Y’all Are Nuts. Maybe.

People’s stories are amazing.

Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on your own story? On how far you’ve come? On what a long, strange trip it’s been?

I met up with a friend last week who I hadn’t seen in probably a couple of years. As he recounted quite the spiritual journey, what I assumed would be a two hour lunch turned into a crazy three-and-a-half hour story. Wow. I really don’t know how to summarize it all other than … wow, wow, wow.

God never ceases to amaze me, but then that’s kind of his thing.

Someone reminded me today that, “you know, people are crazy, right?” Yep. I experience it every single day. The stories people tell me sometimes make sense, and then other times … not so much.

And the last couple of weeks I have grown my appreciation, and I suppose patience, for those who deal with serious anxiety issues in particular. I’m not talking everyday run-of-the-mill stress that takes its toll on your body and indeed is bad. I mean interferes-with-your-life and may even require medication kind of anxiety.

How many of you are out there? Wow. OK, maybe God was just parading them through my life all at once to send me a message. And, no, you-all don’t have to raise your hand and draw attention to yourselves.

A quick aside …

I was at a thing the other night meeting some new people, and one guy apologized in case he was distracting earlier because he “just has this large booming voice”. I told him, “Not at all. And I completely understand. I have a talent for attracting attention. It’s what I do.” I’m pretty sure the vehement agreement and “oh, you have no idea” from the peanut gallery were not actually out loud, just in that voice only I can hear sometimes.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled discussion …

Stress and anxiety seem to run rampant in our society. We wear stress and busy lifestyles as a badge of honor. A sensationalistic media prods us to thrive on drama. How we deal with stress is partly personal choice – to an extent you can train yourself to react to certain things differently, you can make choices that take you away from certain stressors in your life, you can choose to pray about it.

And then I think a large part is just how God wired us. Free will rules, but you have to work with what you’ve been given. Some of us have more to overcome than others, I guess. And that’s not always apparent to the outside world.

So do stressed out and anxiety-ridden equate to crazy? Not necessarily. And crazy might just be a relative term.

Have a sane(ish) week, everyone.