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Welcome to Part 3 of our 50 Days of Transformation Series! Before we get into the message this morning, let me start with a question:
How many of you here have felt a bit stressed out at any point this week?Now, if you haven’t, that’s great! Maybe you woke up this morning completely rested and refreshed…You got yourself energetically out of bed… and when you stood in front of your bathroom mirror, all you could think was, “Wow, do I feel good! In fact, I really look good!”Maybe those were a few of your first thoughts this morning. But if they weren’t, then know that you’re not alone.
In fact, more and more people today are living their lives feeling far more overwhelmed & exhausted than rested & invigorated.As a society, we’ve found ourselves chronically tired… STRESSED from what seems like an infinite barrage of challenges & complications & ever-increasing responsibilities.And the sad reality is that the presence of stress in our lives is increasing year after year.
In fact, 31% of men and 37% of women surveyed claimed to have experienced significant stress last year.That’s up several percentage points for women from the year before and a full 5% more for men.And what are we stressed about? Let me ask you. What do you think came up as the #1 stressor for men & women?Well… 67% said money. 65% said work-related stress; 54% family-related stress; 51% said health; and so on.Of course, not all stress is bad. Feeling a bit stressed from time to time is a natural part of life that actually come with a few benefits.
In smaller doses, it can help you meet your deadlines a little more efficiently… It can event help you focus and can help boost memory.It’s also a God-given mechanism that stirs the fight-or-flight response that can help us in emergencies…flooding our bodies with chemicals like adrenaline & cortisol,stimulating laser-like reflexes, for example, so you can jump out of the way of a truck about to hit you.
But, as we all know, too much stress can wreak havoc on our physical health; From weight gain to fatigue to hair loss to muscle pain.
And when that stress is chronic, it can weaken the immune system, cause high blood pressure, depression, and even heart disease…And, it can also cause inflammation which can lead any one of a number of auto-immune diseases.And yet, because of how “normal” stress has become, we’re less & less aware of its presence in our lives.
But even when we are, we’re