In this episode, John and Victor dive deep into a topic that affects us all—worry and anxiety. We all have those moments when life feels overwhelming, but what can we do about it? John shares a powerful personal story about how worry was stealing his joy, even during a simple fishing trip. We’ll explore what the saints and scriptures have to say about overcoming these feelings and how trusting in God can make all the difference.

But that’s not all—this episode is packed with inspiration! You’ll hear a touching story of a young man who found hope and healing through our men’s group, a reminder of the incredible impact community can have. Plus, we’re talking about the busyness of ministry life, the importance of prayer, and the ways we can all support each other on this journey of faith.

Whether you’re new to the show or a longtime listener, there’s something here for everyone. Don’t forget to like, comment, and consider becoming a Partner in the Pew to help us continue this vital work.

📚 Bible verses for reflection:

Philippians 4:6-7
1 Peter 5:7
Psalm 55:22
Matthew 6:25-34
Psalm 94:19
Psalm 56:3
Isaiah 41:10
Proverbs 12:25

 

___________________________________________________________________________

✈️ Join us on one of our 2025 pilgrimages:

March 10-15: Visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico with Father Zachary, a fantastic priest and friend. This affordable trip is perfectly timed for most school spring breaks.

May 12-23: Join Father Larry and me on a spiritual journey to the Holy Land. Walk in the footsteps of Christ and experience an unforgettable pilgrimage.

---

Become a Partner in the Pew! Donate to the ministry today!

START A MEN’S GROUP IN YOUR PARISH!

www.justaguyinthepew.com

DOWNLOADS

Get a copy of my new eBook, “12 Ways Guys Can Get Closer to Jesus”!

JUSTAGUYINTHEPEW.COM/EBOOK

---

Welcome back to the pew everybody. I am your host, John Edwards, and here across the table from me as always is my co host and cohort, Victor Adams. Hey John, good to be here today, man. It’s good to be with you too, dude. How you been? It’s been a minute. Yeah, it’s good. But we we celebrated a good friend’s birthday this weekend.

So today’s Sunday. Sunday for those. Yep. So happy 50th, David. It’s one day late now, but we did get to have that dinner with him and I went fishing with him Saturday morning. We’re going to talk a little bit about that today, but yeah, it’s been a minute. We we had a show that you and I had done that was supposed to come out and then the sound was messed up.

So we’re gonna have to redo that one. But I know Paul George has been in here. We had the Eucharist of Congress stuff. So I’m sure people are like, Oh, good. Victor’s back in here. Cause it’s been a few weeks since you’ve been with us. Thank you. Man of many words, Victor Adams, but man, I’ll tell you what, I’m excited to get started today and talk about what we’re going to talk about.

But first, Victor, I just want to share something with you because I know this is going to mean something to you too, and I want to share it with the audience. But I was at mass the other day at a noon mass and there was a lot of people there and after mass, one of the ladies walked up to me and she said, you don’t know who I am, but I pray for you by name each and every day.

And I said you look familiar. And she said, you don’t know me, my son. And she goes, my son for years has struggled with addictions, painkillers, drugs, all this stuff. He got hurt on the job. We also had lost a child earlier in life. So he lost a sibling and it’s always been a trouble and a struggle for all of us.

And especially him. And she said, and I, he had walked away from his faith and all of these things. And she said, and I really was praying for him every day, but I felt like I was losing more and more hope. That he would never be able to turn around and change. And she said, but then he found out about your men’s group.

And started going to it. And she said, John, it’s changed his life. She said, he’s a miracle. Like he, he’s going to church again now. Like he’s going to your group every week. He’s put down the pills and the drugs and the alcohol, and he’s gone back to work. And she said, and there’s just something in him.

There’s a. So there’s a hope in him that I didn’t think I would ever see again in my life. And she started crying and gave me a hug and she said, I pray for you every single day for the men in that group and for your ministry. And Victor, I just share that with you one because you’re part of that group.

You’ve been in there and you’ve been in the room with this young man and and he began to share not long ago about that struggle in his life, but. Yeah, the Lord has done that great work in him. But Victor, if we didn’t have that group, no wonder where he’d be like, tell him where he’d be.

It wasn’t anything I did or you said, it was just the environment that’s been created in our parish for men to be able to come in and to be a part of something. And, Victor, people ask me all the time and she did too. She said, what can I ever do to try to repay? And I said, ma’am, all we need, what we need more than anything are continued prayers and support.

Victor, we’re in a place now where we are busier than we’ve ever been. The demand for our work is greater than it’s ever been. And we’re in a place where we’re going to have to bring on people. And the only way we can do that is if people support us monthly, right? And so that’s why we’re always talking about partners in the pew.

We need people to come on beside us, whether it’s. 10 bucks a month or 20 bucks a month, a hundred bucks a month, whatever it is, every little bit helps. And right now, more than anything, that’s what we need because we’re, the demand is outrunning the supply, right? Like we’ve got to have more people. I want to bring in some guys.

There’s some already some people I’m talking to, to be able to come in here and do some of these work, some of this work to go out into parishes. And do the missions and the trainings and the launchings of these groups so men like this young man can find a place where he can find healing and hope and restoration.

That’s what these groups are really doing. So folks, if you’re, if you’ve been listening to this, if you’re watching, this is why you should give. Stories like that. This guy had no hope in his life. His mother was almost out of hope. Praying every single day for this young man, and then he wandered into one of our events into one of our groups Group nights one of our four pillars and he’s been coming ever since and his life is better.

He told his mother I’m never walking away from this again folks. That’s what we do It just got in the people we’re going and starting these places where men can grow in their faith Where they can come back to the lord with and get rid of all these Addictions and vices and these things that have a hold on them You can be a part of these places, too.

We get stardom in your area, or you can give and help us stardom in other places. So folks, hat in hand today. I’m asking you, if you’re watching the show, if you’ve been moved, if you’ve been inspired, so many people send us those things. And I’m so appreciative of it. It means the world. But if there’s any way that you could support us financially, that’s what we truly need.

And that’s what our prayers are for each and every day in the ministry. Is that God will send us more people to support what we’re doing to partner with us in this ministry so we can grow and continue to help people all around this country. So folks, you can do that by going to just a guy on the pew.

com. There’s a donate button on the left side of the page. A little heart, as much as you scroll, it’ll be right there on every page. So you can click that or there is a donate support button in the menu items at the top. Go there, fill it out and become a monthly partner in the pew. Again, you don’t know how many lives you can help save by doing it.

So thank you guys. Victor, I just want to share that because I know you and I hadn’t really talked about that and it was a, it was an amazing thing and a grace to have somebody come up and just say that it’s very humbling and it just makes you realize like the Lord is doing great work here. So Victor, you’re a big part of that in the podcast and our group each and every week.

But today, what I wanted to talk to you about was a subject that I think, again it’s something that’s happened in my life. I know it’s hit home to you. And honestly, if you’re a human being, like you can’t go a lot without fighting this some way. Yeah. Yeah. And what it is worrying, worrying anxiety. And the name of this episode, haven’t really quite figured it out yet, but as I was thinking about the show, I kept thinking, stop stealing from yourself, or the waste of worry, right? So I don’t know what we’ll wind up calling it, but both those things are the point. And this came to mind.

We mentioned David is 50th birthday and he was, that was Saturday. Today’s Sunday. So yesterday was his birthday. This will be coming out Tuesday, a couple of days after his birthday. But you and I went to dinner with him Friday night and Friday, we had a really busy day in the ministry. I was on the phone from 10 in the morning till five o’clock in the afternoon with.

Either booking more engagements, more conferences, more missions, leadership summits, all those things working through what people were already working with just a lot of stuff. And it just, there was a lot of different things too. Like some people called me and wanted to start partnering with these different larger organizations and, really Hey, what if we did this?

And we moved all these things over here and you ran this and you did that. And we partnered in this way and all good things, it is when you’re just, when you’re doing everything you can to just keep up and then all these other things are coming at you too, you’re just like, Oh my gosh, and you start to worry and things and your mind starts to be preoccupied and that’s all you think about, right?

Is, how are we going to support the ministry? How are we going to meet the need? How are we going to all this stuff? So we go have dinner and even during dinner, like my mom wasn’t shutting off. And then David said, do you want to go fishing Saturday morning? And I said, yeah, it’s his birthday.

