BraveMen S4E102: John Arana - Anxiety

You know, I was flying recently into Montana and I came across this statistic that just really rocked me. And it said that 68% of teenagers in America, young teens in America, feel a sense of depression or have acute anxiety. Now, we live in the United States, that's where I live, which is one of the most affluent dynamic cultures to ever appear on planet Earth. And we're expanding our knowledge, but I think we're shrinking our hearts, and we're becoming more anxious about things than ever before, with me today on Brave Men as John Arana. And John, you're a leadership specialist, and you're also a wise counselor to a lot of people. You must deal with a lot of situations where people are anxious constantly. I mean, the society that we live in today, everything is changing so fast, you know, the social media, the negative of the aspect of the news, and people are just constantly just thinking like, oh my gosh, like a cloud of anxiety hangs over all of us, doesn't that totally? It's like, it's like, wherever you go, it's like following you. Yeah, it's almost like part of the culture, you know, man, no kidding. Yeah, I mean, do you think that's why people get so mad? I think that tends to, I think people come out and irritate it. Yeah, irritate it, you know, frustrate it, and obviously there's also the anger side of it. Yeah, a lot of people waving at each other on the streetway, like you can say it that way, you can say it that way. Like waving at each other, you're number one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, we're going to talk about overcoming anxiety today on Brave Men. This is going to be a tremendous program and podcast. Thanks for being with us. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. Brave Men podcast is a production of the Christian Men's Network and the Global Fatherhood Initiative. You can find all our resources at cmn.men. That's Christian Men's Network, cmn.men. Sometimes I get going into the program and I forget to tell everybody, hey, here's where to find tools and materials. There's also over 400 hours of videos that have been curated just for men that are on a chief lab, which is part of cmn.men. And so you can go there, find that resources. Be a monthly partner with us as we go into the dangerous nations of the world with the dangerous nations campaign into Iran, Vietnam, Thailand, different parts of the world. And of course, we've built this podcast, you know, and other digital tools to be able to do that with me today is John Aronner, Pastor of Oasis Church in Arlington, Texas. You know, I wonder sometimes one of the things when we talk about anxiety and we get anxious and the negativity of this earth. I wonder if we don't doubt the strength of God, like we know He's strong and powerful, but maybe our anxiousness or anxiety comes from we just doubt His faithfulness. We don't know if He's going to be there. That's a good thought. Because we put our humanity on Him. That's a good thought. Right? Yeah. I think you're on it. I think you're on it because we lose sight. We lose sight of God because we're so focused on the circumstances and so focused on, I don't have this or I'm going to lose my job or I don't have enough money to pay the bills and wow, we just lost our sight on God. Wow. No, those are real things. Yeah, of course. Okay, that's real stuff. So anxiety isn't necessarily the fact that there shouldn't be storms. Right. Okay, everybody has storms in life. Right? We look at the life of Jesus. The disciples were in storms. The disciples had persecutions. Stuff happens. So there's always storms in life. There's always crisis in life. Right? Somebody said, crisis is normal to life. Crisis is normal to life, man. Yeah, that's in our materials. That's in a maximized manhood. Yeah. You know, crisis is normal to life. Yeah. And we get anxiety and stress easily. Yeah. You know what I think, John? I think that, you know, in doubting the faithfulness of God, we humanize God. And I think a way to unhumanize God. Is that a word? I don't know if it is. It is now. Sounds good. Yeah. I get it. A guy that was born into Bronx. That sounds like a word. Oh, man. Yeah, absolutely. How do we unhumanize God? It's probably dehumanized. I don't know what it is. The fact is, is how do we put God in a rifle place in our lives? And I'm going to tell you, man, it is, I think, the daily ritual is a huge... I know I keep coming back to that. Yeah. I come back to it a lot. Because without my daily ritual, I think it's fundamental. Being in the word prayer. Yeah. Cup coffee. Yeah. You know, without the daily, in other words, I think there's a... And it doesn't matter where I'm at in the world. Because I travel half the year, basically. I do the same things in the morning. Absolutely. Same things no matter where I'm at. And it may not be at... You know, I normally start my day. I don't start my day real early. I don't start my day till about 6, 15, 6, 30. Yeah. Okay? And I know I've got my friends, you know, in the 5 a.m. club and all that stuff. And, you know, whatever. God bless you guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to start the 9 a.m. club. They think they're special. I'm going to start the 9 a.m. club. You know, Jacco, he's got that little 430 thing he always always showing his watch on his Instagram. Yeah. And yeah, good for you. Yeah, good for you. But here's the deal. Here's my thing. Whenever that starts, 530 in the morning, 6, you know, I... Coach McCartney, I'll never forget this. And God bless that man for what he's done in the world today. And the great influencer he is. And