How do I escape the pressure?  This is a question I asked myself a couple of years ago after a particularly fruitful season.  I had learned that part of our jobs as leaders is to work outside of our comfort zone.  It turns out, that as you lead outside of your comfort zone, others follow and end up uncomfortable.  When that happens there are only two choices.  Go back or press on.  In my opinion, most decide to go back.

Speaking of pressure, just recently I learned that submarines have a crushing point.  That means that they can be made of titanium but as they descend to certain depths, there is a danger that they can implode.  However, if you were to descend in one of these submarines to the bottom of the ocean and you reached the point where the craft was about to implode you could do something amazing.  If you looked out the window you would see fish- flesh and bone fish with delicate bones and circulatory systems-  swimming around perfectly fine!  How can that be?

Maybe you’re finding yourself outside of your comfort zone right now.  Perhaps you feel you’re going to implode and sink to the bottom of the sea.  Your boss is making demands that he’s never made before.  Or, maybe it’s your finances….everywhere you turn there are expenditures and it seems like everything is about to crumble.  Perhaps it’s your fiancé.  You’ve given 2 years of your life to them and there have been diminishing returns…lately you wonder if they even love you.  Or, perhaps you’re a leader and the demands have grown to an unbearable degree and in your heart of hearts you’ve thought about doing something stupid.  Hold on!

God knew life wasn’t easy, so he has good news for us during times like these!

At this time, the apostle Paul was in prison but he wrote the Colossians to remind them that God had not forgotten about them.  He reminds them that though he himself is not there physically, Jesus is…inside of them!  Alive and well!  Doing a great work!

Paul writes, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:16).

If you abandon your post right now because the pressure is getting so intense, who’s going to lead.  It took a great deal of time and patience for God to get you to this point where he can use you the way he’s using you.  If you do what you’ve been thinking about, who’s going to raise your kids?  What about your testimony?  You’ve worked so hard to accomplish what you have….the last thing you want is to have a bad ending and to be unremembered.

I may not know you, but I want you to know that I’m proud of you if you are the type of person who keeps pressing on, despite the pressure!  Yes, it’s difficult and uncomfortable, but there’s good news!

The reason fish don’t implode at great depths is the same reason submarines don’t.  They don’t implode because the surface pressure inside of them matches the pressure outside of them.

The question is, how do we maintain the pressure inside so that the pressure outside doesn’t get to be too much for us?

For some of you it may mean believing that Jesus is who he says he is, for the first time.  For some of you it may mean trusting God to do what he says he will.  But there’s more.

The answer is God does.  That’s right.  If you have reached the point where you think you’re about to implode due to mounting external pressures, you can be sure that God is doing a work inside of you to withstand the outside forces.  And the deeper you go, the more he works on the inside to help you meet the great demands.

The choice is ours.  When we are in seasons of great fruitfulness, there are going to be accompanying pressures.  So be careful of wanting other people’s lives or ministries.  The greater their success, the greater the pressure.  Rather than being jealous, why not praise God for the work he has done in them and continues to do so that they can accomplish his purposes?  Maybe he’ll do the same for you as you learn to trust him more and more.

Yes, there are things we do besides trusting God to make the pressure go away.  However, when we take these routes the only keepsakes we have are regrets and sorrow.  But, if we trust him to help us withstand the mounting pressures, our experiences will deepen and we’ll be glad we did.

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).