Love to go. And I, and again, Sometimes I walk out in my carport, in my garage and look at the boat that hadn’t moved in months because we’ve been gone every weekend doing missions and I started to feel anxious about that, the boats paid for instead of feeling anxious, I should feel grateful that I have a boat instead of going, Oh man, sitting there and I’m not using it and dah.

So long story short we, I meet him, Jacob and I get up at five 30 in the morning, my son, Jacob and I, and we head out there and and we go to this lake right outside of Memphis where his uncle has a spot in a place. And there’s trouble immediately the trolling motor won’t start. We have to rewire all this stuff, but we get out there And it’s a beautiful day.

It’s overcast. It’s not like a hundred thousand degrees like it’s been in memphis lately There’s a breeze blowing across the water. We’re catching some fish But man, I found myself just constantly thinking about work and thinking about ministry people I got to call back and this and that And instead of doing something I love very much fishing and has always been an escape.

My mind was just like You know Hammered in things like we weren’t even speaking, you know Everybody’s doing their thing and Jacob might get tangled up or something and talk and I eventually put some music on we leave, you know about 930 fished about four and a half hours or three and a half hours Whatever it was once we finally got in the boat and got going But I was in the truck on the way home as driving on the interstate with my son sitting there and again quiet not thinking About anything and all sudden Jacob says dad like are you okay?

He said we were sitting on the water and like normally you’re so playful and you’re picking at David and you’re picking at me and we’re laughing and But like you didn’t say anything the whole time I’m like every time I look at you look sad like you look just Like you lost your best friend and I just smiled and just laughed at his perception that 14 years old that he would ask that and I just said son, i’m anxious and worried over many things and Of course, I felt like martha right when jesus talks about that But there’s a lot of things going on right now as I mentioned in the ministry They’re all good things, but when we worry we get preoccupied like good things become You know Not so good in your mind, right?

You become burdened by things, which are gifts. And that’s what I was thinking about. I was like, man, years ago, I was praying for one speaking engagement, one, one parish to be able to help. And now, there’s, they’re calling every day and so yeah, we’re going to have to step up staff up and we’re gonna have to do all these things.

Those are blessings, but the devil gets in that stuff and calls you to worry. And really, what is that, man? What is worry and anxiety? It’s, The definition of worry is to give way to anxiety or unease and to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty Or be absent from the present. Yeah. Yeah. So this is something that I know Isn’t only something I have to fight, right?

I’m sure you have it. I know angela is always working and worried about things and basically everybody is because we forget You know that we’re not supposed to worry and we get mired down in it We’ll talk about what some of the saints say and stuff like that and even what it means to worry in the processes of that But that’s what I wanted to talk about today.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it, too. Yeah. I mean what you’re talking about is like it’s The symptom of the what if scenario. We’re very good at playing out scenarios of what if, like for instance, for a lot of us, 2008, the home crisis, the bubble burst, and a lot of people lost their jobs.

A lot of people lost their homes. We were worried about that too, because I just left. We’re in the VA hospital where it worked into youth villages. And Christy just got her real real estate appraiser’s license. So you get something, you’ve worked for two years, and studied all this stuff, got your license.

And then all of a sudden the worst thing in economy, for a long time, boom, house prices go down. No one. No one can really move on. No one can sell because things are just going bad for everything. There was worry then, but, but the difference is, I think we had faith to know that even though we may have to cut back a lot on what’s going on, we had faith that, that something will.

God’s intervention will happen, and it’s easy to say, it is easy to say yes, because suffering is involved in that thought moment too. Worry also brings suffering as well. If it’s something that it hasn’t already. Showed itself. We are very good at manifesting, suffering as well.

But as people, many people know, my oldest daughter and she’s always told me that she, let her tell her story. She suffered with anxiety and panic attacks, still does, but she’s able to cope with it, and have a coping mechanisms and realize that this is a panic attack, I’m okay, I’m in a safe place, so and so forth.

And if anxiety comes upon her, she realized, okay, this is anxiety, this is only last a moment. It won’t last for an eternity. Sure. And I think a lot of us have to get to that same concept of saying, Hey, I’m stressed out right now, but this feeling I’m feeling now is only a moment.

Yeah. And let me deal with the moment and know that, in the longterm, Thank you. You’re welcome. This won’t always be this way. Yeah. And you make a good point because anxiety, worry, they, they can really just stop you dead in your tracks. If it’s severe like that, it’s just, you don’t want to do anything.

You want to isolate. You want to sit still. You don’t want to like, you’re just, it can rob you of everything. This is what I meant by calling it like stop stealing from yourself. And I know some people can’t help it. Like they just have issues of that, that they either have to be medicated or they have to go through a lot of counseling.

And things to learn, ways to deal with it. I’m losing the phrase I was trying to say there, but like steps to be able to walk through when you’re experiencing that and things, but man, it is, the scriptures talk about this a lot and about worry itself. And the funny thing is like the word worry actually comes from an old English word.

The root of it is actually worgen is it’s a W Y R G A N. I’m probably saying it wrong, but. It originally meant like strangle. That’s what that word meant where worry is derived from. And man, isn’t that the truth? Cause like when you get to worry and you become like a hamster on a wheel and it just, you’re spinning and spinning and getting nowhere.

And you start to feel like that, that overwhelming fear and anxiety and that almost like you’re just slowly struggling to breathe sometimes, right? Where you’re just like, Oh man, this all of a sudden, Everything in the world is coming down on me and there’s a couple of great saints, we always love to see what the people before us and the great saints have said about these things.

There’s a couple of them that have mentioned it and said different things. So like the first one, Saint Padre Pio, he says, if certain thoughts bother you, it’s the devil who causes you to worry and not God. Who being the spirit of peace grants you tranquility. So right off the bat, he’s saying, look, if you’re experiencing worry and all those things and St.

Ignatius and all these different people with the discernment of spirits have said the same thing, like these type thoughts don’t come from God. Like he doesn’t, God’s not sitting up there going let me whisper this in their ear and then watch them. Go nuts, right? That’s not what God does. That’s the evil one.

And that’s what he’s always trying to do. Because if you’re worried and you’re anxious, you’re preoccupied, as you said, you’re not present. And I certainly wasn’t in that boat. And my son even picked up on it. What’s wrong with you? What’s going on? Because I wasn’t there. I was physically there, but mentally I was not.

I was somewhere else. I was back in this studio over in that corner where I work. Like in my mind, thinking about all these things that I could do nothing about at the time that, that I really was robbing myself of time with my friend on his birthday and time with my son and things that I’d been worried about.

I haven’t been able to do lately fish. I was now fishing, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was worrying about other things when I used to be worrying about not being able to fish. And it’s just a never ending cycle But and the devil does that because he’s constantly trying to rob steal and destroy.

That’s what it says, right? The devil comes to plunder right to take everything and all over goodness. So St. Francis DeSalle goes even further by saying anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry. He forbids you to worry. So saying that one more time.

Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry. And this is the hard part because worrying just seems like such a natural human thing to do, right? There’s always, it seems like there’s always something to worry about.

There’s never enough money. There’s, you never have enough time to do the job you need to do. There’s, your kids are going to grow up and be gone before long. There’s always something to worry about if you look for it. And the devil lays those bread, clumbs, crumbs. And then he watches you swirl down the drain as you enter into this sort of stuff.

And it robs everyone of their peace and of the present moment. And so we’re going to continue to talk about it a little bit, but yeah. What do you think about all that? What the saints are saying and that word strangle? That’s the things like, you know, when something’s being strangled at the lack of oxygen, right?

Yeah. So when a lack of oxygen, if you want to assimilate that into a lack of hope, when you’re worried so much about something, then anything of hope or anything of joy is removed from that situation. For a lot of us, we have stresses every day. Like you see, financials, will we afford a little to go to school?

We, we did with Lily. We were able to do, a lot of things to get her where she is now. Will we have enough for retirement? I don’t know. It seems every time I hear a financial advisor goes, you need this amount of money to retire. I’m like, or my 401, Advisors you need to put more in.

