Spark of Faith

I have not posted here since January 1st. That is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting since I began this blog five and a half years ago. Life has a way of running away from you...and everything falls by the wayside as you struggle to catch up with it.

Yes, 2018 has been a struggle. No sooner did I post about choosing joy, than I found what it really was to practice what I was preaching, so to speak. It’s been three months of struggling with myself, people I love, and God as new norms settled in. All of which has only been accomplished by drawing closer to God.

We always quote the Bible in saying God works everything together for the good of those who love Him. Perhaps the struggle of 2018 so far is to draw me closer to God. A circumstance that didn’t pan out left me wide open to and suddenly hungry for more opportunity to serve God in a different way. Not necessarily looking for big or small ways, but instead to serve radically and intentionally, with at least one foot outside of the box and an ear to God’s lips so that I might move in obedience. I’m coming out of March with a kindling deep inside. It’s just a spark, waiting to fan into flame, but it’s intense.

Two things come to mind to share here, because they are a good definition of where I find myself. First, this short sampling of words to the Matt Redman song “Gracefully Broken” has become a mantra of sorts - an earnest prayer - in the past couple months:

“Take all I have in these hands
And multiply, God, all that I am
And find my heart on the altar again
Set me on fire, set me on fire
Here I am, God
Arms wide open
Pouring out my life
Gracefully broken”



And this photo passage from Ann Voskamp’s inspirational quote book “Be the Gift,” followed by some thoughts of my own upon reading it:

Reading this excerpt, the question that unfurls my thoughts this week - and I pass on for you to ask yourself - is: Am I desperate?

Do I “hunger and thirst for righteousness”? Do I want Him above all else...to invade my heart, change my mind, and alter my life?

Do I know that the best I can offer Him is “my broken and contrite heart”...that my life is made abundant in obedience and sacrifice.

Do I realize that I am where I am for “such a time as this”...but that all He’s made in me to give to the world comes through my communion with Him first.

Do I want it? Do I want to play my part in this Esther generation...to be the hands and feet bringing the good news through any means God asks? Am I looking for “real meat for my starved soul, dirt under my fingernails, and some real sacrifice in my veins...holy more than hollow”?

Then what am I waiting for?



I don’t know where God intends to take any of this, but I do know I’d rather not be anywhere else than in His plan. If He can bring this from the struggle of a few months time, I can’t even imagine what He will do in the rest of the year or the year after that. “All to Jesus now. Holding nothing back. I surrender.”

Guest Post: How to Interact with Teenagers in a Totally Awesome Way

Changing it up with a guest post on the blog today. My co-worker Sam recently started a humor blog called Delusions of Pretension, so I thought I'd humor him (haha) with a guest post opportunity. The man is truly comic relief in most every situation and his students and co-workers enjoy his wit. Work would truly be dull without him. So without further ado...

If you talk to anyone who’s met me, every single person will tell you how mind-blowingly humble I am.  Never once in my life have I felt the need to highlight my enviable personality or how my mere presence rejuvenates stagnant social gatherings.  Some people are the life of the party; I am the Party (like in 1984, except awesome).  I fondly remember going to a birthday party for a 100-year-old cousin of mine.  Her doctor had informed her that she would probably have a good five years to go.  After I went to her birthday party, she’s lived to be 120, and she’s still not dead.  

Being the literal life of the party is great and all, but I often feel that I’m doing the world a great disservice by not sharing all of the life-changing insight I’ve stored in my brain with as many people as possible.  Weaker minds call me an egotist or a narcissist, but that doesn’t bother me; after all, one cannot feel hatred towards the shamefully uneducated--only pure, disdainful pity.

One of my many gifts is my godly socializing ability.  Babies stop crying for weeks after interacting with me, even when they’re hungry.  Why?  Because I’ve changed their lives so much their brains have transcended normal human emotion.  But since there are other people in the world besides babies, I really shouldn’t be greedy.  

Therefore, to further change the world, I’ve decided to address the idea of interacting with teenagers while being an adult.  Despite having been teenagers at one point, adults are embarrassingly bad at reading teenage social cues.  So, to enlighten those brave enough to admit that I know more than you do, I will detail the top five ways you can successfully interact with teenagers as an adult.

