If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small. (Proverbs 24:10)

I like to think I’m a strong person.  I like to think I work hard and have mental fortitude.  That I always persevere in the face of adversity and never quite.  Truth be told, I’m not as strong as I wish I were.  In fact, I face circumstances and situations that exhaust me daily.  Situations that I find myself in lacking the strength to carry on.  Sometimes it’s physical exhaustion.  Sometimes it’s mental exhaustion.  Sometimes it’s social and spiritual exhaustion.  Did you even know you can be exhausted on so many levels?

For whatever reason, we all find a point at which something breaks us.  We fail under the pressure or as other Bible translations put it: trouble, adversity, distress, or difficult times.  Projects at work, chores at home, financial strains, marital conflict, challenging kids, car trouble, health problems…the list could go on and on. When our strength fails under these pressures we usually revert to our self preservation tendencies, fight or flight.

In these times, we aren’t fighting to a solution or to work through something.  We are fighting to preserve ourselves and the little strength we have left.  We lash out, argue, become defensive, verbally and even physically.  We often frustrate and hurt those around us.  We also take flight.  To food, to entertainment, to other work, to cleaning, to sleep, even to pure exhaustion (we just increase the pace until we physically pass out).

Whether we take flight or stand and fight, the reality is we are doing so because what we have encountered is too much for us.  We have consciously or unconsciously agreed with the proverb, our strength is too small.  In doing so, we disengage from the real issue at hand and make self the new focus, the object of our defense and center aim of our exertion.  This isn’t shameful.  This is human.

So what do we do?

Get stronger so you don’t fail under pressure?  

Kind of.  I’ll explain more in my next post.  Until then, do you see these patterns in your own life?  Have you ever experienced your strength to be too small?