I’m like, yeah, but I don’t trust the stock market, man. Cause it goes up and down so much. It’s I’m like, I almost feel like I lose more. First, I got to get more. Yeah. No, it’s like, why do I lose more than I think? I feel like a millionaire first get a million dollars. So it’s we can get all the advice of people who live in comfort, and like I said, I think for us, because we’ve have gone through so much. Stress and worry, you know your life story my last my life story where I was planning to go in this way in my Life and then I had a you know A sickness a tumor and then it it actually went I made my life go another way Which I have been blessed because of that and same thing for you know you were on trajectory of like wealth and power and privilege and then you got to a point where You know something situational happen in your life to where now you’re doing something where you were always probably called to do you just didn’t hear it Yeah, so so the great thing about even though when stress anxiety or worry or suffering comes in our lives.

We think it’s You know, it’s gonna be always a bad thing, but sometimes it redirects us to where God wants us to be, too. Yeah, but that’s the thing. I think the Saints are saying is that when it’s obsessive anxiety, when it’s something that you just, it just is so overwhelming, then you have to be careful like, where’s that, where’s the voice coming from with that?

Yeah, is that something that, is pulling you away from God or pulling you towards God? Yeah, and That’s why I thought it was so interesting. I love researching stuff like this for the podcast. Cause I was like, I wonder what the root word of that is. And it’s like strangle.

Yeah dude, that is the truth. Like it strangles you, like worry strangles you, man. It, that’s why we love heart attacks. That’s why we overeat. That’s why we drink. That’s why we like, it’s like the devil put you in a sleeper move, wrestling, father Martel would love that.

Yeah. But yeah, it does. And it starts to rob you of everything. And it not only strangles those around you. Because when you’re worried and you’re stressed you’re angry because you’re fearful and you’re afraid and that’s what it all leads to and we’ll talk about that in a second.

But like I know when I’m worried and anxious, like I’m not the nicest person to be around. Like I’m short. I answer my wife and kids short. I get what do you mean? That’s a simple thing. Why did you ask that? You should have been able to figure that out. Like stuff I don’t usually say and do.

And it’s usually when I’m worried and stressed out about something, and so that’s why the devil does it. Because if he can get to you, the head of the family, the father the provider, and all the stuff we’ve been told as men, we’re supposed to be. And inside we’re dealing with our own inadequacies.

And the fact that we’re not providing the way that we wanted to, or this or that you start to worry, and then what do you do once he takes out the head of the family? He uses you to go and alienate everyone else in that fear and in that worry and in that concern And so I wanted to talk about that a little bit like how it strangles you and I was thinking about this It’s gonna sound funny, but in the shower this morning, or last night.

I was just like man I really like this idea and then I started thinking it’s ah almost busted and Broke my head getting out of the shower to get a pencil and write something down But it really starts with this, like where does worry start? It starts with a lack of trust in God. It really does.

When we start thinking about something and our mind starts going down these pathways and next thing you know you’re in some Armageddon scenario like in your life and it’s because you’re forgetting that there’s a God who loves you, right? And there’s a God who has a plan for your life. And there’s a God that if you’re giving your life to him and you’re trusting him that he plans nothing but for your good.

He created you. He created you for a reason and purpose. He loves you. Yeah. Why would he allow the worst thing ever to happen to you? In a sense. Yeah. Yeah. We have to realize that, that he doesn’t wish anything bad. Oftentimes we do the bad things to ourselves. Yeah. And it’s he says, like Jesus is like, what kind of father would hand a man a snake when he was a child, a snake when he asked for fish.

Yeah. It’s that kind of thing. But that when you have that lack of trust in God, And you don’t even realize it. It’s no, I love God. And I go to church on those things. Yeah, you can do all those things and really not trust God with your life. Every single one of us struggles with trust.

Surrender is the hardest thing to do in our faith is to fully surrender, but you have to learn to trust God. And in those moments, you’re like, that’s when you can go, okay, you know what? God’s never let me down. So why would he this time? Things may be difficult, but he’s not going to abandon me.

Again, Jesus leaving the 99 to go after the one like. He, he even knows the hairs on your head, all those things that we’ll go through some Bible verses here in a minute, but it starts with this lack of trust. Which leads then like when you don’t trust God, you think, Oh, God’s not going to, I don’t know if he’s going to handle this or not.

So I need to step in. So that lack of trust leads to a retreat towards self sufficiency, right? Like I have to do, I have to figure it out. I have to do it myself. And when you get in that mindset, then you start to figure out, Oh man, I can’t do this myself, or this isn’t in my control. And what can I do about it?

And I can’t see the future. And you start to worry and all those things, which eventually leads you to. Oh gosh, I can’t figure it out and I don’t trust God now. I’m not, I know I’m not enough now. And then that inadequacy that’s in all of us starts to rise and the devil starts to play in that. And you start thinking man, I’m inadequate.

I can’t do this. That leads to fear. I’m afraid. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for my daughter to go to school or Jacob to go to school or I don’t know what’s going to happen in this ministry. We lost some donors last month so what’s going to happen now?

We really needed that money and how are we going to make that up? And like, all of a sudden you get fearful, right? And then you get scared. And when you get fearful. What do you worry right when that fear hits you then you start all those questions What why how when all those things start to come to mind and it starts to just take over and it causes a law it?

leads to a loss of peace and joy and presence and You wind up losing your grasp on the truth And that truth is that God will never abandon you, right? When you lose that idea, you lose your gratitude too. And that’s what I was thinking in that boat. And when I was telling Jacob in the truck, I was like, son, yeah, I was really preoccupied.

And I said, it doesn’t make sense, son. Because every time I’ve ever been worried in the ministry, like I started this nonprofit, we had no money. I gave 2, 000 to lawyers started. I had no money. I was sitting in the floor for weeks on, okay, God, I got a nonprofit. I’m not working. There’s no money coming in.

My family’s suffering like what? Come on, man. Two weeks later, we, I get a call from a guy. I barely know. We started virtual Catholic conference. Which launched all these virtual conferences in the church during COVID. Yeah. Yeah. During COVID and gave me a way to provide for my family for many months until this started growing and taking off.

God’s always been there, right? He didn’t abandon me in that jail cell, right? He allowed Angela and gave her the grace to forgive me and to stay with me, right? He’s never left me in anything. And we can lose our memory of that, of those moments where God has shown up, where God has proven himself.

We forget. And then we get scared. And when we get worried, we get scared, we lose our gratitude and everything starts to take over. And Victor, that’s where most people get and that’s where we start to struggle. Yeah. I think a lot of us forget to do the the thankful inventory look like, how do I get to where I am now?

And a lot of us, if we really go back in hindsight, we see where God’s hand. And God’s influence, the influence of other people that God’s working through helped us to get to where we are. A community of faith is a big thing. It’s just not your parish, your church, it’s other believers who see something in you or who see that you’re a hard worker and maybe need a break, and they give you that, that shot, that opportunity the boss, his name said, and I went to his last thing cause I didn’t get permission for this.

Sure. Sure. Like I was, after working in a while for a place like you village, which I love, but it was just so hard. I had a young family. I was working eight to eight, barely getting paid for that, and then I took a break and I was a stay at home dad for about six, seven months, and then, we had 2008 came around, all that stuff.

So it was I gotta go back to work, but then I worked somewhere, but then, this guy took a shot on me and said, Hey, for his development. I didn’t know what that was. And so he said he interviewed and I did well and, and I got the job and so I’ve been in business development for 10 years.

Working with behavioral health and mental health and substance abuse facilities and being that connector for people needing help, you know So in a way one person gave me that opportunity To expand the influence I can and the kingdom to get people where they need to get because they’re dealing with a lot of traumatic Experiences but also addiction stuff too.

Yeah, and what you’re saying too is that when we look in the past where God’s hand was there, we have to realize that hand will always be there. Sure. And not be so consumed. Yeah, he helped me here. And he helped me here and there and there and there.

But I don’t know if he can do this now. I don’t know if you can help me out what’s going on now because this is crazy. This is, I don’t know how you can do this, but it’s also, it reminds me that what you’re saying reminds me of that footsteps in the sand prayer, like poem or whatever it’s talking about.

Yeah. There were these two footsteps where you were walking with me and then God, all of a sudden, there was only one. Where did you go? And he said, that’s when I was carrying you. That’s your, I was, I had you in my arms. I was carrying you. And it’s something that he, it’s something that he does every day in our life.

