Religiestress en corona maatregelen

Het moet gezegd worden. De laatste maanden lijken heel wat mensen onder hoogspanning te staan. Opvallend daarbij is ook dat meerdere gelovigen heel wat moeilijkheden hebben met de uitsluiting om met velen samen te komen.

Vooral de Nederlandse maatschappij blijkt steeds meer last van religiestress te hebben. Al bij de eerste lockdown bleken heel wat Nederlanders en Franse evangelisten zich niet aan die beperkingen te willen houden. Begin oktober woedde een felle discussie over de vrijstelling op de 30-personenregel voor kerken, gevoed door ‘massale kerkgang in Staphorst’. Hierbij werd volgens sommigen niet gemeld dat alle geldende coronaregels in acht werden genomen en dat de diensten keurig verliepen. Hierbij kan men dan wel de vraag stellen wat dat 'keurig verloop' wel mag betekenen. In ieder geval kan elk zinnig mens wel inzien dat zulke bijeenkomsten onverantwoord waren en nog steeds zijn in deze corona crisis.

ChristenUnie-leider Gert-Jan Segers reageerde in eerste instantie afkeurend op Twitter. Later kwam hij daarop terug: hij had genuanceerder willen zijn.

Anderhalve maand later ontstond een nog fellere rel over vermeende ‘anti-homoverklaringen’ binnen het reformatorisch onderwijs. In een blog op haar website nam de ChristenUnie afstand van zulke verklaringen. Drie dagen later bleek dat de ophef op gebakken lucht gebouwd was: geen enkele identiteitsverklaring binnen het reformatorisch onderwijs vermeldt homoseksualiteit.

Door het ongebreideld willen samen komen geven bepaalde christelijke groepen hen die tegen het christelijk geloof zijn, koren op de molen om kritiek te uiten op allerlei zaken die zij maar her en der kunnen vinden. Alles wat maar aan de oppervlakte kan komen wordt nu dan gretig aangepakt om met luide stem openbaar te maken en te bekritiseren.

Met juist tegen de corona verplichtingen in te gaan maken vele christenen zichzelf het onderwerp van misnoegdheid en verwerping van zulk een geloof, dat precies geen rekening wil houden met de gezondheidsregels.

Church indeed critical in faith development

Some two thousand years ago, Jesus approached twelve seemingly unsuspecting Galileans and bid them:

 “Come, follow me.”

For the next three years, they walked alongside him as he discipled them. Toward the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and do the same — to take the Gospel message to the world and make disciples in all the nations.

The Great Commission is an audacious undertaking, all the more so given the fast and sweeping changes taking place in the broader culture. People in this day and age have become the new slaves? The slaves of the international companies. But they also have become slaves of their own materialism and want for more.
Their aspirations to come somewhere in life, to reach the top or to get this or that, makes that they are often under a lot of stress. Each person has his or her own stresses: Mountains of laundry wait, errands beckon, and another pressing meeting extends the workday. Prayer life, if it still exist by certain people, reduces to the minimal communication of mealtime grace and thank-you-Lord-for-this-day bedtime amens.

By the majority of Christians there are no moments any more of contemplation, or of being together in the household taking time, to read the Bible and to say prayers.  No listening ear for God’s voice. Little thought of discerning His plans for the day.

Those who still find time to go to church love to find the pastor or priest doing all the talking and doing all the work. They settle into a church home, then rely on pastors and small group leaders to guide them into maturity. They might know that Church is indeed critical in their faith development.

But something is not working if most of the Christians report little spiritual growth over the course of a year.

The “spiritual journey” language is most preferred among non-practicing Christians. We can wonder how they build up such a spiritual journey. While spiritual growth is very important to tens of millions, the language and terminology surrounding discipleship seems to be undergoing a change, with other phrases coming to be used more frequently than the term “discipleship” itself.

Today the word "discipleship" also seems to have a negative co-notation, giving the impression that one is weak when one wants to become a disciple. Not many do want to be a disciple and having to let others know that one still has to learn.

Engagement with the practices associated with discipleship leave much to be desired.  When in  certain regions there still could be 20 percent of Christian adults involved in some sort of discipleship activity, it would not be bad to come to see that more than 6% would come to be active in church planning, attending Sunday school or fellowship group, meeting with a spiritual mentor, studying the Bible with a group, or reading and discussing a Christian book with a group.

For sure Church needs a new fertilizer and new seed. It needs also people who can ignite the fire in  others. Church leaders must be diligent in finding tools that help people examine the reality of their spiritual growth, not merely how they perceive it.

