Rejoice

It was incredible to see the gospel come alive in Adam and Kristen's living room tonight. We discussed Stephen's sermon about how to biblically combat anxiety. In Philippians, Paul advised rejoicing, which was the Roman equivalent of throwing a party (more or less) and prayer. You're stressed out about the little things? Celebrate Jesus in your life and pray hard. Share your worries with God. He can handle it. There's more depth to it that I cannot explain, but that's the gist.
The conversation fizzles, and we transition to prayer request. Adam discusses an eye-opening event of a close friend, and I share 2 tragic events in the lives of 2 co-workers that were shared with staff on the same day. Life and death type news. We were suffocating from the heavy news, weighed down from realizing how much we take for granted.
Someone mentions rejoicing. That is when a crazy, joyful idea was born. For a solid half hour the room filled with excitement while discussing the nitty gritty of our plans. I sat there watching Paul's advise work. I'm feeling his advise work. I stopped thinking about the sadness in life's circumstances. Driving home, I felt giddy anticipating Sunday. I felt light.
We didn't fix anything. We came together to support each other and our community. We'll come together to rejoice and celebrate Jesus. I cannot divulge details but anticipate blogging about it with a picture from the event.
I feel invincible with this group of people, because we're celebrating Jesus and we're doing it together. The stress did not go away, but it does not have to take center stage.
We're absolutely crazy; I look forward to sharing how we're crazy next week.