I don’t know about you, but when life is easy, I generally want it to stay that way.
I long for the calm stretches. Fun, relaxation, stable job, good health.
But when I expect that life should be easy, I set myself up to be constantly frustrated and miss potential growth opportunities.
I typically view hard times as unwelcome intrusions. An injustice even. I can resist, fight, or try to control.
In our world of nice homes, abundant food, and good healthcare, it can be easy to forget that most of the world doesn’t live this way.
For this reason, I have been meditating on John 16:33 lately.
In this passage Jesus says, “I’m telling you these things so that you might have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, for I have overcome the world.”
I find these words comforting, and although this passage takes on a greater meaning for a person of faith, there is still deep wisdom here.
The Greek word in this passage for trouble is thlipsis which is more literally translated as suffering, pressure, compression, affliction, and distress. It means—being pressed in by difficult circumstances. The same word is used in other passages to describe grapes being “crushed” in the process of making wine.
It is also interesting that the Greek for “take heart” is tharseite, which is a command for courageous confidence. It means, “active courage in the face of trials.”
If this sounds naïve or overly optimistic, I reflect on how my problems turn out when I face them with despair, pessimism, or passivity.
Jesus did not frame suffering as unusual, or proof that something had gone wrong. He didn’t try to convince people that a trouble-free life was possible. Instead, he presents it as part of the human condition while pointing toward peace and hope.
Three key principles arise from this passage:
- Peace and suffering can coexist.
- Hard times are expected.
- Take heart is a command, not a suggestion.
What fascinates me is that modern psychology increasingly echoes ancient wisdom.
The idea that hardship is inevitable—and that our posture towards it matters—shows up repeatedly in new research on stress.
A stress-enhancing mindset
For nearly 20 years, psychologist Alia Crum has researched how our beliefs about stress influence health, performance, and resilience.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, Crum began identifying that people generally viewed stress in one of two ways, either harmful or potentially beneficial.
In one study she divided nearly 400 participants into three groups. The first group watched videos for a week about how debilitating stress is. The second group watched videos about how stress can be enhancing to health and performance when one is under pressure. The last group did not watch any videos.
The study showed that the information presented to the subjects strongly influenced their view of how they should be affected by stress.
In another study, people with stress-enhancing mindsets were compared to those with stress-debilitating mindsets on a public speaking task. Those with the stress-enhancing mindset showed more adaptive physiological responses that was measured by participant cortisol levels. People with the stress-enhancing mindset were also more receptive to feedback which helped them to improve more quickly.
People who viewed stress as potentially beneficial or helpful rather than purely harmful tended to:
- Report better overall health
- Have fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Report better work performance
- Show higher life satisfaction scores—even when under high levels of stress
She is definitely not saying “stress is always good.” Ongoing chronic stress or trauma is certainly harmful. But viewing stress as always bad or purely toxic can add unnecessary suffering on top of the challenges life throws at you.
Her research rather suggests that stress is inevitable, and how you interpret it can change what your body and mind do with it.
The process of making diamonds
The idea that pressure can be transformative reminds me of something I recently learned about diamonds.
Most natural diamonds on earth currently (they make some in labs now) are between one and three billion years old. Much older than dinosaurs.
They form about 100 miles underground when extreme heat and pressure (think 2,000 degrees and 50,000 times the atmospheric pressure) squeeze carbon atoms so intensely, that they reorganize into a tight repeating pattern that becomes the diamond crystal.
How do they get to the Earth’s surface you might wonder?
They are launched out through violent volcanic explosions called kimberlite pipes. Without these explosions, diamonds would stay buried forever.
And although rare, every now and then a meteorite will hit the Earth with enough force to create diamonds instantaneously.
I like to think that the story of diamonds describes the human journey.
The key ingredients in the diamond making process are heat, pressure, time, and darkness. A bleak grey substance like carbon becomes completely transformed into a shimmering impenetrable jewel, which is violently launched out of its former underground existence into the light. And the process takes a lot of time.
If you are in a season that is full of intense heat and pressure, feels dark, or lasting a really long time—I hope you find this metaphor helpful.
I can’t say I’ve mastered the stress enhancing mindset yet, or always found the peace Jesus is talking about, but I am finding the shift in perspective extremely useful when I remember that troubles are a natural part of life, and that they are required to shape me into the person I want to become.
“Under this pressure, under this weight, we are diamonds taking shape.” –Adventure of a Lifetime by Coldplay
Have a great weekend!
Parker
Resources
- Crum, A. J., Salovey, P., & Achor, S. (2013). Rethinking stress: The role of mindsets in determining the stress response.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,104(4), 716-733.
