Working Anxious and Afraid

• It’s natural for all of us to experience seasons of anxiety, chronic stress, and insecurity, and the church is a place where we can be honest about those challenges.
• Anxiety can manifest through both mental and physical symptoms, such as losing confidence, inability to sleep, isolating, feeling trapped, and more.
• While there is no silver bullet for “fixing” anxiety, being vulnerable in biblical community, talking to a counselor, and inviting others into his situation were helpful factors for Tom to navigate his emotions.

• Exodus Sermon: The Red Sea
• Exodus Sermon: Bread from Heaven
• The Four Spaces of Anxiety
• Anxiety, Reactivity, and Emotional Freedom

Anxiety is not necessarily as a result of some sort of particular hardship. It is just a lot for me was how I was processing things and ultimately what I was identifying with. And I will say to you, I think a big part of this is the Lord was using that anxiety right? Need to stir up a bunch of stuff that I needed to deal with.

Well, hey everyone, and welcome back to the Grace Church Podcast. I'm your host, Whitney and Scotts here too on this rainy Thursday morning. Scott, good to see you. Hey, good morning, Whitney. Good morning. And a goal for this podcast is just life is happening to all of us and God just uses that to transform us.

So we want to translate some of the biblical principles that we talk about on a regular basis and show how they have real life application. So we have someone in the studio today who will just give an example of what God has been doing in their life. Not that he has mastered it by any sense in the process is still ongoing, but there's just something special that happens when we share stories of what God is doing in our lives.

So our guest today is Tom Price from our Harrison Bridge campus. Welcome, Tom. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, we're glad to have you. And go ahead.

Just tell us a little bit about yourself, how long you guys have been at Grace. Family, job, serving roles, any hobbies you got, just all the things. All the fun stuff. All the fun stuff. Yeah.

So we, my wife Stacey and I have been married for 25 years. We have been at HB since 2014. We were OG Younce Center folks.

So I feel like we've kind of grown up with HB. We've been fortunate to be there this whole time and. If people don't know younce center was the. First, the first place that we met, yeah, HB met when we were still called Golden Strip, yeah. At downtown Fountain Inn, right? That's right.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So which? That is our G. That is, and a lot of people don't know that we that our building actually is in Fountain Inn.

Now. We feel like we're in Simpsonville, but we are as Fountain Inn. So a large part of who we are and our family identity is because of our membership at HB.

And so we just have enjoyed the blessing of growing up at that campus. We've got three boys, our oldest 2. Sam and Jack are students at Clemson. Sam's going to graduate this year in May and Jack is continuing to matriculate well there. He's in living his best life. And then there's a five year gap and we got Charlie at home.

So we're in the college life and the middle school life every day, which is a super challenging, but it keeps us young. Stacy and I both serve at HB. Stacy's in the worship band and has been has sung there for a long time. I have done a number of different things in, you know, at the campus, but currently I'm serve as a forge coach, which I really enjoy. I've enjoyed serving in student ministry a lot. I think Holden asked me to do that just cause I've got Gray in my beard.

But whatever you know, it's. The coaching aspect means you're overseeing other leaders, is that right? Yeah, I have kind of oversight for right now. I have oversight for 9th and 12th grade leaders.

And so I kind of pursue them, but then also pursue the students at the same time, which is just an amazing life giving kind of service that I'm able to do. And I really, really enjoy that. And then most recently when we stood up our Mosaic student adult worship service, I've been on the teaching team for that. And it's amazing teaching, you know, a group of a room full of students and, and adults that have special needs. It creates a new challenge.

But I've really enjoyed that teaching. So it's been a lot of fun. So the past year for you, just some change that have come and just really that God has been shaping you've been forming you through that.

So I mean, the question is just what has God been teaching you recently in this past year? Yeah, so as I mentioned just a minute ago, job journey has been an interesting, you know, part of what God has been teaching me over the last year. But I spent 21 1/2 years with PepsiCo Food Service, which for those of you who don't know, it's all the good stuff, Frito Lay, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, all the fun stuff. And we would sell those products through a distribution network to a bunch of different operators, hospitals, KT 12, college, university, all that stuff.

And so really, I kind of grew up in the food service industry, food service sales, and I did that for, for a number of years. And it, it was a great company to work for for a very long time. I mean, everything I know about sales and everything that I am as a sales professional is because of my journey at PepsiCo. And I can truly say that with confidence. And, and that is absolutely true.

