I have no scientific evidence but it is my opinion that more leaders have their health fail or they die from the effects of stress in their life than any other cause. It is proven that stress causes our blood pressure to go up, our heart rate to increase and our muscles to tighten. Dr. Rodney L. Copper in his book Shoulder to Shoulder defines stress as “The response of the sympathetic nervous system to a perceived or actual threat…The technical definition (of stress) won’t mean much to you. Basically it says that stress is the way our body responds to perceived or actual danger…Stress isn’t the cause (of the bodily changes i.e. blood pressure, etc.) but the effect.” Read 1 Samuel 17:24-40 and 18:1-6.

Stress certainly describes what happened to Saul before and after the Goliath incident.” Saul cowered in fear with his men each day when Goliath issued his challenge. Goliath was real and the fear of death at Goliath’s hand was real and that would be enough to cause stress, but Saul felt the extra pressure of being the leader who let fear paralyze him. Later, after David had killed Goliath and the people reacted to David, Saul felt the perceived fear that the people would put David on the throne or that David would forcefully take the throne. Read more »

God’s example helps leaders know when to work and when to rest. Read Genesis 2:1-3.

By His very nature, God does not get tired so when he established a time on the seventh day to rest, it wasn’t to recover physically or emotionally from hard work. God had been fully absorbed in the work of creation and yet when He saw the work was complete “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” God rested to establish the example of rest and an example of taking a moment to appreciate a job well done. Read more »