1. Learn their slang: While speaking with elevated vocabulary (or “lexicon,” as we intellectuals call it) is the best manner of speaking, it can get a bit stuffy at times.  After all, even I need a break from my daily mind-expanding exercises, so simplifying my language is one way to do this.  Teenagers love this, and you’ll connect with them on such a wonderful level that they’ll look up to you for decades.  But, since I know that examples are the best teachers, I will provide a perfect example:

Wrong
Teenager: Hey, how’s it going?
You: Pretty good

Right 
Teenager: Hey, how’s it going?
You: Yo man, I’m kickin’ back and chillin’.  Gotta send a few Tweets to my peeps and drop some love to my g/f.

Anyone who tells you that doesn’t work is Communist.  And if talking that way doesn’t work for you, that’s no surprise, because you’re a Communist and shouldn’t have employees anyway, you oppressive bourgeoisie scum.

2. Be Condescending: There is a common misconception that teenagers want to be treated like real people.  How this came about I have no idea, but it’s toxic, and it’ll ruin your soul, increase the world’s temperature, and make all yourfood taste bad.  To fix this problem, use simple words, speaking very slowly so they know you’re dumbing things down as much as humanly possible.  Be sure to indicate that you’re using small words because their brains are incapable of handling anything more complex.  You may notice that a lot of them will hate you for doing this, but just ignore them.  It’s only because they’re too proud to tell you how much they really appreciate it. 

3. Let Them Do Whatever They Want: Years ago, some idiot came up with the idea of “rules.” It didn’t take long for people to realize that rules only exist to be broken.  So, rather than waiting for teenagers to get to their 20s, let them know early on that there are no boundaries, and that all rules are bad and were probably created by Hitler.  Or Communists.

4. Don’t Let Them Do Anything: This may seem to contradict #3, and it does.  But it’s okay.  Adults are never consistent, so you have to make sure you live up to that idea.  After all, it’s not like you’re going to have a major impact on their lives, so don’t worry about being inconsistent.  Better for them to learn harsh truths young than to be even more disappointed when they get older.  And it’s hilarious when they try to figure out why you let them do nothing and everything at the same time.  The best tactic is to tell them it’s a Zen technique that will open their minds so much the universe will pour into them like sewage runoff.

5. Ignore Them at Critical Emotional Moments: Every now and then teenagers will want to tell you about their “problems.” Since none of their “problems” are important(or actual problems at all), responding to their complaintswill just feed the idea that everything is about them.  They might even say things like, “But I tried really hard to get a good grade but I still got a B,” “I’m feeling really sad since my boyfriend broke up with me,” and “It’s stuffy in the attic, please let me out.” These are all teenage mind tricks.  Ignoring such baseless sentiments will make them better people and ultimately make you the most important person in their lives.

I can guarantee that if you follow these five rules, you will sculpt teenagers’ minds in ways you never thought possible.  And if they turn out badly, it’s probably not your fault at all.

Choose Joy

It just occurred to me that this is the third
time I've tattooed the word "joy" on myself.
Time to start listening.

In the first week of the New Year of 2017, I wrote a post about a word God had sunk into my heart...about accepting who I am and embracing God’s truth of being fearfully and wonderfully made. I ended that post saying 2017 was going to bring so many good things. There were good things, but overall, it turned out to be a really tough year personally. It wasn’t an easy process, allowing God to bring to the surface truths about myself; facing those truths; knowing this process was necessary to lead me to true knowledge of what it means to be fearfully and wonderfully made; and finding out that He really means for me to live in it. And that was just the emotional and spiritual inside - not including the stress of family, school, work and the things on behalf of family and friends who had some tough times hit in 2017. Even for all the hardness of it, I have to say 2017 was a good year in the end because every word, step, event, circumstance, pain, happiness, etc., that draws us closer to Christ is worth more than we can realize in this lifetime.

And as for 2018? I really wasn’t sure what to think or expect from God for 2018 until the last couple weeks, as the time and thought consuming college semester came to an end and grades rolled in. I worked so hard this past semester. In one class in particular I invested sweat and tears, sacrificed time and activities, and produced what is probably my best PhD work yet. I hit most of the major elements of scholarly research and writing - some that I hadn’t done before and others I hadn’t done well before. I improved as the semester went on and even decided on my dissertation topic based on the topic of this class and specifically the writing of this final paper that drove me crazy. Although I had started the class honestly unsure how I'd do, I ended it with actual hopes that I'd pulled off an A as I have in all of my classes so far.

