I call upon your name, you deliver me from harm, in the shadow of your wings, no fear comes. I turn to You alone, Jesus You’re my guiding light. In the presence of your love, I will abide.
– from ‘Refuge’ by New Creation Worship
I recently set up an email forwarding system from my Princeton account (which will soon be shut down!) to my personal gmail account. So, everyday I get about 200 emails that are forwarded from the recesses of my archives, and as I go through them, I am reminded of a particular season in my life.
The stressful weeks leading up to CLOSER, when I was juggling a thousand activities and classes while incessantly trying to send out recruiting emails. The occasional encouragement email which would brighten up my day. The late nights when I sent out panic emails to friends to ask for their help on a problem set. The weekend when I got desperately sick and had to send emails to my professors to ask for extensions.
You really get perspective when you go through a week’s worth of emails in the span of a few minutes. What seemed huge and insurmountable at the moment is now greatly insignificant. At every season in life, there is always to be something to be stressed out (then, it was endless p-sets and impossible schedules, now it’s real life problems like visas and money) – but also things to be grateful for. It really depends how you look at it. While you think it’s impossible, a little perspective will help you realize that if you wait it out, there will be a solution. Things will get worked out, p-sets get done, essays get written, visas get processed. 🙂
So, then the real question is how are we going to steward our emotions towards these circumstances? We are not responsible for what happens to us, but we are in control of what our reaction to these situations is. Will we worry non-stop about something we have absolutely no control over? Will we fill our minds with ‘what-ifs’ that never happen anyways? Or will we say, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear”? Even though my eyes cannot see, I will step out of the boat. I will choose a reckless, inexplainable peace that surpasses all understanding. I may be going through the most crazy situation that doesn’t make any sense, but no one is making me stressed.
I choose it.
So, those are my thoughts about stress from the desk of Vivienne Tam 😉
dancing for an audience of One - 