Text And Context (II)

The first session of the morning was Biblical Stress Management by Dr. Steve Crain. It was a good session.

Dr. Crain really emphasized the point that stress is not a matter of whether you have stressors in your life or not, because we all do and we won't escape them until we die. But truly, stress (it's physical manifestations at least) are a direct result of how we choose to handle those stressors.

He outlined the differences between "distress" (bad) and "eustress" (good).. The first segment of his presentation was on the science of stress and the processes that your body goes through to deal with stressors. He talked about the different stages of stress and really drew a good connection between "distress" and "disease" as one directly leads to the other.

The second part of the presentation was on Biblical responses and approaches to stress. This was really good segment as we camped out mostly in the book of Philippians and substituted the word "stressors" for the words "circumstances" and "trials". I had never really looked at the book as a book on dealing with stress, but Crain drew some good things out and had a fresh approach to it.

The last segment, and by far the part that I'm the worst at, is the actual ways we can physically help how our body responds to stressors and lessen the effects of stressors on us. Things such as diet, exercise, etc. For those who know me, this was the part I probably most needed to hear but checked out on the quickest. :)

All in all, a good session that I was glad I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready to come to. I couldn't help but feel like this was the undercard for what was to come. Driscoll takes the stage in 40 minutes. Don't forget that you can watch it live.

More to come later...