Today was one of those days where, even though nothing went wrong, stress managed to keep piling up. And as I reached the end of this slowly stressful day, and all of those individual stresses were adding up into one big knot in my stomach, I managed to save over the wrong file and I lost a document I’d just spent about an hour and a half working on.

At that point, I was starting to feel a little bit of despair. I would now have to go home, work on this work project in my free time at home just to finish it up on time, and that would end up pushing back a personal project I’m already working on in my free time.

As I walked in the door of my house, I wasn’t sure what I should even do next. It seemed that, no matter what action I took, it would culminate in some sort of stress for me. I mean, the rest of the day had gone that way, so why would it change now?

And for whatever reason, I decided that my next step, before I did anything else, was going to be reading my Bible. I figured it was the only possible thing I could invest my time in that wouldn’t end with me feeling worse about things.

I was right. I didn’t find the “perfect verse” to help me relieve my stress or anything like that. I wasn’t blown away or amazed by the two chapters I read in Isaiah. There was nothing about reading my Bible (this time) that totally rocked my world off its axis.

But it did help me clear my head. And I think that might be what God was going for this time. He doesn’t always have to rock us to the core to have an impact on our lives. Sometimes He just wants to remind us he’s there.

So thanks for being there, God. And thanks for being a blessing, not a stressing. (I know stressing isn’t a noun, I really just wanted that to rhyme.)

If you’re feeling stressed about something, open up your Bible. You might not find that “perfect verse” it seems like people in stories and sermons always manage to find, but you might be surprised at what you do find in there.

-Mike

Photo by Baer Tierkel. Thanks Baer!