If we just forget, we, because of wounds and abandonment issues and all these things in our life, there’s been people that have left us. There’ve been people that we thought we could depend on. All those things. That’s why we talk about healing and wounds and all those things all the time.

So that adds to worry. And that’s what adds to your fear of not being able to trust God or that God’s not going to show up and handle things. But he has spoken to us all throughout scripture and throughout the saints with all the saints about how he’s going to take care of us. And I just want to ramble off some of those real rattle off some of them real quick.

I’ve got a lot of them here, but I want to read them. And then of course, I’ll give you the verses and we’ll have them in the show notes. But Philippians four, six through seven through Paul, he says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

That’s an example. First Peter five, seven, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. So there’s Peter. In the Psalms, Psalm 55, 22, cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Then you hear it from Jesus himself when he’s talking about his father in Matthew 6, 25 34.

He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, and what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is it not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you no more of value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your life? To his span of life. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So that’s Jesus speaking to us. And then a couple more here. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

That’s Psalm ninety four nineteen. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm fifty six three. Fear not. I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Isaiah 41 10. And finally, and this is just a few, there’s tons more in the Bible, Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

That is Proverbs 12 25. Victor, the Bible talks to us constantly about what God says. I’m here. I love you. Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I know even the hairs on your head. It’s a little bit harder for him to count mine than yours, Victor, but but yeah, it is, he knows everything and he knows our needs and our concerns and our worries and he provides, but it’s the evil one that comes to seek and destroy and as I said, we’ve got a couple more saints quotes in here too.

And again, St. Padre Pio, pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and we’ll hear your prayer. So he’s saying like trust again trust just pray the lord needs he knows your needs and he knows what you’re fearful of But tell him he waits for you to speak with him about it, right? And he says it’s anything else is useless.

You’re wasting your life you’re you’re putting stresses on yourself and all these things that you don’t have to and then Of saint francis to sell says this he says it seems to me You ought to resolve to carry out peacefully what you can do not worry about all the rest, but in trust to divine providence, that’s which you are unable to accomplish on your own.

What is pleasing to God is the reasonable care and attention we give to accomplishing well, whatever business we must undertake through duty. What is not pleasing to God is anxiety and disquiet of mind. The Lord wants your limitations and weaknesses to find their support in his strength. He wants us to hope that his goodness will complete and perfect the imperfectness of our means So what’s he saying?

They’re like you ought to carry out peacefully what you can leave everything else to god, right? Leave it to divine providence because god doesn’t want you in anxiety and worry and disquieting of mind. He knows fully well he made us what our limitations and weaknesses are. So give the rest of them and find support in him.

A lot of times that’s what he’s waiting for is us just to give it to him so he can make perfect what we can’t make even near okay. Yeah. And that’s what these great saints are saying. So Victor, I just thought there was those verses and everything we go How can I feel better? There’s a whole book of feel better.

It’s called the word of God, the Bible. And then we have this treasure troves of people that have this great wisdom and these great gifts from the Lord to become saints that have lived through these trials. And there’s, they’re sitting here from the pages of the past yearning to share that information too.

So where do we go in our worries? Back to the treasure trove of the church back to those places that we know the people that went before us and then from god himself where he speaks to us through the prophets through the apostle paul and through christ himself. That’s where we go in these times of worry and in need So how do we what do we do now victor?

We always want to talk about how to so that’s great How do I quit worrying right great that they’ve said all these things well one When these moments come, stop and pray. That’s what I did on that boat. What I told Jacob in the truck, I said, yeah, I’ve been worried and anxious over many things. Like I couldn’t enjoy myself because my mind was just like a water bug on that water, on that lake, just going here and there and everywhere.

And Jacob, what I, you know what I did, he is what, and I said, when I turned the music on and when I started talking towards the end of the trip, I You know, on the boat, he goes, what, yeah, what did you do? And I said, I just gave it to God. Lord, there’s nothing I can do about it. Like you’re presenting this stuff and you’re not going to lay in front of me things that you’re not going to help me complete.

You’re not going to send all this stuff here without a plan and a way. So instead of worrying, Lord, help me to sit down. And to work through it with the people you put in my life, the Ryan Foley’s, the Derek Cummins, the Matthew Leonards the, the, all these people that have been so gracious in my life, the Dr.

Bob’s, the, you all these people that could sit down and help me in the areas that I struggle and I worry because I think I don’t have the gifting to do this, but God, again, has supplied people in my life that do. And so instead of worrying, sit down. And that’s what I got in that prayer. But I never would have gotten that if I hadn’t sat down and asked God to come in that moment.

And that’s what I told Jacob he needed to do in his life to remember all the times that God’s taking care of you. What we talked about earlier, how many times when we’ve been so worried and we’ve lost moments with our family or we’ve been angry or we’ve heard other people because we’ve allowed the worry to become fear and all the processes we went with the lack of trust of God and the self sufficiency and then the fear and then the worry and then the loss of gratitude.

How many times have we allowed that to happen? Because we simply forgot who God is. Like God is a good father. And just like if Jacob came to me or my daughters, Caitlin and Allison said, dad, I need something. I’m not going to say, okay, I don’t care. Go figure it out yourself. Like you can’t come to me.

That’s not my problem. That’s not what I’m going to do. And God’s not going to do that either. So we have to go back and look at the times where God has said, it’s okay. I know. But just stay with me a little longer, right? And I’m going to give you what you need Three ask for his grace to further trust him these places where we worry the devil uses them to destroy But the lord wants to use them to build up.

Yeah, so these places where we worry don’t get upset and oh my gosh I’m worrying again realize that there’s some sort of Some sort of inadequacy or some sort of place where you’re not fully trusting god and this worry It’s not just a tool of the devil to make things go bad, but it’s also the Lord shining a light on a place where you have an opportunity to greater trust in the Lord, right?

To surrender more. And you don’t always have to look at things negatively oh man, I’m starting to worry. Obviously this is a place where God wants to come into and wants to heal me of something and to give me a greater trust in him. Four, this is going to sound funny, but Google verse is about worry.

People go John, I don’t know scripture like you and Victor do or like Dr. Han or whoever. There’s a Google machine, right? Google it. Google it. What are Bible verses about worry? And then sit with the Lord. And let him speak into your heart. You say I can’t hear him in prayer.

Then open up his words and he’s speaking directly to you. That Bible is there to speak to you as a loving father. So find those things, Google saints quotes about worry and take those words as a way to. Yeah. to shore up your own belief in your trusting God. And in scripture, it allows you to find yourself in certain places where other prophets or apostles, disciples are in, like for instance, I’ll be real quick and brief on this, but the thing is a couple of weeks, probably two, three Sundays ago.

And you probably remember this. Where are. Elijah was like just done. He went and he hid under a broom tree to die. Oh, yeah Let me tell you there’s been times where I’ve felt that like I’m done Lord I don’t know what like exhausted in my work in ministry I’m like, I was I want to be a presbyterian minister and then the ordination process said, no, you really think this, or I want to be in the military and I had a back, back tumor and they go and I go, no, you can’t do that.

So it’s what do it’s like, all right, I’m done. I’m done. I thought, and I’ll just sit down and die, like it says in the Bible. And that’s like the human nature of going like, all right, I’ve done everything I can. And we know we haven’t done everything we can, but we’re pouting in a sense because we’re not getting the way that we expect it to happen.

But anyways, I didn’t mean to detract, but the great thing about scripture is that it continues to speak to us, even those living in this 21st century. Yeah. Like wherever you are, God wants to meet you there and that’s one of the greatest ways he does it. And then finally, the last practical thing I would say is the surrender novena, right?

That’s a practical prayer that if you’ve got something that you’re so worried about, Pray that non day surrender novena and give it to the Lord and just give it to him. And when you do really give it to him, make the amend in your life, amend the promise to yourself that I’m not going to worry about anymore.

I’ve given it to God and I’m going to trust him with it. May not work out the way I want and might, but either way it’s in his hands now. And that’s how you start to compete worry in your life. You stop and pray, remember all the times God’s taken care of you and live in that gratitude, ask for his grace to further trust him.

Google verses and saints quotes to help you, people reinforce what God’s saying to you, and then pray that surrender novena, and that’s a good place to start. But folks, worry is going to affect all of us all through our life. You’re never going to escape it, but it doesn’t, you don’t have to waste away your life with worry.

