The Power of Tension
Lately, I’ve been feeling tension in many areas of life. Maybe you’ve been experiencing similar experiences. There’s a lot going on in our world, in our nation, in our communities, and in our minds. There are so many contributing factors to the strain we’ve all been feeling and for many of us, we are wanting release.
As I’ve been praying about these factors and variables at play, I’ve been sensing the Lord speaking over me, “Get used to the tension.” At first, I was hesitant to this and didn’t want to get used to things having pressure. After all, the Lord tells us that His burden is light and His yoke is easy (Mt. 11:28-30) and that His commandments are not burdensome (1 Jn. 5:3).
But the more I dig into Scripture and the more I follow Jesus, the greater the realization I have that this journey of being a disciple of Christ is not without pressure or tension. Although Jesus’ burden is light, although we are yoked to Him, although His commands are not a burden, we realize that we are still called to carry something: a cross (Mt. 16:24-26). Everyday we are called to live worthy of the calling we’ve received (Phil 1:27), to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), and to daily practice abiding in the Vine and allowing God to prune us to bear fruit (Jn. 15).
We may feel and experience pressure, but it’s not always a bad thing. God is good at taking things that seem to be too much and turning them into something glorious. This is the message of the cross. Jesus took the weight of sin upon Himself through a Roman torture device to release the weight of glory upon all who would receive it. It was tension that led to hope and life.
Without tension, we may be missing out on something beautiful. For example, the pressure of 725,000 pounds per square inch or 2200 degrees Fahrenheit is what naturally produces diamonds. It’s not without immense amounts of force or incredibly hot climates that these gorgeous materials are created. Although the atmosphere is extreme the outcome is exquisite and the substance becomes durable.
Another example is through the stories we read in our lives. Every story is built on a plot. The plot line is usually made up of exposition (a beginning), rising action, a climax, a falling action, and a resolution (an ending). The climax of the story is the greatest point of tension or emotional intensity. The climax is the point at which the conflicts reaches its greatest height and then the turning point in the action occurs. Without a great place of tension, there is nothing resolved.
Something else that comes to mind: stringed instruments. These instruments need a lot of pressure on their strings to make sound come forth. Now not every sound that comes forth is great or on tune. In fact, this is why tuning takes place. Tuning is when stretching happens to a string with higher force to produce a higher frequency or loosening to produce a lower frequency. Without the right pressure, an instrument won’t make the right sound and will not be in the right frequency for which it was made.
Okay, last one. A bow and arrow. In order to propel an arrow with a bow and string, a vast amount of pressure is needed. This is where we get a little nerdy about physics. When you pull back on the bowstring to release an arrow, you create potential energy that is exerted into the arrow to propel it forward at a target (kinetic energy). In order to do this successfully and without injury there needs to be tension created, held, sustained, supported, and released in a number of areas including our body, mind, fingers, forearms, back, etc. In short, tension is necessary for energy to be transferred and things to move forward.
In other words, without tension, there is no beauty, no durability, no resolution, no sound, and no movement.
In our day of age, tension exists in every space we can imagine. Our goal should not simply be to resolve it immediately, but to look to the Lord in the midst of it. Our desire should be to ask His perspective about what things He is making durable and beautiful. We should be pursuing how He will bring resolution in His timing. We should be listening for the right sound and waiting for the next right move.
Our temptation is to bypass the weight of the tension for the weakness of temporary relief. And I believe I sense the Lord calling us to recognize the power of His love to transform us in the tension. I feel Him urging us to get used to the tension because it’s in these places of pressure that He is able to carry the full weight, empower us beyond what we first thought we could handle, and bring something greater out us than we can imagine.
Maybe these tense things can be tied to relationships, to workplaces, to schooling, to vocation, to waiting, to thoughts, to emotions, to opinions, or to any number of experiences in our lives. In these moments, I want to encourage you to a few practical steps.
Slow Down. All too often we try to rush out of the tension. Pump the brakes and become fully aware of the pressure. Maybe in our checking of the experience at hand, we might find it’s not as intense as we first thought, we are not alone, and we can live more fully alive even in the stress.
Invite the Lord. Many people’s first reaction is to cope through fighting or fleeing. Many others try to run to trusted folks or resources that can provide help and relief. My only question is: where on the priority list is the Lord? When do we invite God into our situations? I believe our first response should be to press into the Lord and ask for His vision, perspective, goal, will, and power to carry us through the tension.
Declare the Truth. Sometimes I hear people sweep issues under the “rug” or overlook difficult things with statements like, “This too shall pass…” Our tendency to alleviate the pressure with soothing statements is painful because it never fully helps. It can be more of a band-aid than healing. Proverbs 16:24 tells us that, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” What if we spent time becoming aware of the tension, inviting the Lord into it and asking for His Word, and then declared His Word as our response? I believe we’d have a better understanding of what the tension was about, what the Lord was doing, and what our hope is on the other side of the pressure.
This isn’t an extensive list and by no means am I saying it will work every time. I am saying that the Lord is good to us in every area of life and His invitation for us is to see that even things like tension can produce something in and through us that’s more beautiful than we could imagine. I am saying that the Father can empower us to become durable and able to stand while under pressure. I am saying that Jesus’ cross proves to us because of the tension He took on Himself we now can live in the sound of His resurrection, the movement of His Spirit, and the resolution of our souls in salvation and connection with Him.
Beloved, get used to the tension. Our God is big enough to handle it and He’s great enough to take the pressure in our lives and bring something good. To the diamonds, the songs, the progress, and the resolution in the Lord, I write. Amen.
