Sometimes it can be a really interesting exercise to hear a sermon about an issue that you have made some progress on in your life. You get an opportunity to take stock, and to recognise where God has worked, and on where the influences in your life have made significant impact. It’s certainly not that often that I really sit up and take notice of what God has done in me, unless I’m prompted by someone else saying that they’ve recognised a change.

So it was with great delight that I took in Christina’s talk on Sunday morning, when she came all the way down from Ranges, to speak on worrying. She spoke, as you would probably assume, on the passage from Matthew 6:25-34 about not being able to add a day to your life by worrying and the birds have food and nests, and flowers look nice…. you know the deal (or can at least check it out here).

But this is certainly an area in my life where I’m not the same as I once was. I left school as an absolute stress head, I’m sure. I was putting my brain to very good use – thinking up every possible thing that could ever go wrong anywhere and then getting hung up on how it was going to happen….. you get the idea. And I can remember vividly, being prayed for at around about that time and having a word spoken over me that I ws to become less of a worrier and more of a warrior. (which is a little bit nicer in print to understand than it is when someone’s telling you that).

And God has certainly done that in me. Not to say that I don’t still worry a lot more than I should – a good percentage of my posts on here are the tormented ramblings that go to prove that – but there is certainly much less of the panic instinct in me. I’m sure part of that has to do with working with teenagers – if you worried about everything they could do wrong your head would explode – half the time you can’t even afford to worry about the things that they DO do. And pareticularly being “apprenticed” by one of the most unstressing people I have ever met – AJ. But there’s no doubt that God has been working on me to do what he has promised to do. So you’ve gotta praise him for that!

Well, well, aren’t I upbeat today!