You don’t have to steal from yourself the joy and the peace and the presence of the moment. That’s what the devil wants to do with it, but the Lord wants to use it to shine it. A light into the place in your life where you don’t trust him. So Victor, let’s take it to prayer and let’s pray for a greater trust in the Lord and the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.

Amen. Heavenly father, there’s so many times in places where we don’t trust you fully. Instead of remembering who you are and finding great confidence in all the things you’ve done for us, we surrendered to the enemy and we get caught up in worry and anxiety. Lord, all that does is steal joy presence.

And in peace lord, we know that you want to bring those things back to us So as we leave here today, please invite us into a greater trust with you Give us the grace to find it And then help us to remember to turn all of our worries our anxieties and cast them on to you And your most holy name we pray in the name of the father son and the holy spirit.

Amen  Welcome back to the pew everybody. I am your host, John Edwards, and here across the table from me as always is my co host and cohort, Victor Adams. Hey John, good to be here today, man. It’s good to be with you too, dude. How you been? It’s been a minute. Yeah, it’s good. But we  we celebrated a good friend’s birthday this weekend.

So today’s Sunday. Sunday for those. Yep. So happy 50th, David. It’s one day late now, but we did get to have that dinner with him and I went fishing with him Saturday morning. We’re going to talk a little bit about that today, but yeah, it’s been a minute. We we had a show that you and I had done that was supposed to come out and then the sound was messed up.

So we’re gonna have to redo that one. But I know Paul George has been in here. We had the Eucharist of Congress stuff. So I’m sure people are like, Oh, good. Victor’s back in here. Cause it’s been a few weeks since you’ve been with us. Thank you. Man of many words, Victor Adams, but man, I’ll tell you what, I’m excited to get started today and talk about what we’re going to talk about.

But first, Victor, I just want to share something with you because I know this is going to mean something to you too, and I want to share it with the audience. But I was at mass the other day at a noon mass and there was a lot of people there and after mass, one of the ladies walked up to me and she said, you don’t know who I am, but I pray for you by name each and every day.

And I said you look familiar. And she said, you don’t know me, my son. And she goes, my son for years has struggled with addictions, painkillers, drugs, all this stuff. He got hurt on the job. We also had lost a child earlier in life. So he lost a sibling and it’s always been a trouble and a struggle for all of us.

And especially him. And she said, and I, he had walked away from his faith and all of these things. And she said, and I really was praying for him every day, but I felt like I was losing more and more hope. That he would never be able to turn around and change. And she said, but then he found out about your men’s group.

And started going to it. And she said, John, it’s changed his life. She said, he’s a miracle. Like he, he’s going to church again now. Like he’s going to your group every week. He’s put down the pills and the drugs and the alcohol, and he’s gone back to work. And she said, and there’s just something in him.

There’s a. So there’s a hope in him that I didn’t think I would ever see again in my life. And she started crying and gave me a hug and she said, I pray for you every single day for the men in that group and for your ministry. And Victor, I just share that with you one because you’re part of that group.

You’ve been in there and you’ve been in the room with this young man and and he began to share not long ago about that struggle in his life, but. Yeah, the Lord has done that great work in him. But Victor, if we didn’t have that group, no wonder where he’d be like, tell him where he’d be.

It wasn’t anything I did or you said, it was just the environment that’s been created in our parish for men to be able to come in and to be a part of something. And, Victor, people ask me all the time and she did too. She said, what can I ever do to try to repay? And I said, ma’am, all we need, what we need more than anything are continued prayers and support.

Victor, we’re in a place now where we are busier than we’ve ever been. The demand for our work is greater than it’s ever been. And we’re in a place where we’re going to have to bring on people. And the only way we can do that is if people support us monthly, right? And so that’s why we’re always talking about partners in the pew.

We need people to come on beside us, whether it’s. 10 bucks a month or 20 bucks a month, a hundred bucks a month, whatever it is, every little bit helps. And right now, more than anything, that’s what we need because we’re, the demand is outrunning the supply, right? Like we’ve got to have more people. I want to bring in some guys.

There’s some already some people I’m talking to, to be able to come in here and do some of these work, some of this work to go out into parishes. And do the missions and the trainings and the launchings of these groups so men like this young man can find a place where he can find healing and hope and restoration.

That’s what these groups are really doing. So folks, if you’re, if you’ve been listening to this, if you’re watching, this is why you should give. Stories like that. This guy had no hope in his life. His mother was almost out of hope. Praying every single day for this young man, and then he wandered into one of our events into one of our groups Group nights one of our four pillars and he’s been coming ever since and his life is better.

He told his mother I’m never walking away from this again folks. That’s what we do It just got in the people we’re going and starting these places where men can grow in their faith Where they can come back to the lord with and get rid of all these Addictions and vices and these things that have a hold on them You can be a part of these places, too.

We get stardom in your area, or you can give and help us stardom in other places. So folks, hat in hand today. I’m asking you, if you’re watching the show, if you’ve been moved, if you’ve been inspired, so many people send us those things. And I’m so appreciative of it. It means the world. But if there’s any way that you could support us financially, that’s what we truly need.

And that’s what our prayers are for each and every day in the ministry. Is that God will send us more people to support what we’re doing to partner with us in this ministry so we can grow and continue to help people all around this country. So folks, you can do that by going to just a guy on the pew.

com. There’s a donate button on the left side of the page. A little heart, as much as you scroll, it’ll be right there on every page. So you can click that or there is a donate support button in the menu items at the top. Go there, fill it out and become a monthly partner in the pew. Again, you don’t know how many lives you can help save by doing it.

So thank you guys. Victor, I just want to share that because I know you and I hadn’t really talked about that and it was a, it was an amazing thing and a grace to have somebody come up and just say that it’s very humbling and it just makes you realize like the Lord is doing great work here. So Victor, you’re a big part of that in the podcast and our group each and every week.

But today, what I wanted to talk to you about was a subject that I think, again it’s something that’s happened in my life. I know it’s hit home to you. And honestly, if you’re a human being, like you can’t go a lot without fighting this some way. Yeah. Yeah. And what it is worrying, worrying anxiety. And the name of this episode, haven’t really quite figured it out yet, but as I was thinking about the show, I kept thinking, stop stealing from yourself, or the waste of worry, right? So I don’t know what we’ll wind up calling it, but both those things are the point. And this came to mind.

We mentioned David is 50th birthday and he was, that was Saturday. Today’s Sunday. So yesterday was his birthday. This will be coming out Tuesday, a couple of days after his birthday. But you and I went to dinner with him Friday night and Friday, we had a really busy day in the ministry. I was on the phone from 10 in the morning till five o’clock in the afternoon with.

Either booking more engagements, more conferences, more missions, leadership summits, all those things working through what people were already working with just a lot of stuff. And it just, there was a lot of different things too. Like some people called me and wanted to start partnering with these different larger organizations and, really Hey, what if we did this?

And we moved all these things over here and you ran this and you did that. And we partnered in this way and all good things, it is when you’re just, when you’re doing everything you can to just keep up and then all these other things are coming at you too, you’re just like, Oh my gosh, and you start to worry and things and your mind starts to be preoccupied and that’s all you think about, right?

Is, how are we going to support the ministry? How are we going to meet the need? How are we going to all this stuff? So we go have dinner and even during dinner, like my mom wasn’t shutting off. And then David said, do you want to go fishing Saturday morning? And I said, yeah, it’s his birthday.

Love to go. And I, and again, Sometimes I walk out in my carport, in my garage and look at the boat that hadn’t moved in months because we’ve been gone every weekend doing missions and I started to feel anxious about that, the boats paid for instead of feeling anxious, I should feel grateful that I have a boat instead of going, Oh man, sitting there and I’m not using it and dah.

So long story short we, I meet him, Jacob and I get up at five 30 in the morning, my son, Jacob and I, and we head out there and and we go to this lake right outside of Memphis where his uncle has a spot in a place. And there’s trouble immediately the trolling motor won’t start. We have to rewire all this stuff, but we get out there And it’s a beautiful day.

It’s overcast. It’s not like a hundred thousand degrees like it’s been in memphis lately There’s a breeze blowing across the water. We’re catching some fish But man, I found myself just constantly thinking about work and thinking about ministry people I got to call back and this and that And instead of doing something I love very much fishing and has always been an escape.

