.stress.. and hopefully less stress..

Today = Luke 14:1-24 + Genesis 25 + Psalm 18

Well I usually post early in the morning when I get up, but I'm posting a bit later since this morning was filled with architecture, light tables, and rabid skunks. To be honest, I'm feeling exceptionally stressed right now. I have an enormous amount of work to do, and very little time to do it. I would love to have multiple iterations completed and extensive research toward my studio project, but with all of this first-week-back-craziness, I don't feel as accomplished as I would have hoped. I feel as though I have wasted hours and hours of precious time, which I cannot regain. So, in the stress of reading about Shakers and crazy archie-diagramming madness, I decided to take a 'break' and finally post. I was praying for something with an ounce of encouragement, anything to get me through this night, this week. Luke and Genesis are good today, but Abraham dying and a list of unpronounceable names was not exactly the encouragement I was hoping for. Thankfully, the end of my reading today included a Psalm with some hope. Psalm 18 is pretty long, otherwise I would just post the whole thing. But in a nutshell it speaks of God's faithfulness and steadfastness. Yep, just what I needed.

"To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.  You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. he is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For how is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Your give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn. I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet." (Psalm 18:25-38)

Yeah, I feel so much better now. It makes it a lot easier when I know that I have a Great and Mighty God on my side in the battle against stress, worry, and the perils of archi-torture :)