It is high time that churches start to rethink what is working in connecting with today’s younger Christians and non-believers, particularly when it comes to relational and mentoring forms of spiritual development.

A philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person

A great deal of what is morally wrong with modern culture, as well as the lion’s share of the personal unhappiness it engenders, is caused by a philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person.

There has been a growing cultural shift in the understanding of the body from something that is deeply personal and constitutive of who we are to something purely instrumental, to be employed as our own disembodied consciousness sees fit.

English: Neural Correlates Of Consciousness (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This drift into philosophical dualism with respect to the human person has been, quite literally, deadly. It leads directly to the use of the bodies of others as sexual objects, contraception, homosexuality, genetic engineering, sterilization, sex-change operations, embryo harvesting, abortion, and euthanasia — all of which manipulate or discard the body. It causes persons to be profoundly disaffected from themselves, leading to unrealistic expectations, stress, self-mutilation and even suicide. It leads to all these ills and more because it misunderstands what it means to be a man or a woman with a vocation to love rooted in our bodily nature as human persons.

Read more >Listen to Your Body!

The philosophical dualism which defines the person in terms of his consciousness, while defining the body as an instrument to be manipulated, lies at the heart of what is called “the new morality”. Those old enough to recall the rapid moral shift which took place beginning in the 1960’s will also recall that the thirst to embrace the new morality was driven primarily by sexual desire; the new morality was, in effect, a rationalization for sexual licentiousness (generally called “liberation”). This same effort to rationalize has rather obviously been the engine of nearly all non-orthodox moral theology over the past two generations, just as it has been the cause of most of the rejection of Church authority—and indeed of many of the scandals that have weakened that authority—during the same period. 

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2013 update:
 

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De geest en stress

Velen van ons worden geconfronteerd met stress. Een overmatige druk die ons uit evenwicht brengt. Het is een toestand van verwarring in de gevoelens of van het aanvoelen sommige dingen niet meer onder controle te hebben.

Ook in de Oudheid waren er mensen die een druk van buiten af aanvoelden die hen hinderde. Ook zij moesten voor hun inkomen en hun familie zorgen en dat kon heel wat druk teweeg brengen. Het is iets van alle dag en van verleden en toekomst dat de noodzakelijkheden van de dag als een molensteen om de nek kunnen hangen.

De Chicago Biblestudents brengen een artikel over de factoren omtrent "stress". Zij halen ook aan dat de wijze mannen van God conssistent waren in hun advies hoe wij kunnen omgaan met stress.

Lees er meer over in > The spiritual mind and stress

Mensen die bidden reageren gezonder op stress

Christenen die regelmatig bidden, hebben net als anders mensen last van stress, maar ondervinden er minder schade van. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van psycholoog Adrie Huttenga-Menninga (55) die met dit onderzoek haar titel Master of science behaalde.

In het onderzoek bij mensen die gebed als ‘religieuze coping' hanteren, heeft Huttenga gemeten of er bij stress effect is op negatieve gevoelens. "Wanneer mensen aangeven dat ze vaak geloven in gebedsverhoring en vaak vrede hebben met de omstandigheden als ze bidden, dan blijkt dat ze minder negatieve gevoelens ervaren in perioden van stress. De alledaagse stress is er wel, maar er zijn minder negatieve gevoelens gerelateerd aan deze stress."

De 23 mensen die onderzocht werden, waren allemaal protestantse christenen. Ze moesten een week lang 10 maal per dag een vragenlijstje invullen waarin ze aangaven hoezeer ze last hadden van negatieve gevoelens zoals onzekerheid, somberheid, angst, enzovoorts. Een aantal van deze vragen ging over activiteit-gerelateerde stress, zoals: ‘Waar ben je mee bezig? Kost je dat moeite? Vind je het prettig wat je doet?' En er waren vragen over de zelfwaardering, zoals: ‘Vind je jezelf een goed persoon? Vind je jezelf aardig?'

Huitinga heeft als psycholoog al vele gesprekken met cliënten gehad en ook vaak met hen gebeden. Huttenga: "Als cliënten het op prijs stellen, stel ik voor om samen te bidden. Het is me meerdere malen opgevallen hoe mijn cliënten konden veranderen na een kort en een eenvoudig gebed, soms meer dan na een lang gesprek. Dat maakte vaak indruk op mij en dat is ook de reden geweest dit onderzoek te starten. Gebed en geloof hebben wel degelijk invloed op je psychische welbevinden."