My final paper grade: B

My final grade for the class: 89.3% B+ 

Note: The professor rounds to an A- at an 89.5%

My second class of the semester, which admittedly received less of my effort in my attempts to give all I had to the other, ended with a final paper grade of A- and final class grade of an A. I know, it may be hard to relate to this on the level of school or academics, but think of it this way: have you ever given something all you have, put every effort and resource into it, and still come out feeling like you didn’t do enough? The class I gave my all to failed to meet the goal, while the one I didn’t give that same effort, met the goal easily. It’s beyond frustrating. The compounded feelings of frustration, disappointment, and anger began to sink my week and all the accomplishments that went into making that 89.3% B+ happen. 

After a couple days passed and some of the emotion faded, during lunch one day the thought came to me, “Choose joy.” In this moment, you can choose to mourn something you can’t change and allow it to become bitter or you can choose to see the good in the experience and allow it to make you better. Bitter or better. I went back and reread the professor’s email comments for my presentation and paper. His presentation comments were nothing but praise for how I’d chosen a relevant topic, set up the research and scholarship, employed good examples, and concluded with an impressive twist - stating my work was worthy of PhD level. His paper comments were all constructive criticisms that will do nothing but benefit me in my writing, if I heed them. A second email response he sent told me, “You can do this....you just need to do it consistently.”

In my focus on the letter grade itself, I had blinded myself to the fact that a professor who has the absolute highest of expectations praised my work and told me that I have what it takes to earn a PhD. And I seemed to ignore the fact that he gave me what I need to improve - if I’d just work on the things he pointed out. In the end, those things matter more for moving ahead in skillful writing than a letter grade. What good is a letter grade if my skills never sharpen enough for my writing to be accepted in a dissertation or publications? I'll have the A, but I won't earn the degree.

Isn’t this how we tend to go? We focus in on one thing about our situation and react negatively because our one thing hasn’t gone right or isn't what we expected. Often, it becomes a prolonged reaction on our part. Sometimes our focus makes it worse than it actually is and, even if the situation really is bad enough on its own, we often drag out our reaction longer than needed, not allowing ourselves to make the shift needed to recover. All the while we stand blinded to the fact that we've been given what we need in the moment, if we'll let God use it to sharpen us. Don't misunderstand me, this world gives us plenty to react to and allowing feelings of general disappointment, sadness, mourning, etc., are healthy, but we can't live there. Living there dampens and eventually snuffs out the goodness of life God has given, namely Himself. If we’d refocus we’d recall God’s promise to work all things to our good, see all He’s given us to move forward with, and choose to allow that joy to come alongside our grief.

JOY - second only to Love as a fruit of the Spirit

I'm not talking about happiness, which comes and goes with feelings and circumstances. Joy cannot be defeated or replaced by anything else, unless we allow it. Joy sits within us in hard times and buoys our spirits as much as it does when all is right with the world. Joy is an essence - a fruit - of the Holy Spirit (Galations 5:22-23). Where the Spirit of Lord is, there are a number of things, but one of them is joy. The end of Nehemiah 8:10 says, "...the joy of the Lord is your strength!” Do you have Jesus? Then you have the reason and strength for joy!

"When we lay the soil of our hard lives
open to the rain of grace and let joy
penetrate our cracked and dry places,
let joy soak into our broken skin and
deep crevices, life grows. How can
this not be the best thing in the world?
For us?" Ann Voskamp

I know - that's all well and good for something small like grades, right? In deeper, emotionally charged, and/or more personal matters this concept proves more difficult, but just as all encompassing. James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." It says a lot about God's grace that He starts the lesson small before applying it to the gaping wound you assume (or pretend) has healed. A couple days after I started thinking "choose joy," a centerpiece of my past came before me...a centerpiece because I've made it so. The past year God has shown me that I reference who I am and what I'm worth by major failures in my past. I've been living off of mistakes God forgave and redeemed right before my eyes over the past twenty years. And now I know I can't ignore this any longer...when confronted with any of it, I must choose joy. It is in choosing joy - and His strength that lies behind it - that I give ultimate praise to God and persevere. It is in this perseverance that I will ultimately see my heart transformed. 

