Pressure

And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28).

I learned something about pressure yesterday, and I learned it from a plumber named John (you can find him in the phone book under “John the Plumber.” No kidding.). John was in our home to clean out some slow drains. While engaged in that task, his diagnostic skills kicked in as he listened to various sounds from the plumbing fixtures in our bathroom. “You’ve got too much water pressure in your house. I’ll check that before I leave.” I was skeptical. That sounded like one more little thing for John the Plumber to do and thus charge me for.

I took John to the basement where he hooked up a small gage to some kind of knob on my hot water heater (forgive my ignorance of technical terminology). He showed me the reading – 120 pounds per square inch. He then showed me a pipe in my basement that supplies water to the house. On it is a device called a “pressure regulator valve” – or “PRV.” That piece of equipment clearly indicated that it was designed to regulate pressure to somewhere between 25-75 psi. My PRV had quit working. It was not doing what it was supposed to do. There was far too much water pressure in my home. John the plumber explained that eventually this level of pressure would take its toll on something in the house – a washing machine line, the kitchen sink, the line to the refrigerator. Something with water in it would burst, and it was a question of when, not if. The pressure was too much for the house to bear for long.

If in no other way, here is how people and houses are alike. Intense pressure soon will take its toll. In houses pipes burst and people have their own way of doing the same thing. We vent anger at people who don’t deserve it, usually children or a spouse. Sometimes we don’t vent at all. We shut down, shut out, pull within ourselves. Maybe we work harder, move faster. Sadly, we may choose to regulate the pressure with some other defective measure – a little more drinking, a little more mind numbing television. The truly unnerving thing about the water pressure in my house was that I thought everything was fine. Pressure can build without our knowing it, and this means we can easily ignore it.

The way to fix a faulty PRV is not by eliminating all the pressure. The water isn’t really the problem. In fact, no pressure in the pipes means no clean clothes, no showers, no dishwasher, no sprinklers. The absence of pressure is not good. Astronauts in space workout daily so that zero gravity will not destroy muscle tone. A string on a guitar that is absolutely free of tension will never make music. Seeking the removal of pressure isn’t the answer.

What we need is a good PRV - a way to regulate and harness the pressure that’s there. Pressure rightly controlled can do powerful things. The apostle Paul, in a moment of genuine transparency, admits his own experience of pressure and anxiety. The pressure came from seeing people come to faith in Jesus, gathering them into small congregations, putting leaders in place, teaching them, and then moving on. Paul’s concern for these churches was parental in nature and he lived with a constant sense of pressure for their well being and their progress in the faith (see 1 Thessalonians 2).

Paul didn’t respond to the pressure by getting away from it all. In fact, the passage in 2 Corinthians 11 shows him intensely engaged: hunger, prison, beatings, constantly in danger. High pressure to say the least. What regulates the pressure? What keeps Paul from caving in or cracking up? The answer is grace. Paul embraced the pressure, and he knew his limitations. His own weakness, his fragile self, was the key to discovering the power of grace in his life. Paul lived every day on the strength of this promise: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).

In another letter Paul said that where sin abounded, grace abounded even more. Where there’s plenty of sin, you’ll find enough grace to cover it. The same is true for pressure. Where there’s a lot of pressure, no matter its source, there’s enough grace to cover it. It’s God’s PRV. And it never quits working.