We all have stress in our lives. Coping with it can be extremely wearing! Fortunately, we have the example of Jesus to guide us in learning to handle our stress.
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Have A Hobby
A hobby can be anything that you love doing, just so long as it relaxes and/or invigorates you and takes your mind off the rest of your life.
Jesus, for instance, was an avid golfer. Like many executive-types, he found the sport both stimulating and distracting. That 40 days in the wilderness? He was trying to get his ball out of Judea's biggest sand trap. That time he was walking on the water? Playing through the Galilee water hazard! (Israelis take their golf very seriously!) Why else would Mark tell us "He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them" (Mk 6:48)? He was absorbed in his game. (Archaeologists have revealed that the ninth hole was near the entrance to Gennesaret.) The so-called "inner circle" of Peter, James and John were actually the men who made up his golfing foursome.
He even suggested the sport to his followers as a way to unwind from the stresses of ministry! In Mark 6:8, he sends out the disciples to preach the good news with the instruction to take nothing for their journey "except a staff." This is, of course, the best translators could do to render the obscure word meaning "5-iron." The fact that it is Mark's Gospel that reveals these things suggests that Mark or his father may have been the golf pro at the Nazareth Links.
New Testament scholar Wilde Lee Slicen suggests that Jesus' love for golf may be the reason for the odd ending of Mark's Gospel. The last word in the Greek text is "gar," which means "for." Slicen believes that Mark may have iinserted this at the end to insure readers of the resurrection. Jesus' tomb is found empty, but if you listen, you can hear him as he tees off on the greens at Jerusalem, shouting as he swings his club "For!"
Additionally, Jesus loved to fish. Why else would he have surrounded himself with so many fishermen?
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2 comments:
Be not afraid. Go scrapbook a bit.
Ah, now all the hostility from Melvin makes sense... he either was in a group that got "played through" or someone hit one into his melon patch and decided to take some slices instead of taking the prescribed strokes.
--PS at the library
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