But of course, anytime you work for a very large company, there's always ups and downs. And we would always joke that it's, you know, you get to about two years or three years and it's about time for a reorg. So for those of us who work in the corporate world, that probably resonates with a lot of folks.

But so about every two and a half, three years, we just knew as some sort of org structure change was going to come. And, and usually with those come some kind of layoff. I was fortunate to not be laid off throughout the years, but I was affected nearly every, you know, reorg. I had some kind of structural change.

So in, in February of last year, we, we kind of knew that something was coming. And so then in February of last year, we had the largest structural reorg that I'd ever been through. I actually lost my director, my director who'd been with the company for 35 years, lost some long term team members of mine that were very close and, and that I worked for a long time with. And it really just honestly, it just kind of started to make me kind of question a lot about what the future held for me because I started to see the organization change.

I started to see just sort of the direction of the organization change, honestly to to just be a lot younger. And that caused me to start to kind of really question what is my future really look like here at PepsiCo. And honestly, it's, it put me into this huge journey of questioning sort of where I was professionally, which just created a ton of anxiety for me and anxiety that I had never really dealt with before on that, on that level and that stage.

And so that's really what began this whole process for me that I went through over the last year. Right. So let me let me just recap and set the stage here.

So you start joining this company in your late 20s? That's right. You work for two decades. Yeah, over 2 decades. Over 2 decades, go through all these different transitions, reorgs, resettle yourself into new teams and new job responsibilities and travel more, travel less, all that kind of stuff. And then you see the company getting younger. That's right.

Looking at guys like you 20 years ago when you came in. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I think for anybody who's listening, who's probably over the age of 40, like this is really resonating.

So the the anxious thoughts like what what is the, what is the voice behind those anxious thoughts? What are? Describe what that sounds like in your head as you see this potential end coming. It is are you relevant anymore? Do you have good skill set to continue to, you know, add value to this organization? Are you able to keep up?

You know, are you, is your energy level where it needs to be to be able to stay on trend? Am I able to be flexible? You know, mental flexibility and kind of my mindset around working kind of really became into question for me a lot. And just honestly, do I do I add value anymore and am I able and this is, is this the right place for me anymore?

And so all of that, coupled with how long I'd been there, just created a ton of unsurety and anxiety for me. Yeah. So those are kind of like surfacey questions in the beginning, right?

But then when you they're all tethered to something much deeper, and then when you start to compound those thoughts, tell us about how those thoughts began to to spiral maybe from some good diagnostic questions into some real unhealthy patterns of, of stress. Yeah, I mean, I, I got to the point where, you know, on on Sundays, Sunday evenings, I would start to have the pit in my stomach kind of Sunday scary's kind of which is just weird, you know, as a 49 year old man to be scared about going to work on Monday, you know, like I shouldn't be there. Which I think is interesting because when we think about anxiety, more often than not it's the connotation of the younger generation.

And like, man, those kids are just always anxious and I don't. Know what they have to be anxious about. Kind of deal is right. They haven't done anything.

So yeah, it's interesting that you're kind of finding yourself in this for the first time. Almost 50, yeah. Yeah, and you make a good point because I to be honest, I always sort of discounted anxiety in a certain way, you know, when people would talk about anxious thoughts and anxiety. And I was like, I mean, really what, what do you have to be anxious about? Sort of you know, and that's and now I'm starting to realize that anxiety is not necessarily as a result of some sort of particular hardship.

It is just a lot for me was how I was processing things and and ultimately what I was identifying with. And I will say too, I think a big part of this is the Lord was using that anxiety in me to stir up a bunch of stuff that I needed to deal with. So at first, you're right, Scott, I was, I was asking all these sort of diagnostic questions of myself, but ultimately what the Lord was really trying to get at is what He needed to work on within my heart and within my soul. Yeah, can we go back to the Sunday scary?

I don't want to go back to the Sunday. Right. That's right, metaphorically. Scott. The body talks to us before we realize what's happening. Yeah, before our mind catches up because our mind is already stuck and scrambled a little bit.

And our soul, we're, we're, we're trying to make sense of our emotions, our thoughts, but then you can't hide the physical stuff, right? That's right. And so there's some woman, there's some man right now listening, driving in their car and they're having some of these physical symptoms and they don't know what's wrong with them, right? I mean, this is not prescriptive, right? This is descriptive, but just like just tell us like what, what did that feel like?