Bron: Uitdaging

Verandering hoeft niet stressvol te zijn

"Ik denk niet dat verandering stressvol is.
Ik denk dat het falen stressvol is. "
- Bob Stearns

"Onderzoek jezelf om te zien of je in het geloof bent; test uzelf.
Beseft u niet dat Jezus Christus in u is - tenzij, natuurlijk, je de test mislukt? En ik vertrouw erop dat u zult ontdekken dat we de test niet gefaald hebben. "
2 Korintiërs 13:5-6

Heer God, mijn leven is vol veranderingen.
Laat mij leren uit al mijn ervaringen
en laat mij hoopvol uitkijken naar een betere toekomst.

English version > Change should not be stressful

Change should not be stressful

"I don’t think change is stressful.
I think failure is stressful."
- Bob Stearns

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.
Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test."
2 Corinthians 13:5-6

Lord God, my life is full of changes.
Let me learn from my experiences
and let me look hopeful for a better future.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: > Verandering hoeft niet stressvol te zijn

Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile (Mark 6:31)

"Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile" (Mark 6:31)

WHAT loving consideration for his disciples is suggested by these words of Jesus! They had been engaged in the work of the Gospel - preaching, teaching and healing - and had returned to the Lord to tell him of their experiences. But "there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat". So Jesus suggested they should go elsewhere to seek quietude and rest.

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven", says the Preacher. Rest and recreation (i.e., re-creation) are essential to human well-being, whether on the physical or spiritual plane, and Jesus taught his disciples a very practical lesson in this respect in the incident recorded by Mark.

"Come ye apart and rest awhile! "Christ's advice is perhaps more needed to-day than ever before. The world is too much with us: it is well-nigh impossible to escape its insistent influence or find a quiet retreat free from its fret and turmoil. Many of us seek relief on holiday; but even in the solitude of the hills or in the wide expanse of the moors, the ubiquitous aeroplane intrudes, shattering the sense of seclusion and linking us again with man's unceasing endeavour to subjugate the physical universe.

How, then, can we come apart and rest awhile? There is no quietness or peace associated with the human world around us: stress, anxiety, clamour and warfare are its characteristics: we seek in vain in that direction. But one of old confidently tells us of a source of peace which he had discovered:

The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul (Psa. 23:1-3).

Here then is what we desire and seek: pleasant pastures, the waters of quietness, and refreshment for the soul: sought out and made accessible to us by the Shepherd of Israel. And does not His Son reveal similar consolation? Jesus, the good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep, invites us: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:28).

Shepherds Crag (Photo credit: Mikey Bean)

Rest unto our souls! That is our greatest need to-day and our most fervent longing: to be free from the anxiety which so easily possesses us; to banish the sense of unrest which so frequently consumes us; to secure that contentment of spirit which so readily evades us, and which only confidence in God can inspire. If we are to secure this rest unto our souls, we must learn of Christ: and when we are truly his disciples, he takes us apart unto a desert place - far from the crowded haunts of human life - and we rest awhile with him, forgetting in his serene presence the cares and anxieties of life, and the interminable struggle of flesh and spirit; so are we strengthened for further endeavour.

Each first day of the week we are granted in a very special sense the privilege of spiritual re-creation. Christ may be "known of us in breaking of bread", as he was to the disciples of old. It is essential, however, that we should come apart from the world with its restless comings and goings, and seek to find him who has promised to be with us when we are gathered together in his name. This is no easy thing to accomplish, for we are very definitely still in the flesh, and liable to be too readily influenced by the merely human aspects of the memorial service; often we determine its success or failure by the word of exhortation. Let us remember, however, that the essential feature of the memorial service is the breaking of bread: that alone is commanded; all else is subservient to it. In that ordinance we remember Christ, learn of him, and so find rest unto our souls.

Brother F.W. Turner
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Meditations - Chapter 7 - Rest Unto Our Souls

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2013 update:

And Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
As you* are going, make disciples of all the nations, immersing* them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:teaching them to observe all things whatever I commanded you* and behold, I am with you* all the days until the end of the world.
 Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20 MLV)

And he gave some to be apostles, and some, prophets, and some, evangelists, and some, shepherds and teachers.These were done *for the equipping of the holy-ones, *for the work of the ministry, *for the building up of the body of Christ,until we all arrive to the oneness of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,in order that we may no longer be infants, tossed to and fro and carried around with every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;but be truthful with love*. We may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, who is Christ;from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through what every joint supplies, according to the working in due measure of each individual part, that makes the growth of the body to the building up of itself in love*.

(Ephesians 4:11-16 MLV)

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