“Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail, and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” And he said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day until you have denied three times that you know me.”
He said to them, “When I sent you out without a purse, bag, or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “No, not a thing.” He said to them, “But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you, this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was counted among the lawless,’ and indeed what is written about me is being fulfilled.” They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” He replied, “It is enough.”
-Luke 22:31-38
Eustress or Distress
Lifting weights. You work the muscle to the point of exhaustion. When you do that, you are ever-so-slightly tearing the muscle fibers. Then, as is the custom, you rest those muscles the next day and let them recover. Those tiny rips heal, creating subtle scar tissue. In the process, those fibers get stronger. The nomenclature of the workout world is something akin to “today is a leg day,” or “today is a chest and shoulder’s day.” You toggle back and forth between muscle groups as well as between that subtle tearing of the muscle fibers and letting them heal. Tear and heal, tear and heal.
That’s how you get stronger.
There is spiritual poetry in that, don’t you think? Our instincts about such things likely tell us that we can’t really gain wisdom and resilience, in all their forms, unless we are tested, put under stress, and then allowed to heal.
Mother Kirsten Baer and I serve as chaplains at Casady School in Oklahoma City. Our Chapel program has a close-knit relationship with our school counselors, as any healthy interior life is an amalgamation of spiritual and emotional wellness. As mid-terms approach, we’ve been talking to the kids about two kinds of stress; eustress and distress. The first is the kind you want to have, those small tears in the fibers of our psyche that when they have a chance to heal make us deeper more spiritual people. The latter does the opposite, damaging our sense of ourselves and relationships.
Jesus told Peter “I am going to allow it.” He would allow Satan to sift him like wheat. I have little doubt the reality he was pointing toward was a spiritual eustress, a tiny tearing of the fibers. “And when he is finished, strengthen your brothers.”
In Advent, you are in the toggling back and forth between the allowance of those tiny tears and their healing. When you do that, you make way for the manifestation of Jesus in your life. You become wiser and more resilient, and like Peter, you will have everything you need to strengthen your sisters and brothers.
The Rev. Canon Tim Sean Youmans
Chaplain, Casady School, and St. Paul’s Cathedral
Oklahoma City, OK