Jesus lived one day at a time, and managed His stress on an hourly basis. He stated many times that His hour had not come (John 2:4, 7:30, 8:20).
The stress didn’t seem to affect Him until the time had arrived for Him to be betrayed. In the Garden of Gethsemane, His stress level hit its peak because His hour had come. “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood” (Luke 22:4). Luke describes a condition called hematidrosis, where sweat and blood are mingled in extreme cases of stress.
Jesus always knew He would die for the sins of the world, but you don’t see Him sweating blood every day of His life. That’s because He handled each stressful situation as it came to Him. Stress comes from handling too many responsibilities at once. In our minds, we think about all the duties that we must accomplish, and the stress becomes overwhelming. The answer is to tackle one problem at a time.
Suppose 365 toothpicks represent responsibilities for every day in a year. If you bundle 365 toothpicks together, you won’t be able to break the bundle in half. If you put 30 toothpicks together, which represents one month’s responsibilities, you won’t be able to break them in half either. But if you unbundle the 365 toothpicks and deal with each toothpick one at a time, you’ll be able to break all 365 toothpicks.
Jesus said, “So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time” (Matt. 6:34). That’s how God wants us to live. One day at a time. One hour at a time. One toothpick at a time.
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