My mind was just like You know Hammered in things like we weren’t even speaking, you know Everybody’s doing their thing and Jacob might get tangled up or something and talk and I eventually put some music on we leave, you know about 930 fished about four and a half hours or three and a half hours Whatever it was once we finally got in the boat and got going But I was in the truck on the way home as driving on the interstate with my son sitting there and again quiet not thinking About anything and all sudden Jacob says dad like are you okay?

He said we were sitting on the water and like normally you’re so playful and you’re picking at David and you’re picking at me and we’re laughing and But like you didn’t say anything the whole time I’m like every time I look at you look sad like you look just Like you lost your best friend and I just smiled and just laughed at his perception that 14 years old that he would ask that and I just said son, i’m anxious and worried over many things and Of course, I felt like martha right when jesus talks about that But there’s a lot of things going on right now as I mentioned in the ministry They’re all good things, but when we worry we get preoccupied like good things become You know Not so good in your mind, right?

You become burdened by things, which are gifts. And that’s what I was thinking about. I was like, man, years ago, I was praying for one speaking engagement, one, one parish to be able to help. And now, there’s, they’re calling every day and so yeah, we’re going to have to step up staff up and we’re gonna have to do all these things.

Those are blessings, but the devil gets in that stuff and calls you to worry. And really, what is that, man? What is worry and anxiety? It’s, The definition of worry is to give way to anxiety or unease and to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty Or be absent from the present. Yeah. Yeah. So this is something that I know Isn’t only something I have to fight, right?

I’m sure you have it. I know angela is always working and worried about things and basically everybody is because we forget You know that we’re not supposed to worry and we get mired down in it We’ll talk about what some of the saints say and stuff like that and even what it means to worry in the processes of that But that’s what I wanted to talk about today.

I’m sure you’re familiar with it, too. Yeah. I mean what you’re talking about is like it’s The symptom of the what if scenario. We’re very good at playing out scenarios of what if, like for instance, for a lot of us, 2008, the home crisis, the bubble burst, and a lot of people lost their jobs.

A lot of people lost their homes. We were worried about that too, because I just left. We’re in the VA hospital where it worked into youth villages. And Christy just got her real real estate appraiser’s license. So you get something, you’ve worked for two years, and studied all this stuff, got your license.

And then all of a sudden the worst thing in economy, for a long time, boom, house prices go down. No one. No one can really move on. No one can sell because things are just going bad for everything. There was worry then, but, but the difference is, I think we had faith to know that even though we may have to cut back a lot on what’s going on, we had faith that, that something will.

God’s intervention will happen, and it’s easy to say, it is easy to say yes, because suffering is involved in that thought moment too. Worry also brings suffering as well. If it’s something that it hasn’t already. Showed itself. We are very good at manifesting, suffering as well.

But as people, many people know, my oldest daughter and she’s always told me that she, let her tell her story. She suffered with anxiety and panic attacks, still does, but she’s able to cope with it, and have a coping mechanisms and realize that this is a panic attack, I’m okay, I’m in a safe place, so and so forth.

And if anxiety comes upon her, she realized, okay, this is anxiety, this is only last a moment. It won’t last for an eternity. Sure. And I think a lot of us have to get to that same concept of saying, Hey, I’m stressed out right now, but this feeling I’m feeling now is only a moment.

Yeah. And let me deal with the moment and know that, in the longterm, Thank you. You’re welcome. This won’t always be this way. Yeah. And you make a good point because anxiety, worry, they, they can really just stop you dead in your tracks. If it’s severe like that, it’s just, you don’t want to do anything.

You want to isolate. You want to sit still. You don’t want to like, you’re just, it can rob you of everything. This is what I meant by calling it like stop stealing from yourself. And I know some people can’t help it. Like they just have issues of that, that they either have to be medicated or they have to go through a lot of counseling.

And things to learn, ways to deal with it. I’m losing the phrase I was trying to say there, but like steps to be able to walk through when you’re experiencing that and things, but man, it is, the scriptures talk about this a lot and about worry itself. And the funny thing is like the word worry actually comes from an old English word.

The root of it is actually worgen is it’s a W Y R G A N. I’m probably saying it wrong, but. It originally meant like strangle. That’s what that word meant where worry is derived from. And man, isn’t that the truth? Cause like when you get to worry and you become like a hamster on a wheel and it just, you’re spinning and spinning and getting nowhere.

And you start to feel like that, that overwhelming fear and anxiety and that almost like you’re just slowly struggling to breathe sometimes, right? Where you’re just like, Oh man, this all of a sudden, Everything in the world is coming down on me and there’s a couple of great saints, we always love to see what the people before us and the great saints have said about these things.

There’s a couple of them that have mentioned it and said different things. So like the first one, Saint Padre Pio, he says, if certain thoughts bother you, it’s the devil who causes you to worry and not God. Who being the spirit of peace grants you tranquility. So right off the bat, he’s saying, look, if you’re experiencing worry and all those things and St.

Ignatius and all these different people with the discernment of spirits have said the same thing, like these type thoughts don’t come from God. Like he doesn’t, God’s not sitting up there going let me whisper this in their ear and then watch them. Go nuts, right? That’s not what God does. That’s the evil one.

And that’s what he’s always trying to do. Because if you’re worried and you’re anxious, you’re preoccupied, as you said, you’re not present. And I certainly wasn’t in that boat. And my son even picked up on it. What’s wrong with you? What’s going on? Because I wasn’t there. I was physically there, but mentally I was not.

I was somewhere else. I was back in this studio over in that corner where I work. Like in my mind, thinking about all these things that I could do nothing about at the time that, that I really was robbing myself of time with my friend on his birthday and time with my son and things that I’d been worried about.

I haven’t been able to do lately fish. I was now fishing, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was worrying about other things when I used to be worrying about not being able to fish. And it’s just a never ending cycle But and the devil does that because he’s constantly trying to rob steal and destroy.

That’s what it says, right? The devil comes to plunder right to take everything and all over goodness. So St. Francis DeSalle goes even further by saying anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry. He forbids you to worry. So saying that one more time.

Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul except sin. God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry. And this is the hard part because worrying just seems like such a natural human thing to do, right? There’s always, it seems like there’s always something to worry about.

There’s never enough money. There’s, you never have enough time to do the job you need to do. There’s, your kids are going to grow up and be gone before long. There’s always something to worry about if you look for it. And the devil lays those bread, clumbs, crumbs. And then he watches you swirl down the drain as you enter into this sort of stuff.

And it robs everyone of their peace and of the present moment. And so we’re going to continue to talk about it a little bit, but yeah. What do you think about all that? What the saints are saying and that word strangle? That’s the things like, you know, when something’s being strangled at the lack of oxygen, right?

Yeah. So when a lack of oxygen, if you want to assimilate that into a lack of hope, when you’re worried so much about something, then anything of hope or anything of joy is removed from that situation. For a lot of us, we have stresses every day. Like you see, financials, will we afford a little to go to school?

We, we did with Lily. We were able to do, a lot of things to get her where she is now. Will we have enough for retirement? I don’t know. It seems every time I hear a financial advisor goes, you need this amount of money to retire. I’m like, or my 401, Advisors you need to put more in.

I’m like, yeah, but I don’t trust the stock market, man. Cause it goes up and down so much. It’s I’m like, I almost feel like I lose more. First, I got to get more. Yeah. No, it’s like, why do I lose more than I think? I feel like a millionaire first get a million dollars. So it’s we can get all the advice of people who live in comfort, and like I said, I think for us, because we’ve have gone through so much. Stress and worry, you know your life story my last my life story where I was planning to go in this way in my Life and then I had a you know A sickness a tumor and then it it actually went I made my life go another way Which I have been blessed because of that and same thing for you know you were on trajectory of like wealth and power and privilege and then you got to a point where You know something situational happen in your life to where now you’re doing something where you were always probably called to do you just didn’t hear it Yeah, so so the great thing about even though when stress anxiety or worry or suffering comes in our lives.

We think it’s You know, it’s gonna be always a bad thing, but sometimes it redirects us to where God wants us to be, too. Yeah, but that’s the thing. I think the Saints are saying is that when it’s obsessive anxiety, when it’s something that you just, it just is so overwhelming, then you have to be careful like, where’s that, where’s the voice coming from with that?

