The Pressure Is On

I listened to a sermon yesterday given by Kevin Myers of 12Stone Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He was speaking about economic pressure and stress. He said something that made a lot of sense as it relates to our personal finances… but also as it relates to just about anything in life. He said that there are two kinds of pressure financially: Before pressure and after pressure.

He suggested that most people choose ‘after’ pressure. We see that by the massive amount of credit card debt we have in this country. We are an impulsive people… spending money that we don’t have for things we think we need… and eventually those choices will catch up to us. Maybe in the form of interest rates that we can’t keep up with. Maybe in the form of not being able to pay electricity or whatever. Maybe in the form of bankruptcy. This is ‘after’ pressure… and it’s NOT pressure that we put on ourselves… but that other people or circumstances put upon us.

He also suggested that life would go a lot smoother if we chose ‘before’ pressure. As opposed to ‘after’ pressure… this is pressure that we DO put on ourselves. Some might call it discipline. But it’s putting pressure on ourselves ahead of time to make the wise decision. In the area of finance, it’s saying NO to spending money we don’t have. We put pressure on ourselves to say NO now… so that we avoid someone else putting pressure on us to pay them later.

But isn’t that true in many areas? Right now, I am choosing to put pressure on myself to only eat a certain amount of food per day so that I can get to a healthy weight. I am trying to utilize ‘before’ pressure. Because, truthfully, in the area of food… I have primarily dealt with ‘after’ pressure… bad knees, low energy, random heart issues. It’s time I start putting ‘before’ pressure on myself consistently in this area.

I can be a procrastinator at times. But what if I utilized ‘before’ pressure to deal with those things in which I procrastinate in a timely manner. That way I avoid the ‘after’ pressure of deadlines, impatient people, and added stress.

I think this could be true in relationships as well. I put ‘before’ pressure on myself to continue to cultivate a relationship with my wife and kids. I do this to avoid the ‘after’ pressure of hurt feelings, distance, and disappointment.

Anyway… I found this helpful. I know it’s just a restating of stuff I’ve learned before… but for whatever reason… it resonated with me at this time in my life and has given me a lot of think about…