Stress is knowing I’ve got one week to pull off something that is way over my head and the one day I set aside to double check the functionality of everything ends up a total wash and I’m starting to think I’ve forgotten something really important but once I figure it out it will be too late and I’m going to miss three good working days next week playing a school retreat that I’m excited about but feel like I’ll be distracted the whole time and wonder if all my prep work was enough to make sure what I am responsible to get done actual does what I said it would do and costs somewhere in the ballpark of the budget I was given and wonder how much more family can handle before they drop the rock and I’m left wondering if in five years any of this will be worth it. Yeah…I’m pretty stressed.

Then I meet a random stranger who hands me my Longhorn’s To-Go order and asks me if I’m going to be leading worship this Sunday. In the short conversation we had, she told me how much she has enjoyed going to Oak Leaf, how a lot of her co-workers have jeered her for going to the “crazy church,” and how she still invites them anyway. In fact, she has even had a few change their minds after visiting with her and now also attend the “crazy church.”

What is stress? Stress is what you deal with and blow off to bring excellence to the work God has called you to do.