A hard road? Yes, but as my pastor/mentor/friend Christian told me, "The Lord is always more concerned with the PROCESS than the PAYOFF, because in the process we become more like Him. The payoff is a promise, but it is what happens to us in the process and how we use it as an opportunity to minister to others and bless the Lord that truly is an offering of love to Him." Are you in a process of some sort? Maybe you've been there awhile or maybe it's just begun. Either way, it's never too late to persevere. To choose joy.

In this New Year, let the thoughts we seem to reserve for Christmas stay with us. God gave the greatest gift of all: His only Son, Jesus. We speak that line in this season often, but do we know what that entails? If we have nothing else, we have Jesus. He alone is reason enough to choose joy. The only question is, will we do it? When the tough moments hit, will we stop - lift our eyes, hands, and hearts in a prayer of supplication - and choose joy? Because ultimately, choosing joy is choosing Jesus.

What You Need

Aunt Loretta...literally gave all
she could and then some.

This morning I found myself sitting in a church pew trying to share about my recently passed Aunt Loretta to my younger two children. They had met her a few times, mostly when they were younger, but physical distance and time trickled by without them getting to know her. The collages of pictures gave a visual, but I was trying to capture the essence of who she was.

I filled them in on all we did with her as kids. Christmases at her house a pile of presents awaited you and you were allowed to eat all the cookies you wanted. She took us to wander down Santa Claus Lane, looking at toys and decorated Christmas trees at Kraynaks every year as well...we always left with a bag of candy in hand. The circus, sleep overs, games, and all the pop and TV you could want. The time and attention she gave...when you were with her you knew you were loved. 

And as I'm sharing my memories of my aunt with my kids, I hear myself say, "She was more like our grandma than our aunt." 

Here's the thing...my paternal grandparents, born in the early 1900's, passed away within two years of each other in the early 80s, both gone by the time I was four. Growing up I always felt it wasn't fair to not have the opportunity to know them, as our older cousins all did. Seeing pictures and hearing stories, I always felt my sister, brother, and I had missed out.

Sitting in that church pew I realized - or maybe re-realized something - in a very real way. God doesn't always give you what you want, but he always gives you what you need. If I needed a grandma growing up, God had it covered - my Aunt Loretta was it. She was a grandmother to my siblings and me in every way. And for the first time I felt a genuine peace about missing out on my grandparents.

So if you're feeling this way - that someone or something isn't in your life as should be, a sense of loss or missing - stop and pray for eyes to see and ears to hear. Clarity to see that God will/has provide(d) all you need, not only in Him, but also in other ways and people around you. We just need to continue to hand it over to Him, be expectant, and have eyes that see and ears that hear His provision in our lives. 

Divine Direction - A Review

Source: Goodreads

Divine Direction: 7 Decisions That Will Change Your Life by Craig Groeschel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received this egalley from the publisher via NetGalley for consideration of a review.

Divine Direction by Craig Groeschel is perfect encouragement for those facing a hard season or those who have hard changes facing them. The book is based on the premise that, "Direction, not intention, determines destination." Every choice you actually carry out is what determines the direction your life heads in. And that's an accumulation of the numerous small choices more than the fewer big ones.

Groeschel asks us to consider a few things in determining our direction - all are based on God's plan for our lives. First, is there something you need to stop doing? "What are you doing today that’s not good for your story? Do you have some habit, a mindset, an addiction, an attitude, a thought process, something in your life that’s hijacking the story you want to tell?" You need to make the decision and take the steps - one at a time - to stop that thing and change your direction.

Is God calling you to go or to start something? Usually if God is calling us to something, it feels a little out of our league. Groeschel points out that "Maybe you’re thinking, I just don’t think I have that kind of faith. I for sure don’t have the faith to finish something like what he’s calling me to. Then I have great news for you: you don’t have to have the faith to finish; you only have to have enough faith to start. You need only enough faith for one step: that very first one." One step at a time is all it takes to move forward and God takes care of the rest. And God will even give the strength to make that one step at a time.

And possibly, is God calling you to stay where you are - stick it out? It could be a job you dislike, a difficult relationship, a project God called you to but has become harder than you thought, etc. It would be so easy and a relief to just leave the circumstance, but in staying, "After some time has passed, maybe you’ll be looking back, reflecting on your story, and you’ll realize that even though you didn’t know it at the time, God was using that very thing that you hated to rewire you, to change you, to transform your life." Being called to stay can bring about change as much as being called to go.

