Christian Living

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When Stress And Difficulties Enter Our Lives
© 2006

by

Stephen A. Peterson


It had been a very difficult day work when a tornado slammed the Oklahoma City metropolitan area taking out the power to our residential living area. Not only did the outage kill our computers and lights, it also took out our telephones and shut down the cooling and heating systems. I’m due to get off in an hour—Will I be able to get home?”

There were all sorts of complaints, fears and cries not only from the developmentally disabled residents but also from staff members. “Are we going to die? Will we have enough food if we can’t go out and get some? I’m so afraid of the dark! I can’t sleep when it’s dark!”

Within minutes of the loss of power, residents and staff all came out of their rooms and offices into the large living room and sat around complaining. Then a house manager, a bright, fearless young woman who had recently seen the musicals “Oklahoma” and Sound of Music” for the very first time began to sing the theme song and worldwide song “Oklahoma--…where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plains” followed by “My Favorite Things” from the “Sound of Music”. Even though the light was low, she handed out sheets of paper to all present along with crayons or pencils and suggested everyone make a list of things that made them feel better when they were sad or scared. Within a matter of minutes, the complaints began to subside in the face of her good nature, calm and enthusiasm. Soon virtually everyone was quickly influenced and got into the spirit of the game.

Some of the suggestions were: buy a brand new compact disk and DVD player; playing all of Elvis Presley’s music; eating as much ice cream as he/she could stand; sleeping for the whole day without being bothered by the telephone, husband or dog; having all of the chocolate she could have; watching football all day with endless supplies of pizza, hot wings and pop; going on a shopping spree for a week with an open account; walking through a field of popcorn; being on the television show “The Price Is Right” and being able to win the big prize of things and money. By roughly 11:00 PM in the evening, the power came back on. Everyone learned that they were in a great mood and eager to continue the “favorite thing game” that began several hours before. By midnight residents and staff were tired, retiring either to bed or to continue the assigned work schedules without fear or complaints.

It was not until the morning of May 4, 1999 did anyone realize the degree of damage that had occurred as a result of the May 3rd storms and the threat to life and property it had incurred not only in the Oklahoma City area but in many communities in Central Oklahoma.

Sometimes when we are in difficult situations what we need most when fear, pressure and uneasiness invade life is a little laughter and a few of our most outlandish favorite things to ease fear, discontent and stress in our lives.

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