Billy Joel wrote a song titled Pressure  that was released in the early ‘80’s. In it he writes that at some point in life you will have to learn how to deal with this, for at first things are good, and then it hits you in the face like loaded guns, you get what is called pressure, and what you feel internally must be dealt with inwardly.

Perhaps Joel was dealing with his own pressure demons of being a songwriter and providing for his family. As others tried to offer him advice, which seems he rejected, writing “here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice”, it seems he did not accept that offering.

The thought of all of us having to deal with pressure is a true one. The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it as “the burden of physical or mental distress.”

Joel writes that you and you alone must deal with it. Though he (it seems) received advice, he doesn’t offer anything in regarding how to deal with pressure and the distress of it all. I presently have some pressure to deal with myself, and the distress of it all is inwardly deafening. Though Joel says one does not know how to handle it, I have a way of dealing with pressure:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of                                           the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus  might be made manifest in our body. “ II Corinthians 4: 7-10

For the believer we have a treasure for our bodies: it is the excellency of God’s power. Through the life of Jesus and what He did for us shall be made known and understood in those who have the faith to believe in Him.  So sorry Billy, our belief system is not from Peter Pan or “some cosmic rationale’. For me experiencing the stress of caring for someone who for the past three weeks has been argumentative, not remembering at all what we have discussed numerous times, then twisting it into my not doing something at all (and adding huge lack of distrust against me) comes with a deep level of stress. But I am not in despair, not forsaken and definitely am not destroyed, because of what Jesus did for me, because of the power that lives in me. I admit, like the song Pressure says, I have never dealt with pressure like this before, but at the same time I know there are lessons I have learned, and I am sure more tests are coming for me to pass. I have someone I can go to who will provide the strength I need to continue being a caregiver, and continue living life.