So someone because it's almost like the a diagnostic sign on your cargo. Yeah, like a check engine. Light, a check engine light. Yeah, constant check light.

So what did, what did that feel like for you? What was those? What was some of those physical symptoms? My, my heart would flutter. I, I, I lost, I lost appetite, you know, lost weight last year that I didn't intend to lose, you know, had plenty to lose, but, you know, didn't really feel like sort of eating. I didn't feel like exercising, didn't want to be outside much.

My wife is amazing and she gets her three miles in every day, you know, and she'd be like, Hey, you need to come walk with me. And I'm like, no, I'm good. I need to just sit here at my computer for, you know, for some reason I felt trapped in many ways. I described that to Stacy many times where I just felt like I was like, if I don't sit here at my computer and sort of be ready for whatever is coming my way, then somehow I'm going to miss out on something or not do what I'm supposed to do. You know, in the reality, that wasn't what I should have been doing, right?

I should have been moving. I should have been doing things. I should have been having conversations and questioning things and communicating. And I and I didn't real well. Instead, I sort of internalized all of that. There was a good amount of physical manifestation of that wasn't sleeping.

Well, I'm still still struggling with sleep. Yeah. You know, just worried about going to sleep at night, turning it all off. Yeah. And and worrying about that overnight. And then what else is?

What else were you feeling in the time? I was starting to wonder about my skill set. You start to go into this immediate sort of like imposter mode kind of syndrome. Like, wow, why am I feeling like I don't know what I'm doing all of a sudden? I had been a people leader for four years and all of a sudden I was questioning whether or not I was a good people leader anymore, you know, because I wasn't able to bear up under this new pressure, sort of this new standard of things. And frankly, I I just was, I was just a ball of nerves all the time about all of that.

So my, in my experience, when someone's experiencing this type of chronic stress is, is another way that I like to think about this type of anxiety, you tend to go one or two directions. You tend to either blame other folks, right? So it's their fault, organization, that kind of thing. Or you can really turn it inward and absorb a lot of that, which becomes like some some shame and some guilt and some mistrust of self and can really begin.

So either way, like I'm either thinking or saying bad things about others or thinking and saying really bad things about myself. They're just not coming out right. Which way would you go? I definitely was more inward. I mean, my wife would probably would be able to answer this question better, you know, because she bore the the brunt of of a lot of my sort of daily in and out pick me up off of the floor, kind of like, Hey, you need to go back to work conversations. I mean, she was super gracious and all that.

Obviously if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be where I am today, obviously. But you know, everything about this journey for me was was inward thinking and questioning and wondering whether or not I was up to the task and who was I really, you know, about all this. I really sort of felt like the Lord used my job opportunity last year to sort of RIP open my soul and kind of figure out who is Tom really and what is he really made of. Yeah.

So what does the faith component then look like? Because it's it's not people like to think, OK, well, this is this is a work issue and then I've got my spiritual life over here. But obviously we're seeing that that's not the way God intended. We're holistic people.

But in the midst of this funk, right where you feel stuck, I mean, I think that's how a lot of people, absolutely, I just feel stuck, yes. So how did you begin to work through how you think about God in the midst of what has been relatively routine for. 20 years, right? Well, as the Lord does, he was orchestrating all things together for his good and my good.

And so that's when we were going through the Exodus series. And so every week it was just like pounding me over the head with sort of this idea of the way that God uses difficult situations to refine his people. And so I'll never forget Matt was preaching him Exodus 5 and 6, and he was talking about how when Moses had gone back again to ask for Pharaoh to release his people, and Pharaoh said, not only no, but I'm going to make it more difficult. I'm going to remove the straw and increase the number of bricks that you have to make.

And then the Israelites were going, man, what's going on? Like, wait a second, wait a minute. This is not how this is supposed to go. And he described that process as sort of the squeeze. And that was just so immediately relatable to me in that moment because that's what I was in. I was in the squeeze.

And the Lord was using the squeeze to sort of help me figure out what I who I was and what I was doing and how I was growing. And so through that process, that's when I really started to turn into my community. Thankfully, I already had a really good group of men that I could lean on, but through conversations with real key men at our campus, I was able to really kind of dig into what was actually happening through through the squeeze For me, men like Scott Crawford, Jonathan Pitts, Jody Nixon, Rob Powell, Kevin Jones, these kind of men that are willing to ask hard questions and willing to give time to listen, but also be able to identify at the same time because they've all been there feelings of anxiety, the feelings of inadequacy, but also at the same time asking like, So what does that mean for you?

