Stress, Anxiety, and other Joy-Killers

Here are the events of the last two weeks. 1) Amanda and I got a new puppy who keeps us up at night and pees all over are carpet. 2) We discovered a leak in the hallway of our new apartment. 3) Maintenance proceeds to tell me they can't find anything wrong, so they are going to wait until it gets worse. 4) It gets worse 5) We begin experiencing problems with our electricity. 6) Maintenance comes back with plumbers who probably lack legal documentation. 7) These plumbers proceed to put a few holes in our hallway wall only to tell me they do not know what the problem is. 8) The plumbers return the next day with a jackhammer 7) After tearing up a little concrete beneath our carpet (which had been torn up in a section of the hallway) they discover it isn't the pipe they thought it was. 8) An epiphany hits one of them and they finally discover that the shower pan is cracked and needs to be replaced. 9) Great...at least they know what the problem is. 10) Problem...our shower is a tile shower. 11) As of right now there is a sheet-rock guy at the apartment patching holes in the laundry-room, hallway, and my closet. 12) At some point today the plumbers are to return to begin work on the shower.
To tell you the truth, this is really the first time that I have been able to laugh a little at the entire mess. Over the past couple of weeks I have been a total and complete stress case. Interestingly enough I have found this stress resulting from my own fear and worries about what will happen next. On Wednesday nights I have been going through the book of Daniel with our youth group. All throughout the book it is evident that the theme of Daniel is God's Sovereingty. In fact, I have challenged my students to yield their worries and anxieties to a God who is strong enough to preserve the lives of Daniel and his friends in life and death situations. Yet here I sit with my insides tied in triple and quadruple knots wondering and worrying about what will happen next. Am I even listening to the messages I am preaching?! God is sovereign, and He is faithful to His promise that He makes in Philippians 4 of providing the peace of God in place of our anxious thoughts. We just need to yield and get out of His way.