Ziggy Stardust

Unless you were living under a rock you heard the news of David Bowie’s recent death. In case you were under a rock, Bowie (also known as Ziggy Stardust), the equally eclectic and eccentric rock and roll star passed away after a battle with cancer.

Reading through Bowie’s career and achievements, I was reminded me of the collaboration he did with the band Queen – Under Pressure. While the song was famous in it’s own right, it spiked again in the 90’s when Vanilla Ice sampled the famous bass line in his song, Ice Ice Baby.

But enough about rappers turned Amish house-flippers…back to strange, English rock stars.

Under Pressure is about the weight on people, and what it causes in society:

Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure – that building burns down, splits a family in two
Puts people on the streets…

Pressure

They’re right. Pressure destroys lives. It comes from all sides – job, relationships, finances, lack of confidence, school, health, and pressure comes when we least expect it. When it comes, it presses down, down, down.

The press is crushing; what do we do about it?

If the song holds the answer, we give love a chance. Sounds good in a song, but it never seems to work out so cleanly in day-to-day life. Love – perfect and true love – is the answer. But how often do we have that type of love? In fact, many times love serves as the source of pressure in our lives.

If love isn’t the answer, what do we do with the press?

Maybe the answer isn’t what we do about pressure, but how we think about it.

Mature and Well-Developed

James was a half-brother to Jesus. He wrote one of the books of the bible – aptly named, James. According to James, we’re to consider pressure a gift. James refers to it as tests and challenges, and he says tests and challenges define our us. Challenge exposes our true selves to the world. That’s a good thing.

Best of all, tests mature us.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  -James 1:2

What do we do with pressure? We accept it…embrace it. We use it to grow up. We allow it to form something greater in our lives – character. It’s not fun, but challenge creates you into a person you want to be.

So next time you encounter a test, face a challenge or come under pressure, hum that famous bass line – ding-ding-ding diddle ing-ding – smile and know you are developing. Your character is being formed. You are another step closer to the person you want to be.