Yeah, is that something that, is pulling you away from God or pulling you towards God? Yeah, and That’s why I thought it was so interesting. I love researching stuff like this for the podcast. Cause I was like, I wonder what the root word of that is. And it’s like strangle.

Yeah dude, that is the truth. Like it strangles you, like worry strangles you, man. It, that’s why we love heart attacks. That’s why we overeat. That’s why we drink. That’s why we like, it’s like the devil put you in a sleeper move, wrestling, father Martel would love that.

Yeah. But yeah, it does. And it starts to rob you of everything. And it not only strangles those around you. Because when you’re worried and you’re stressed you’re angry because you’re fearful and you’re afraid and that’s what it all leads to and we’ll talk about that in a second.

But like I know when I’m worried and anxious, like I’m not the nicest person to be around. Like I’m short. I answer my wife and kids short. I get what do you mean? That’s a simple thing. Why did you ask that? You should have been able to figure that out. Like stuff I don’t usually say and do.

And it’s usually when I’m worried and stressed out about something, and so that’s why the devil does it. Because if he can get to you, the head of the family, the father the provider, and all the stuff we’ve been told as men, we’re supposed to be. And inside we’re dealing with our own inadequacies.

And the fact that we’re not providing the way that we wanted to, or this or that you start to worry, and then what do you do once he takes out the head of the family? He uses you to go and alienate everyone else in that fear and in that worry and in that concern And so I wanted to talk about that a little bit like how it strangles you and I was thinking about this It’s gonna sound funny, but in the shower this morning, or last night.

I was just like man I really like this idea and then I started thinking it’s ah almost busted and Broke my head getting out of the shower to get a pencil and write something down But it really starts with this, like where does worry start? It starts with a lack of trust in God. It really does.

When we start thinking about something and our mind starts going down these pathways and next thing you know you’re in some Armageddon scenario like in your life and it’s because you’re forgetting that there’s a God who loves you, right? And there’s a God who has a plan for your life. And there’s a God that if you’re giving your life to him and you’re trusting him that he plans nothing but for your good.

He created you. He created you for a reason and purpose. He loves you. Yeah. Why would he allow the worst thing ever to happen to you? In a sense. Yeah. Yeah. We have to realize that, that he doesn’t wish anything bad. Oftentimes we do the bad things to ourselves. Yeah. And it’s he says, like Jesus is like, what kind of father would hand a man a snake when he was a child, a snake when he asked for fish.

Yeah. It’s that kind of thing. But that when you have that lack of trust in God, And you don’t even realize it. It’s no, I love God. And I go to church on those things. Yeah, you can do all those things and really not trust God with your life. Every single one of us struggles with trust.

Surrender is the hardest thing to do in our faith is to fully surrender, but you have to learn to trust God. And in those moments, you’re like, that’s when you can go, okay, you know what? God’s never let me down. So why would he this time? Things may be difficult, but he’s not going to abandon me.

Again, Jesus leaving the 99 to go after the one like. He, he even knows the hairs on your head, all those things that we’ll go through some Bible verses here in a minute, but it starts with this lack of trust. Which leads then like when you don’t trust God, you think, Oh, God’s not going to, I don’t know if he’s going to handle this or not.

So I need to step in. So that lack of trust leads to a retreat towards self sufficiency, right? Like I have to do, I have to figure it out. I have to do it myself. And when you get in that mindset, then you start to figure out, Oh man, I can’t do this myself, or this isn’t in my control. And what can I do about it?

And I can’t see the future. And you start to worry and all those things, which eventually leads you to. Oh gosh, I can’t figure it out and I don’t trust God now. I’m not, I know I’m not enough now. And then that inadequacy that’s in all of us starts to rise and the devil starts to play in that. And you start thinking man, I’m inadequate.

I can’t do this. That leads to fear. I’m afraid. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for my daughter to go to school or Jacob to go to school or I don’t know what’s going to happen in this ministry. We lost some donors last month so what’s going to happen now?

We really needed that money and how are we going to make that up? And like, all of a sudden you get fearful, right? And then you get scared. And when you get fearful. What do you worry right when that fear hits you then you start all those questions What why how when all those things start to come to mind and it starts to just take over and it causes a law it?

leads to a loss of peace and joy and presence and You wind up losing your grasp on the truth And that truth is that God will never abandon you, right? When you lose that idea, you lose your gratitude too. And that’s what I was thinking in that boat. And when I was telling Jacob in the truck, I was like, son, yeah, I was really preoccupied.

And I said, it doesn’t make sense, son. Because every time I’ve ever been worried in the ministry, like I started this nonprofit, we had no money. I gave 2, 000 to lawyers started. I had no money. I was sitting in the floor for weeks on, okay, God, I got a nonprofit. I’m not working. There’s no money coming in.

My family’s suffering like what? Come on, man. Two weeks later, we, I get a call from a guy. I barely know. We started virtual Catholic conference. Which launched all these virtual conferences in the church during COVID. Yeah. Yeah. During COVID and gave me a way to provide for my family for many months until this started growing and taking off.

God’s always been there, right? He didn’t abandon me in that jail cell, right? He allowed Angela and gave her the grace to forgive me and to stay with me, right? He’s never left me in anything. And we can lose our memory of that, of those moments where God has shown up, where God has proven himself.

We forget. And then we get scared. And when we get worried, we get scared, we lose our gratitude and everything starts to take over. And Victor, that’s where most people get and that’s where we start to struggle. Yeah. I think a lot of us forget to do the the thankful inventory look like, how do I get to where I am now?

And a lot of us, if we really go back in hindsight, we see where God’s hand. And God’s influence, the influence of other people that God’s working through helped us to get to where we are. A community of faith is a big thing. It’s just not your parish, your church, it’s other believers who see something in you or who see that you’re a hard worker and maybe need a break, and they give you that, that shot, that opportunity the boss, his name said, and I went to his last thing cause I didn’t get permission for this.

Sure. Sure. Like I was, after working in a while for a place like you village, which I love, but it was just so hard. I had a young family. I was working eight to eight, barely getting paid for that, and then I took a break and I was a stay at home dad for about six, seven months, and then, we had 2008 came around, all that stuff.

So it was I gotta go back to work, but then I worked somewhere, but then, this guy took a shot on me and said, Hey, for his development. I didn’t know what that was. And so he said he interviewed and I did well and, and I got the job and so I’ve been in business development for 10 years.

Working with behavioral health and mental health and substance abuse facilities and being that connector for people needing help, you know So in a way one person gave me that opportunity To expand the influence I can and the kingdom to get people where they need to get because they’re dealing with a lot of traumatic Experiences but also addiction stuff too.

Yeah, and what you’re saying too is that when we look in the past where God’s hand was there, we have to realize that hand will always be there. Sure. And not be so consumed. Yeah, he helped me here. And he helped me here and there and there and there.

But I don’t know if he can do this now. I don’t know if you can help me out what’s going on now because this is crazy. This is, I don’t know how you can do this, but it’s also, it reminds me that what you’re saying reminds me of that footsteps in the sand prayer, like poem or whatever it’s talking about.

Yeah. There were these two footsteps where you were walking with me and then God, all of a sudden, there was only one. Where did you go? And he said, that’s when I was carrying you. That’s your, I was, I had you in my arms. I was carrying you. And it’s something that he, it’s something that he does every day in our life.

If we just forget, we, because of wounds and abandonment issues and all these things in our life, there’s been people that have left us. There’ve been people that we thought we could depend on. All those things. That’s why we talk about healing and wounds and all those things all the time.

So that adds to worry. And that’s what adds to your fear of not being able to trust God or that God’s not going to show up and handle things. But he has spoken to us all throughout scripture and throughout the saints with all the saints about how he’s going to take care of us. And I just want to ramble off some of those real rattle off some of them real quick.

I’ve got a lot of them here, but I want to read them. And then of course, I’ll give you the verses and we’ll have them in the show notes. But Philippians four, six through seven through Paul, he says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

That’s an example. First Peter five, seven, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. So there’s Peter. In the Psalms, Psalm 55, 22, cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Then you hear it from Jesus himself when he’s talking about his father in Matthew 6, 25 34.