Listening to God's call to Start, Stop, Stay, and/or Go is the key. Groeschel also discusses his own life examples to these points and more, including how he and others have drawn near to God to hear from Him. Packed full of great advice, points, and reasoning, Craig Groeschel's Divine Direction brings the perfect mix of encouragement to face the giant at hand in your life.

Small Beginnings

So I used a chainsaw today. It wasn't planned ahead. My husband and I had dropped off furniture to a friend's parents, had brunch, and pulled into our driveway talking about chopping leaves with the mower and the homework I still had to finish. Maybe it was the homework talking, I don't know, but looking into the backyard I said, "I want to cut down a tree."

Our yard is bordered along one side and in the back by a farm. All that separates us from the animals in the pasture (usually horses right out back) is a simple electric fence and a swatch of mostly dead trees, vines, high grass, and brush. In other words, a mess. And I had the sudden urge to take a chainsaw to the mess, creating a beautiful view of the horses.


Easier said than done. Once we got to it, we found that a lot of the tangled mess had briars and needed removed first to even get to the trees. A cut tree didn't necessarily fall because it was held up by the others around it. And under all those briars, high grass, and brush, lay plenty of heavy, already fallen trees that needed chopped up and removed. And once anything was uprooted, it took a bit of work to chop it all up and discard it to the woodpile or fire pit. In the end, of the whole expanse of the backyard, we invested four hours and had one tiny cleared corner to show for it...and that was just the trees!

Easier said than done...isn't that how it usually is? But does that make it not worth starting? Zechariah 4:10 (NLT) says, "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin..." Think back to anything you've accomplished. Now, where or how did it start? To begin my current eighteen year journey of motherhood, it took nine long months and seventeen painful hours that seemed they would never end. My current place in a PhD program required that first step onto a college campus as a 17-year-old undergrad, twenty years ago. Our wonderful, dream, blessing of a house was a gutted, unlivable, foreclosed mess just over a year ago, that took four months of sweat and tears (literally both of those) to make it HOME for the rest of our lives to come.

And God nudges me in the observance of that small, cleared corner, "Isn't it the same with your heart?" He reminds me of my discoveries of my own heart - a mess much like what lies at the back of my yard. Things have died and fallen and rotted, and other stuff has grown over top and feeds from the decay below. A mix of briars holds it all solidly in place. Slowly He's revealed the top layer; but, much like the dead, fallen trees under the brush, with one layer revealed and removed, another is discovered. It's a convoluted mess in there, no earthly light at the end of this tunnel.

The line of dead vegetation extends down the length of my yard. Four hours. One small corner. Is the beginning too small? Is my time wasted? A horse comes to the water bucket...I can now see her approach and watch her drink from my house because the entire corner is clear of debris. And the answer comes to me, "God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful" (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

Where was your heart this time last year? Three years ago? Five? Ten? Twenty? Twenty years ago I was an 18-year-old kid living for myself and facing the consequences. Ten years ago, I was a mom of three little kids, surviving the days as they came, but doing all I could, slowly building that relationship with God seriously for the first time. Five years ago, my heart had been flipped upside down with a realigned identity, deliverance, and new God perspective. Three years ago, my heart was on the verge of hearing and seeing God like never before. Almost exactly this time last year, God gave me a small glimpse of a future calling. A small beginning twenty years ago has led me to this point and now a new small beginning starts.

The fact of the matter is, we cannot effectively head into our futures and the callings God has for us without His refining fire. Change is hard and often painful, but He brings it in the best timing and for the best purpose. We wield our chainsaws (kinda like a modernized Sword of the Spirit, right? ) and trust that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to see it finished (Philippians 1:6). That mess? God will take the small beginning you offer up in obedience, and He will help you clear it away. Before you know it, time will have passed and you will stand gazing in wonder at the beautiful view of the horses.

Do not despise small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin...and so should we.

