Is it possible that this simple (2,000-year-old) method for handling stress could replace all those expensive, “meditation apps, massage therapy, breathing exercises, yoga classes, etc.?”
Rebecca Heiss, author of a recent Wall Street Journal article headlined, “I Study Stress. This Cure Surprised — and Helped — Me,” thinks so.
“These (the above listed meditation apps, etc.) aren’t wrong,” she writes, “but they rely on the individual to solve their own stress.
“In reality, these tools can sometimes exacerbate the problem, as people see their failure to self-regulate as proof there is something broken or wrong with them.”
Heiss observes, “A study of workplace interventions to reduce stress, published in Industrial Relations Journal in 2024, revealed a startling truth: Of the 90 different stress-reduction strategies tested in corporate settings, which included meditation, massage and breathing exercises, only one consistently mitigated the negative effects of stress: serving others.
She concludes: “In a world obsessed with self-optimization and individual wellness solutions, the most radical act might be the simplest one: noticing when someone else needs help and then providing it.”
Surprise, surprise! These contemporary experts are finally catching up with what the Bible has been saying all along. He who lives only for self is on a fool’s mission.
Why Servants Are So Rare
We all have a knee-jerk reaction to the notion of dying — dying to self that is. But living for ourselves can cost us dearly.
Jesus put it this way in John 12:25-27, “The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
“These tools can sometimes exacerbate the problem, as people see their failure to self-regulate as proof there is something broken or wrong with them.”
Rebecca Heiss
Another issue is divided loyalties, as explained in Luke 16:13-14, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were ridiculing Him.”
Highest Calling
The Apostle Paul ought to know. Here was his “job description” in 2 Corinthians 4:5 after being saved by Christ, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants on account of Jesus.”
Then — in 2 Corinthians 6:4-5 — he really upped the ante, “… but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in difficulties, in beatings, in imprisonments, in mob attacks, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger …”
In our 2025 modern lives, we are not likely to face Pauline-level trials, but we can often experience ungratefulness, being taken advantage of, resistance to our help, etc.
But not to worry, even “… a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
Good Company
As you contemplate living the life of a servant, remember you will be in good company, From Philippians 2:6-8:
“… who, as He (Jesus) already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”
What is good for our Master is good for His servants.
As Matthew 20:28 shares, in the Kingdom the way up is often down, “… just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
And from Luke 22:26-28:
“… the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”
God is calling believers to voluntarily relinquish the throne of their lives and put Christ in their place.
It can be pretty humbling — we’ll no longer be No. 1 — but oh, what a ride!
How About You?
Bottom line, to deal with stress, all you have to do is surrender your life to God and live out your ultimate purpose, that of serving Christ and your fellow man. Are you ready for that?
4-1-1
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