Exchange Zone

As I sit down to write this morning, I feel distracted and unfocused. My workspace is completely silent, but there’s a superhighway running in my head. Even Makayla noticed as I drove her to school. “Dad, you’re not singing.” It’s a little running joke we have about auditioning for The Voice. She was right; I was busy with buzz. Not anxious, just mulling many things. 
 
Back when I first got an iPhone, I was thrilled with the multiple uses and available apps. I tapped, swiped and launched dozens of them in the palm of my hand. In time, I found my screen bogging down and seizing up, and couldn’t figure out why.
 
A friend of mine asked if I had ever closed the applications? I shrugged, saying that I was a user of technology, not a student of it. 
 
With two clicks of the home button and a continual upward swipe of the screen, he closed everything running in the background. “Man, it looks like you haven’t shut anything down for months. The computing power is over-taxed refreshing all those apps.” That was still a little over my head at the time but, in short order, my phone was working smoothly again. 
 
I love simple solutions to frustrating issues, especially with technology. I wish they were all that way.
 
If I’m honest, I’ve had some items running unopposed in my mind and heart for a few weeks. I wouldn’t call it anxiety, more like things in tension.  Regardless, they keep making withdrawals rather than deposits on my emotional life. I’ve been working to “pick up” the attributes described in Philippians 4:8-9 yet have too easily skipped over verses 6 and 7. Before you can pick something up, you must let something loose. 
 

"The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be make known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Truth is, when we lay the “things in tension” down on the table and push them across to Jesus, he makes an exchange. It doesn’t make sense, nor does it seem equitable, but it’s a divine exchange, His peace for your anxiety.  The validation of its truth is felt on the heart and in the mind. It’s the way God closes what’s running in the background.   
 
How are you doing these days? Seized up, bogged down? If so, sit across the table from Jesus and exchange some things.