How are you during these autumn days? Is your soul serene? 
Are you able to relax, or are you racing around like mad to keep up with life? 
One of my birthday gifts is a new mug that says “Too Blessed to be Stressed,” and as I was pouring out a cup of steaming coffee to perk me up, I thought to myself, “Don’t I wish!” October is one of my favorite months, but I never seem able to say “No, thanks!” to just about anybody for anything,
so I’m always feeling a little over my head. 
Yesterday I enjoyed volunteering for my son Dan as a representative of H.I.S. 
(medical clinic which ministers to the uninsured and underserved in GR), 
greeting ArtPrize guests to the Harris Building (one of many ArtPrize venues). 
Wednesday and this morning I sat in on a class, not only for my own enrichment, but so I’ll know the students better before guest lecturing next week. 
Last week I had the happy privilege of hanging one of my 20 collages 
at the Acton Institute, and in conjunction with that, 
I attended an art discussion there where my friend Marissa Voytenko 
—who’s an abstract encaustic painter and has a beautiful exhibition
called “Quiet Spaces” on display if anybody’s interested— 
was interviewed by GR art critic and curator, Joel Zwart. 
My guess it that you are similarly busy—or even more so—
no matter who you are or where you live in this great world of ours. 
For those of us who can, why don’t we just kick back and relax?
Maybe some of you do, but I’ve found that industry and enterprise are deep in my DNA, and that I’m geared to go. Psychological testing indicates that this is generally true for us as human beings. People don’t function as well under conditions of no stress, low stress, or even medium stress as they do under conditions of relatively high stress (as long as it’s not so stressful that the person can’t cope). Did you know that? 
The miracle to me is that when I’m saying “Yes” because I think it’s something God wants me to do, “somehow” things usually come together so that I can slide into home plate without getting tagged out. Like yesterday. It was so quiet downtown that the curator at the Harris Building told me I didn’t need to stay until the end, springing me just in time to work on this post! Voilá!
I think God delights in getting us over our heads
so that He can amaze us with his resourcefulness. 
What do you think? Next time we’re feeling too stressed to be blessed,
let’s turn it around and say, “I’m too stressed in order to be blessed!” 
“So, Lord, I’m here again…in need of rescue! Help!
Will you please take this situation, which seems impossible,
and make it all work out right, in your eyes, for your glory?”
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
(2 Chronicles 16:9)
(I find that the Lord is very gracious even to those of us who don’t perfectly succeed in our desire to have a perfect heart…)
(All the pictures were taken in the past two weeks during ArtPrize at:
Meijer Garden, my messy desk, Acton Institute, and the Harris Building.)