Like if you feel inadequate, OK, So what is that? What are you going to do with that? I was just super grateful through that whole process.

And so for me, just this, just this idea of community stepping in at the time when I really needed it, that's what happened for me last year. Yeah, but it wasn't like you didn't have community. And I think that's, I don't want people to miss here. Oh, life got hard.

So Tom went and found some people. Yeah. And it wasn't like you were doing anything, quote, UN quote wrong. Right. Like you had men in your life, but now you're in a different stage of spiritual growth and development.

So you just need a different set of questions to be asked of you and you need a different set of conversations, right? Is that that fair to say? That is fair to say. And I would say to just to your point, we were already big believers and we bought, we, I mean, we bought in from community from the date, from day one. Yeah. You know, so I was already a big believer in community.

And so for me, what I guess the point I really want to make is that in a situation like this where I was dealing with anxiety and just pressure that I've never dealt with before, it was at that time when I really began to realize how important community really was for me. Right. And to your point, Scott, talking about turning inward, there's a piece of you that does do that. It's like, I want to go hide. I don't want to share this. Maybe there's some shame attached to it, but then you also make a conscious choice of I have to just be honest and I have to like surrender whatever my thing is and let these guys fully see me.

That's right. And have access to all of these parts of myself. And I don't really want to bring to the service. And so it's one thing to have community, but it's another thing to allow your community to be effective in that hard moment. Like that is what they're there for.

But there's a choice on your part required to take advantage of that. That's exactly right. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that as men, we don't do that real well. You know, I think just generally speaking, men, you know, we sort of believe in kind of doing the hard work and we'll show up, just tell me what I need to do and I'll show up and do it, You know, versus like being willing to say, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do here, you know, And so I just need to have a real honest conversation with some other men in my life that I trust and, and sort of just offload this on them.

And then and then say, let me think about this. Let me pray about this and let me think about some questions that I can ask you to sort of circle back and sort of get to walk that journey with us because. I was going to ask you, what does the pivot look like to, to getting to getting healthy? I mean, it's not just quit a job, take a new job, because the, the job is just the portal by which God is saying, Hey, let's get in here and let's, let's answer these questions. Who, who are you really?

So when you pivot, you ask for help. Is that 6 month process? Is that an ongoing process? Like, what's that been like for you since let's say the take us from like the Exodus series last summer till now? Yeah, last year was the first year that I ever took advantage of my employee assistance program and actually talked to a a licensed counselor. Good for you.

And you know, it's it. I never had a problem at all with people that went to counseling. I mean, you know, counseling was a big part of my family growing up, so I didn't have any kind of stigma around counseling.

But I actually took the chance and took the step and, and met with, met with a counselor. And again, as God's timing, it was an elderly gentleman named Tom from Wilmington, NC. And, and he was, you know, just exactly the right person that I needed when I needed him. I sort of approached it with him of here's all my stuff. I just sort of vomited all my things in front of him and said, this is where I'm feeling. I feel like a fraud.

I feel like I'm all the sudden I can't work well and I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm having all these feelings and I don't know if I'm going to lose my job or if I'm going to this or that or whatever. And he goes, he goes, OK, that's fine. He said, I understand all that. And I said, I just need you to tell me that I'm not crazy. And he goes, guess what?

You're not crazy, you know? And he began to tell me his story. He had grown up in the tobacco industry in Winston Salem. And, you know, and he kind of grew up in that industry. And then all of a sudden one day his job was cut. He's a believer.

And so that came out very quickly in our conversation. And, and he began to tell me about how the Lord had brought him through a whole journey of realizing what his value really was and that it wasn't in work. And so that's what what has brought him to counseling.

So that was a big step for me moving forward to be able to get some tools daily, sort of the deal with the physical anxiety. He began to describe heading off the anxiety before it, you know, kind of became the problem in the mornings. And you know, we all. Have. Bents in our in our soul as to what we're most likely to send to.

And so in him, you know, he was like anxiety is just a bit for me and he was like, these are the tools I want to give you to sort of show you how to do that. So that was super helpful. Yeah, I mean, just like, just like despair might be a bent for someone, anger, right, is a pretty common bent, of course. For cynicism, Fatalism. Yeah, all of those things. Yeah, those are all good.