He says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, and what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is it not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you no more of value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your life? To his span of life. And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So that’s Jesus speaking to us. And then a couple more here. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

That’s Psalm ninety four nineteen. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm fifty six three. Fear not. I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous hand. Isaiah 41 10. And finally, and this is just a few, there’s tons more in the Bible, Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

That is Proverbs 12 25. Victor, the Bible talks to us constantly about what God says. I’m here. I love you. Don’t be afraid. I’m here. I know even the hairs on your head. It’s a little bit harder for him to count mine than yours, Victor, but but yeah, it is, he knows everything and he knows our needs and our concerns and our worries and he provides, but it’s the evil one that comes to seek and destroy and as I said, we’ve got a couple more saints quotes in here too.

And again, St. Padre Pio, pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and we’ll hear your prayer. So he’s saying like trust again trust just pray the lord needs he knows your needs and he knows what you’re fearful of But tell him he waits for you to speak with him about it, right? And he says it’s anything else is useless.

You’re wasting your life you’re you’re putting stresses on yourself and all these things that you don’t have to and then Of saint francis to sell says this he says it seems to me You ought to resolve to carry out peacefully what you can do not worry about all the rest, but in trust to divine providence, that’s which you are unable to accomplish on your own.

What is pleasing to God is the reasonable care and attention we give to accomplishing well, whatever business we must undertake through duty. What is not pleasing to God is anxiety and disquiet of mind. The Lord wants your limitations and weaknesses to find their support in his strength. He wants us to hope that his goodness will complete and perfect the imperfectness of our means So what’s he saying?

They’re like you ought to carry out peacefully what you can leave everything else to god, right? Leave it to divine providence because god doesn’t want you in anxiety and worry and disquieting of mind. He knows fully well he made us what our limitations and weaknesses are. So give the rest of them and find support in him.

A lot of times that’s what he’s waiting for is us just to give it to him so he can make perfect what we can’t make even near okay. Yeah. And that’s what these great saints are saying. So Victor, I just thought there was those verses and everything we go How can I feel better? There’s a whole book of feel better.

It’s called the word of God, the Bible. And then we have this treasure troves of people that have this great wisdom and these great gifts from the Lord to become saints that have lived through these trials. And there’s, they’re sitting here from the pages of the past yearning to share that information too.

So where do we go in our worries? Back to the treasure trove of the church back to those places that we know the people that went before us and then from god himself where he speaks to us through the prophets through the apostle paul and through christ himself. That’s where we go in these times of worry and in need So how do we what do we do now victor?

We always want to talk about how to so that’s great How do I quit worrying right great that they’ve said all these things well one When these moments come, stop and pray. That’s what I did on that boat. What I told Jacob in the truck, I said, yeah, I’ve been worried and anxious over many things. Like I couldn’t enjoy myself because my mind was just like a water bug on that water, on that lake, just going here and there and everywhere.

And Jacob, what I, you know what I did, he is what, and I said, when I turned the music on and when I started talking towards the end of the trip, I You know, on the boat, he goes, what, yeah, what did you do? And I said, I just gave it to God. Lord, there’s nothing I can do about it. Like you’re presenting this stuff and you’re not going to lay in front of me things that you’re not going to help me complete.

You’re not going to send all this stuff here without a plan and a way. So instead of worrying, Lord, help me to sit down. And to work through it with the people you put in my life, the Ryan Foley’s, the Derek Cummins, the Matthew Leonards the, the, all these people that have been so gracious in my life, the Dr.

Bob’s, the, you all these people that could sit down and help me in the areas that I struggle and I worry because I think I don’t have the gifting to do this, but God, again, has supplied people in my life that do. And so instead of worrying, sit down. And that’s what I got in that prayer. But I never would have gotten that if I hadn’t sat down and asked God to come in that moment.

And that’s what I told Jacob he needed to do in his life to remember all the times that God’s taking care of you. What we talked about earlier, how many times when we’ve been so worried and we’ve lost moments with our family or we’ve been angry or we’ve heard other people because we’ve allowed the worry to become fear and all the processes we went with the lack of trust of God and the self sufficiency and then the fear and then the worry and then the loss of gratitude.

How many times have we allowed that to happen? Because we simply forgot who God is. Like God is a good father. And just like if Jacob came to me or my daughters, Caitlin and Allison said, dad, I need something. I’m not going to say, okay, I don’t care. Go figure it out yourself. Like you can’t come to me.

That’s not my problem. That’s not what I’m going to do. And God’s not going to do that either. So we have to go back and look at the times where God has said, it’s okay. I know. But just stay with me a little longer, right? And I’m going to give you what you need Three ask for his grace to further trust him these places where we worry the devil uses them to destroy But the lord wants to use them to build up.

Yeah, so these places where we worry don’t get upset and oh my gosh I’m worrying again realize that there’s some sort of Some sort of inadequacy or some sort of place where you’re not fully trusting god and this worry It’s not just a tool of the devil to make things go bad, but it’s also the Lord shining a light on a place where you have an opportunity to greater trust in the Lord, right?

To surrender more. And you don’t always have to look at things negatively oh man, I’m starting to worry. Obviously this is a place where God wants to come into and wants to heal me of something and to give me a greater trust in him. Four, this is going to sound funny, but Google verse is about worry.

People go John, I don’t know scripture like you and Victor do or like Dr. Han or whoever. There’s a Google machine, right? Google it. Google it. What are Bible verses about worry? And then sit with the Lord. And let him speak into your heart. You say I can’t hear him in prayer.

Then open up his words and he’s speaking directly to you. That Bible is there to speak to you as a loving father. So find those things, Google saints quotes about worry and take those words as a way to. Yeah. to shore up your own belief in your trusting God. And in scripture, it allows you to find yourself in certain places where other prophets or apostles, disciples are in, like for instance, I’ll be real quick and brief on this, but the thing is a couple of weeks, probably two, three Sundays ago.

And you probably remember this. Where are. Elijah was like just done. He went and he hid under a broom tree to die. Oh, yeah Let me tell you there’s been times where I’ve felt that like I’m done Lord I don’t know what like exhausted in my work in ministry I’m like, I was I want to be a presbyterian minister and then the ordination process said, no, you really think this, or I want to be in the military and I had a back, back tumor and they go and I go, no, you can’t do that.

So it’s what do it’s like, all right, I’m done. I’m done. I thought, and I’ll just sit down and die, like it says in the Bible. And that’s like the human nature of going like, all right, I’ve done everything I can. And we know we haven’t done everything we can, but we’re pouting in a sense because we’re not getting the way that we expect it to happen.

But anyways, I didn’t mean to detract, but the great thing about scripture is that it continues to speak to us, even those living in this 21st century. Yeah. Like wherever you are, God wants to meet you there and that’s one of the greatest ways he does it. And then finally, the last practical thing I would say is the surrender novena, right?

That’s a practical prayer that if you’ve got something that you’re so worried about, Pray that non day surrender novena and give it to the Lord and just give it to him. And when you do really give it to him, make the amend in your life, amend the promise to yourself that I’m not going to worry about anymore.

I’ve given it to God and I’m going to trust him with it. May not work out the way I want and might, but either way it’s in his hands now. And that’s how you start to compete worry in your life. You stop and pray, remember all the times God’s taken care of you and live in that gratitude, ask for his grace to further trust him.

Google verses and saints quotes to help you, people reinforce what God’s saying to you, and then pray that surrender novena, and that’s a good place to start. But folks, worry is going to affect all of us all through our life. You’re never going to escape it, but it doesn’t, you don’t have to waste away your life with worry.

You don’t have to steal from yourself the joy and the peace and the presence of the moment. That’s what the devil wants to do with it, but the Lord wants to use it to shine it. A light into the place in your life where you don’t trust him. So Victor, let’s take it to prayer and let’s pray for a greater trust in the Lord and the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.

Amen. Heavenly father, there’s so many times in places where we don’t trust you fully. Instead of remembering who you are and finding great confidence in all the things you’ve done for us, we surrendered to the enemy and we get caught up in worry and anxiety. Lord, all that does is steal joy presence.

And in peace lord, we know that you want to bring those things back to us So as we leave here today, please invite us into a greater trust with you Give us the grace to find it And then help us to remember to turn all of our worries our anxieties and cast them on to you And your most holy name we pray in the name of the father son and the holy spirit.

Amen