he is on the road so often, I rarely get to see him.
I stopped to have coffee at a restaurant several weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised to see this friend there.
I took my coffee over to his table and asked if I could join him.
He readily agreed and offered a more than firm handshake developed from years of hard work.
We spent time catching up on what had been going on in our lives.
Suddenly, he broke out in a laugh and said, "I have a great story to tell you about what happened to a friend of mine."
He then proceeded to tell me about what happened to another truck driver that he knew.
It seems that this other truck driver was hired by a potato chip company to deliver their product to a different part of the county on the other side of the mountains.
This truck driver picked up his load of potato chips, drove over the mountains and delivered them to the warehouse that was waiting for them.
When he arrived at his destination, he opened the back of his truck and discovered that every single bag of potato chips had popped open.
At first, he was puzzled by this. After thinking about it, he realized what had caused every bag to burst.
It happened when he went over the mountains.
As the truck he drove gained altitude, the air pressure outside the bags began to drop.
Once he got high enough, the air pressure inside each sealed bag far exceeded the air pressure outside each bag and, as a result, each bag popped open.
We both had a laugh over this. Unless you had experienced it or someone warned you about it ahead of time, this is not something you were likely to anticipate.
"Is he still delivering potato chips?", I asked.
"Yes," he replied, "He just has to travel many extra miles and avoid any roads that go above a certain altitude."
As time went by, my thoughts returned to this account.
I found it more than interesting that it was the extra pressure inside the bags that caused this failure rather than pressure outside the bags.
That’s the way it is with people as well.
Sometimes it is external pressure, the kind of pressure that circumstances and others place on us, that make us feel as if we could burst.
That kind of pressure is easy to recognize.
Sometimes it is internal pressure, the kind of pressure we place on ourselves, that takes us to the point of bursting.
That kind of pressure is not nearly as easy to recognize, especially if we allow it to build up slowly.
So, how do we relieve this pressure?
Start by putting God first. Put Him at the center of your life.
He not only deserves this, He expects it.
Exodus 20:3 (NET) - You shall have no other gods before me.
Remember, an idol does not have to be a carved image. It is anything, or anyone, we use to displace God from His rightful place.
Once we make God the top priority in our lives, an amazing thing happens.
He helps us prioritize everything else.
Once we get our priorities in line with God’s will, we can count on His provision.
Philippians 4:19 (NET) - And my God will supply your every need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Knowing this will help us to stop placing unnecessary pressure on ourselves.
Blessings,
Jim Pokorny
The Other Brother Jim
http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/
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