The Finnish YouTube channel “Hydraulic Press Channel” has more than 3 million subscribers and a simple concept. They crush things. It might be pieces of metal, a bowling ball, a bag of skittles, or almost anything else you can imagine. The press is turned on and you watch as the pressure become so great that the object is destroyed, and deformed. With almost 600 million views across their channel, it’s proven to be popular among a wide audience.
Everyone knows the feeling of pressure, that experience of being pressed down on from all sides until it feels like we can’t take it anymore. Perhaps that’s why so many have felt catharsis watching these videos. Stress, anxiety, and fear are universal human emotions that everyone can identify with. Christians are not immune from any of these pressures. Leading churches, families, ministries, schools, and businesses can create so much fear and worry about the unknown. Thankfully, Christians have Scripture to turn to that calms our mind right at the moments when fear seems the greatest.
The Apostle Paul wrote about how pressures and trials come against believers in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.
The words of Paul tell us that pressure is going to come, but the promise also says no matter how great the pressure, we will survive it. That’s why Christians should stand out in the world with the message that we will make it through. The message of the cross is that Christ has already endured the worst of what we could suffer, and that He bore it on our behalf.
Through His death on the cross and resurrection, Christ has already defeated it all.
Everyone feels like they just can’t go on or that they just want to give up. The message of the Christian life is not that pressures aren’t real, or that things aren’t as bad as they seem. The message of the cross is that God will get us through, no matter what the situation.
Thank you, Luke