Harried executives and overworked housewives have at least one thing in common - they are using tremendous amounts of energy. Often it is energy they can't really afford to put into the task at hand, but they feel they have no alternative and must continue the frantic pace of their lives to survive. Living requires expending energy. This is not always obvious. It is easy to see the energy spent on a game such as volleyball. There is sweating, gasping for breath, and much shouting. But even the effort spent in grief, in the form of crying and tears, uses energy. The formation of tears takes energy from the body as the tear glands are pressed into service for the peculiar production of this fluid accompanying grief. All the activities in which the body is engaged take energy to perform, and this defines one of the forms of stress. Stress is the normal wear and tear caused by living and coping with people, situations and problems. How can we know if we have enough energy to cope with today's needs? To a great degree this depends on the kinds of needs that we face daily. We meet needs by calling on one of three types of energy. This article will deal with the kind of energy called adaptation energy. According to Dr Hans Selye, probab ly the world's forem ost researcher on stress, the living organ ism is endowed at birth with a certain amount of energy or vital force. When this energy-the energy needed for adaptation to life and its stresses-is depleted, the organism dies. Thus death comes as the result of a loss of vital force. God endowed man at creation with such a large amount of vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease brought upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for nearly 6,000 years. If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with such a large amount of vital force, human beings with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would probably have become extinct. This energy or vital force is a gift from God not only to the human race at its inception but to each of us individually. Activities and factors that will hasten the loss of this precious store of energy include: 1. Continual over taxation - those who make great exertions to accomplish a certain amount of work in a given time, and continue to labour when their judgment tells them they should rest, are never gainers. 2. Poisonous drugs - these foreign and harmful substances must be eliminated if the body is to maintain health. This process of elimination requires greater amounts of energy. 3. Excessive grief - as mentioned above. According to Selye, when the vital force is expended, we die. It is possible that we are working, playing and living so hard that we are actually borrowing from tomorrow's energy stores. How important it is then, for each of us to guard stringently that most vital of all energy stores, the "vital" energy. On His way to the home of Jairus, a ruler of the Jews, Jesus was proceeding through the crowded, narrow streets, being bumped and jostled. Suddenly He cried out, "Who touched Me?" To this query the disciples answered, "Many people have touched you!" But Jesus realized that this was not an ordinary touch. It was the touch of faith that implored healing, for virtue had gone out of Him. It takes energy for even God to heal! On one Sabbath day Christ preached the sermon at the synagogue, healed a man with an unclean spirit, cured Peter's mother-in-law of a fever, taught His disciples, and, after the sun went down, healed all in the city of their infirmities (Mark 1). Certainly the Master spent a tremendous amount of energy on that day.
What He did next offers hope to all of us. That energy that created the worlds and heals the sick, that God the Creator has given to man as a trust and by which he lives his life, can be renewed. The last part of the first chapter of Mark indicates that after Christ had completed all the activities described above, He lay down for just a while, and "in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." It might appear that the most judicious thing to do after such an exhausting day would be to stay in bed as long as possible. That is probably what most of us would have done. Just why, then, did Jesus get up to pray? Vital energy is imparted to the mind through the brain and so we can actually receive more life (energy) from God by bringing our minds in contact with the Life-giver. No wonder Christ came from the sessions with His Father refreshed and invigorated.