Check engine lights. That's right. So what changes it's made in your life? Like, how do you see yourself now? Who is who is Tom Price? Yeah, I would say that who is Tom Price is still a question I'm trying to the answer.

You know, I am a a journey in process and you know, as we all are and I'm so I'm still figuring all that out. But I think what I would say is the things that I've really, really learned. You can never overestimate the importance of community and it's important to build your community before you need it. And then just that it's OK for men of my age, right? Sort of we, we talked a little bit about is this a midlife crisis or not? It's OK for us to be willing to sort of bear these feelings out in front of everybody in the church and talk through this kind of stuff.

We need to do this. We need to be more willing to sort of talk about the fact that we are anxious and we don't really know what this all means and what is the Lord trying to tell us through all this? And so it's still a journey. It's a journey in process, Yeah. When talking about anxiety, what we're prone to do is we're prone to take some of the commands in scripture that are like, don't be anxious and pray about everything and turn them into basically self help right now, one way I like to say it is is don't, don't divorce the commands of God from the character of God, right?

So I can, I can cast my cares. I can give my anxiety to God because he cares for us. That's right, right. So like those two things have to it's to stay together. You know, I'm supposed to give thanks, I'm supposed to pray and I'm not supposed to worry because God is able, God is provider, God is a good father, God is.

And so just having to in some ways, like think less about ourselves and think more about God. And it feels like in times of these, this stress, like I have core beliefs or I have deeply held beliefs, but then I have functional beliefs. Yeah.

So God is good, God is loving, God is kind, God is just. Yes, I believe all of that. But functionally I've got AI got a. Squeeze happens. Yeah, when the squeeze happens, right. What I do when the squeeze happens, That's really my function exactly. And Schofield had talked about this idea not many weeks afterwards.

Matt had talked about the squeeze. But it's like the person who wins the day is those that don't panic. Yeah. And and sometimes we are going to panic. The Israelites panicked and that's all in US. You know, God has made us and our bodies in a certain way that we're going to panic to just to have the diagnostic to check on it.

But for you to make movement in such a way where like the word that comes to mind for me is insecurity. And I think we usually define that is like, I just don't feel good about myself or I don't like myself. But the word itself is just not feeling secure. That's right. And this probably wasn't something new that you learned in this journey that God is secure. God is your rock and your salvation.

And that has to be something that you cling to. That has to be the thing that you hold onto to not panic and to not go down the deep hole in the deep spiral. And I'm grateful for your vulnerability that you're not like if. If y'all are listening and hoping that we have some silver bullets for anxiety, we are so sorry to disappoint you. That's on the next podcast. Scott will own that one.

It's just him by himself. But but yeah, that there's these pieces that God provides all along the way. And some of it is probably God just wanted to keep you in a state that's right to check your dependence, that's right to draw you back to him in some ways. Which is cool. I would just say to your point, I mean, you know, these these, these men that I mentioned, right? These men that are in my community.

It's not like I had one big sort of central meeting with them. And then all of a sudden it was like, oh, OK, now I've sort of feel secure about myself. It was many times it was intentional conversations that we had had like over lunch or breakfast or whatever, right?

But then sometimes it was just sort of the day, the weekend, we week out sort of conversations that we would have, whether it was a church or serving together. A lot of those men I serve with. So we would be talking about stuff and they would ask additional questions. And then and so the Lord uses all of that. He, he used all that to shape the narrative for me last year.

And so to your point, it wasn't one big silver bullet. It was just a continual conversation. And are you able to celebrate the process? I I am, yes. Yeah, I am. Yeah.

And, and I'll tell you so sort of the end of, of the journey last year where he sort of delivered me, you know, out of what it was, what I thought was the horrible, most horrible situation ever. So what happened was, is I, I continued to have, you know, professional conversations with with other folks outside the company. I had a conversation, I had a relationship with a man that had left PepsiCo and had gone to another company and he was a friend and a mentor of mine was a believer.

So he and I were very close and I, I, I was intentional about staying in touch with him because I wanted to sort of keep him within my network. And I thought, well, maybe he'll have an opportunity for me outside the company at some point. So I continued to talk to him and, and we would have regular check insurance on a regular basis. And I, I eventually actually thought I'll probably go to work for him at some point with his company. I actually interviewed for something with, for a role within his company.