Live in the Plural

Source: Crown and Cove

A couple weekends ago I had a number of bad days in a row. Two errant thoughts/feelings from the week grew inside my head on Thursday, torturing me as I focused on them. So when Friday came around and work I'd done for my classes needed redone through no fault of my own I sank further into the pit. That Saturday brought hours of wasted time, as I worked on a PhD project using the wrong topic...initially missing the side note I'd added in class that week to clarify the requirements. I would have to start all over. By dinnertime on that Saturday I realized I hadn't really been in touch with anyone outside of my immediate family for three days. And even at home, I'd hidden away to avoid anything but my misery. And I thought, bad days happen, but what could I have done to avoid going on for days in misery and withdrawal?

I'm big on transparency and learning from each other - even if it's just among a small gathering or a few friends. So, on our FB group page, I asked the ladies of my church for their input on the following situation: "You know those times you've held it together through a few things gone wrong in a few days' time, but then there's one more thing that goes wrong and it's one thing too many. And really crying - or at least throwing a fit - seems like the best option. But the problems are still there afterward...So where do you go from there? What are the things you think, read, say, and do that help you get back on track?" Myself and a few ladies responded with the following:

• Sometimes when we hit a bad day or thing we think we'll just push through and don't know there is possibly more [bad days or bad things] to come. So it's best to pray and be still about a "bad" day or situation immediately. Sometimes it's just that one thing that makes the rest look as bad as they do...and sometimes that first thing isn't even as bad as we think in the moment. Being still before God realigns us.

• We tend to push ourselves to hold it together and then we really lose it. Attitude is the first thing to go! Try to recognize what is happening and do some positive self talk to deal with it and not let it build up.

• It builds up because we try to keep everything in. We need to talk about what's going on out loud and get it all out and rest.

• After throwing a fit - cause sometimes that just happens - say out loud "Ok Lord, I can't fix this alone so you need to help me." Acknowledging out loud that we can't fix the issue and giving it to God then and there is needed because we know we can't fix it, but hold onto the possibility that we can anyway.

These make sense and I see the use of all of them, so I wanted to share the collective wisdom of my friends in helping to relieve bad days and situations that get out of control. While I've collected their advice and pondered the way "bad days" get out of control in the couple weeks since my bad weekend, I came across another amazing help in such situations - this one more of a prevention than a cure. This past weekend I attended Ohio Ministry Network's Time Apart (a women's conference) in Columbus, Ohio. We had an amazing speaker on Saturday, Dr. Alicia Britt Chole, who spoke from her various writings, among them newly published The Sacred Slow. She and her husband have spent thirty years mentoring people in growing deeper roots in their walk with God. And her final point of the afternoon on Saturday hit home for me on this topic I'd been writing and thinking upon.

Her last point was simply titled "Live in the Plural." She says that when it comes to self-talk (conversations we have with ourselves - about ourselves - in our heads), we need to shift from thinking "I" to "we." In theological reality, we are never alone. We say that God is always with us; therefore, it is never an "I" who is doing and thinking, but a "we" - Jesus and I. Dr. Chole states that, "Every moment of every day is a moment to abide in Jesus. You need to think and live as we - 'Jesus and I.'"

Her point in this is that such thinking will affect how you talk about yourself and others when Jesus is involved. We may not have a problem looking in the mirror and saying, "I look so ugly today." But, as believers, if we are thinking and living in the plural, we find it difficult to say, "Jesus and I look so ugly today." We have no problem looking at others and thinking, "What is her problem?" But if we are thinking in the plural, it becomes more difficult to criticize by thinking, "What is her and Jesus' problem?"

That weekend when I realized I'd have to redo my work I was thinking, "My time is wasted and I don't know how I'll find time to redo it." If my mindset had been "we," the thought would have been, "Mine and Jesus' time is wasted and I don't know how either Jesus or I will find the time redo it." And at that moment, it would've all turned around before getting out of control. I mean really, is Jesus' time ever wasted and is it impossible for Jesus to find the time to redo something? Thinking in the plural in that moment would've turned me to Jesus immediately, lifting up my problem and moving on. (As it turns out, on Monday I had an idea to fix my problem and a co-worker in charge of the new program helped me fit my work into the new format required. No real extra work or time required. All that fret and the following days of misery for nothing?)

Live in the plural! Jesus is always with you and so nothing you think, do, or say is on your own. Placing Jesus directly alongside you in your every thought, word, and deed is a good way to do as His Word says in Romans 12:2 to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Cures are good, they are needed, but isn't prevention the best course to take when we can?!