Stress

"The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it." Mark 4:18-19 (The Message)

I've been working on starting a college group at my church, so Man vs. Bible has been a little neglected lately. Don't worry though, if there's one thing I know how to do well, it's how to waste my time productively.
Hey. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes for a second. Calm down.
Today I wanna talk about stress. Stress is like the common cold; we all get it sometimes, we all hate it all the time, and there's no real cure. There’s big stress, like "How am I going to make it through another day without feeling happy?" or "How do I owe so much money to a company that makes hats for squirrels?"

Or there’s small stress, like "I haven't written a blog post in a long time, I hope no one is waiting on me.." (though personally, I would say don't sweat the small stuff.)

The fact is every once in a while, God likes to throw us a curveball when things seem to be going well. It's not because He likes to watch us lose sleep at night, and I promise you He doesn't. It's because He has to remind us that we're as strong as He made us in the first place.
I admit, sometimes that stress can build up and seem a little... big.

When this happens, I'lI ask God, "Isn't this problem a little big for me to handle?"

And God says, "Yes. Now go get it."

I dunno about you, but I love a good challenge, especially when I know God's got my back. So I run in head first.

Give it to God

That phrase can be pretty frustrating, because a lotta times you feel like you can't physically give your problem to God so you don't understand what it means to "give it to God." Well, I've thought about that for a long time, and the way I figure it, it means to just stop worrying.

When you worry, you either frantically try to think of ways you can solve your problems yourself, or you convince yourself that there is no solution and that it's out of your hands. What 'giving it to God' suggests is letting Him worry about it instead, because frankly, it is out of your hands. God's gonna take care of you whether you surrender your problems to His care or not, so what's the point in stressing about them?

Sometimes we just need that reminder of the truth; we are always in good hands.

Jesus calmed the seas and quieted the storms. I think he can handle a little stress (or a whole lot of stress honestly.)

P.S. I'll post a follow-up of this topic around finals week I'm sure. You know, if I get bored of studying for some reason.

In the meantime, I want to hear how you fight stress. How do you de-stress when things get heavy?

Worship

“My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul.” - Psalm 108:1

I’d like to do things a little differently with today’s post; not only are we going to have some fun with the bible, but you might just learn a little something about how to play my favorite instrument: the tambourine guitar.

(Note: There is a guitar literally three feet away from me right now and this is still the best one I can draw. Good job, me.)

Praising God is easy since there’s literally infinity million things to praise Him for, but why speak praise in a normal boring voice when you can sing it from your heart like a real champ? Worship (not to be confused with warship) just doesn’t feel like worship without music.

“God is spirit, and his worhipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” - John 4:24

I know what you’re thinking; “I can’t sing, my voice sounds like a garbage truck, or a garbage disposal, or just garbage.” WRONG. God isn’t a critic, you crazy kids. And anyway, if you’re really that uncomfortable with the way you sound, then maybe you should give the old six-string a try. (No banjos or ukuleles please.)

How To Play Guitar (Kind Of)

Chords: Now then, the only tricky part is learning how to play. Personally I’ve been playing for about five years, and every once in a while I find that learning a new worship song can be pretty simple. It’s all about finding a song with easy chords. Sometimes it’s like

Easy Chord

but then other times it’s like,

Not Easy Chord

which is hard, and makes me feel like

Not Happy

Strumming Pattern: So once you get your chords down, you gotta figure out the rhythm of the song so you can strum it. Calm down, Captain Capo, we’re not talking about any complicated solos here. Keep it basic, plain and simple up and down strumming to the beat of the song. You know what, to be honest, you can just kind of do whatever you want with strumming. Nobody will notice if you mess up. You can’t do it wrong. Seriously, go nuts.

Not that nuts.

Reading Music: I don’t know how to read music, and frankly it’s both unnecessary for learning guitar and dumb. What weirdo came up that idea, for reals? How am I supposed to know about treble clefs and arpeggios, and what the heck are “beamed sixteenth notes” anyway?!

Thinks he's so cool...

So there you have it, a very basic guitar lesson. If you ACTUALLY want to learn how to play, I don’t recommend using this “guide.” But hey, even though learning an instrument can be kinda frustrating, when you’re doing it for God it suddenly becomes a whole lot easier, or at least more fun. Besides, most Christian songs are only like 3 chords.

P.S. I don’t really have much more to say about this. If you love artists like Phil Wiggums, Chris Tomblinde, and David Crowberg (I spelled their names wrong on purpose because I think it’s funny and that’s how I roll) and find yourself singing along to some of their tunes, give guitar a try. You’d be surprised how passionate you might find yourself when you’re playing songs about God. I have a feeling He really likes music.

“Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” - Ephesians 5:19-20

-sam