I didn't get it. Wow. And I thought, OK, Lauren, here we go again. You're trying to teach me something again, like enough already. And that was probably September time frame.

And so then I kind of was like resolved myself to the fact that was like, all right, well, 2025 just is what it is. You know, I'm just going to settle into sort of the the rest of the remainder of the year and we'll see what happens in 2026. And then on Christmas, Adam, December 23rd, Patrick, my friend Patrick calls me and he goes, hey, do you know this lady named Brenda Grubbs? And I was like, no, do I, do I need to know Brenda Grubbs? Yeah, you could have said some random name, any random name.

And he said, well, she was with General Mills for many years and they have sold off their yogurt division and they're looking for food service people. And he said, I told her to call you, and I was like, praise the Lord on. December 23rd on December. 23rd we're having this. Conversation. She's working on this. Thursday we're like Patrick.

It's Christmas, man. I was like, bro, what's going on? Like shouldn't you be wrapping presents? And then on December 26th, I had an hour long conversation with Brenda Grubbs. On the 30th I had two interviews. On the 31st I had another interview and by the second I had a job offer.

Wow. And so all of that sort of panic and worry at the end of the year, I was like throwing out my hands, like, OK, well, I guess I'm just in this, you know, forever. All of that, just like in a moment, in an instant, was taken away.

Now that doesn't mean that all my anxiety and all that was taken. Yeah, the learning just continued. That's right. But just the Lord had been listening to my cries for a new opportunity all year long. And, you know, I think I, I was probably going, Lord, don't you hear me? Like I'm crying out here, like, you got to do something, you know?

And meanwhile he was going like, hey, man, settle, you know, like I'm doing a lot back here. And So what I felt like was going to be the opportunity for me through my friend Patrick, actually that ended up being how I got the opportunity, just not with this company. And not the way that you expected. That's right. Yeah, and now I get to sell yogurt for a living, which is incredible. All of our guts are very thankful.

Yes, yeah, yeah. This podcast sponsored by yogurt company. Make sure you get your acidophilus today. So I don't know what that is. That's what makes yogurt good for your gut good. I'm learning more more on the next podcast you.

Traded in your Cheetos? That's right. Yeah, I'd like to think that I made a healthy choice there. You go? Yeah. Thanks.

Yeah, yeah, we were talking earlier. I was like, is this a completed story or is this a in process story? And Tom's like, no, this is very much an in process story. We're just in a different chapter. That's right. Taking those learnings from 2025 that God had been open the window for you to see, you know, something in your soul to to be able to really embrace what it means to be known and loved and seen and cared for.

Yeah. And sometimes it takes the squeeze to do that. None of us go looking for the squeeze. Yeah. But when God brings the squeeze, the question is, will we be ready to receive? That's right.

Thanks for just sharing your your story and helping us to see a little bit of all of ourselves in your story. For sure. Yeah. Would you mind just praying for our church love to. Is there a list? Yeah, absolutely, God, You are a gracious, great and mighty God, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to worship you in the way that we do for the freedom that we have to worship you.

Father, we just bless your name today and this morning. And whoever's listening to this podcast, Father, we just pray your grace and goodness over them today, Father, where we confess that we, we walk a lot of the times being confused and worried and concerned about what's happening in, in our daily lives. And frankly, that probably takes up a lot more of our thoughts than we should. As we talked about earlier today, we need to be far more concerned about thinking more about you and less about ourselves, far more about your grace than we do our own sin.

But God, that's just unfortunately, that's not how we're wired a lot of the time. And so, Father, be be patient with us as we learn to do that better. I pray give us, continue to give us grace as we try to figure all that out. Lord, I'm thankful for our church and the way that it's structured in the way that our lives intersect and just overlap everybody. When you're involved in this church, it just seems to be that way that you have these divine interventions and these sort of divine meetings that happen when they're supposed to.

And so I'm just so grateful for that. I'm grateful for the way that our church does that work intentionally in putting people's lives in front of other people's lives. Father, we just continue to pray for the leadership of our church as we enter into this year and all the things that we have before us, Father. There's so many things coming for us and so many changes come in.

And so, Father, we just pray, Jesus, that you would continue to give us grace as we work through all that. Father, we're thankful for the way that you care for us. We're thankful for your love. And we pray this in Jesus name.