I pray for him in his latter years. An amazing man. A coach one time, he got up in front of a bunch of men and he said, hey, how many guys here would like an extra 180 hours a year? Extra 180. It's like a week, right? Sure. He goes, everybody, yeah, I want an extra 180. He says, I got, I got the way to do it. Yeah, I get what he says, get up a half hour earlier every day. That's it. And I think routine can reduce anxiety and stress. Yeah. I think, you know, Judy and I had this time in our lives, a real crisis. And we were in Hartford, Connecticut, we'd gone there to get into the television business. And we were there. And then all of a sudden, kind of that television station that we went to work for shifted change. All of a sudden, we're stuck. We're in Hartford. We're from California. Oh, man. And two Cali kids stuck in Connecticut. Oh, my gosh. And, you know, and we've made it through a winter. Yeah. And now it's coming to summer again. And we've been there about a year. And the Lord just gave us a scripture of Psalm 46. And we just begin to pray. The peace of God overlies begin to pray for direction. Move back to California. And it was in right after that that I became one of the first employees at Trinity Broadcasting Networks. Oh, my gosh. We don't call crowds. Look at that. And when I got there, we had, the first week I was there, we had one camera. One camera. This is a multi-billion dollar network now. It goes around the world. That was awesome. But we have one camera. A lot of times. But the fact is, is that that routine of Judy and I, Neil, we actually melt down together day after day. A couple times a day. And they're more recently with her cancer. Sure. You know, that she's now totally free of. Thank you. We did communion together. That's awesome. Almost every day. We prayed together every day. And then she did communion every day. And then we would do it together almost every day. Yeah. And those times of ritual, that routine of being in the Word, begin to transform our mind. Right? Romans 12, too. Yeah. How do you change your life? Yeah. Transform your life by changing the way you think. Yeah. Anxiety. Anxiety is, if you will, not hoping in God. Yeah. Right. It's definitely taking your focus off of God's ability and putting it on yours. Psalm 24. Let me give you a psalm. If you're dealing with anxiety, because anxiety is a real thing. And I don't want to minimize it. No, no. At all. If 68% of our young people have anxiety, then probably 50% of us who are older have anxiety. At some level. Anxiety about the future. Yeah. As with the whole group of men recently. And that was one of the number one issues. Because of all the pandemic stuff. Yeah. And down and the disparity in wealth and all these different things. You know, what's a future hole? Right. A lot of anxiety. Right. And we can say, well, I just trust God. But then we also are like, yeah, but I got to pay the electric bill. You know, I'm trusting God. I'm going to pay the electric bill. And there's some things you just have to do. Yeah. Right in front of you. But one of the things that really struck me recently was reading through psalms. And again, I read every morning, I'll read Proverbs psalms. I go through different Bible reading plans on your version. Right now I'm going through Hebrews. Two different plans on the book of the Hebrews, which has just been fantastic. Wow. And so one of the things that hit me recently was reading psalm 24. Which in the liturgy of the church and the calendar of the church calendar. Came up a few weeks ago. Okay. And psalm 24 says everything belongs. It says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness. Okay. It actually means God created everything and he owns it. He owns it. He owns it. Yeah. Okay. That means he's the creator and the finisher. Now the end of psalm 24, I should have pulled it up. That would have been better. But nonetheless, it says, who is this king of glory? The Lord God Almighty. We've all heard those scriptures. Right. Well, the start of that that sets up. Who is this king of glory? The Lord God Almighty. Yeah. What sets that up is the very first verse. Which is everything belongs to God and he owns it. Which means if he began it, he'll finish it. Yeah. If he's the author, he's the completer. If he's the alpha, he's the omega. Okay. I'm in the middle of the fact that he owns everything. So if he started it, he'll be the redeemer of the earth. Now that takes the pressure of performance off me. That's right. Right. That's right. So most of our anxiety, I think, is performance anxiety. Sure. I got to come up with a solution. I got to come up with how we're going to get it done. I got to come up with how we're going to raise this money. I got to come up with, you know, it's obviously you got to do your part. But I mean, how could you do stuff and not even count on God? Especially when we're talking about, you know, ministry or even running your business or, you know, investing money. I mean, you have to put some degree of trust in God and not just on yourself. I think a lot of it, you're hitting it right on the money, I think Paul, because when you take that time, whether it's early in the morning or nine o'clock, whatever it is, and you take that time to pray to read the scriptures, I think it just does something to shift your focus and get you in the right frame of mind, get you in the right priority to be able to face the day. And I think that is key to dealing with the anxiety. Yeah, no question. Yeah, you know, the thing is, here's a deal. Don't never be an end to stress. If you have no stress, you're dead. You're dead. Basically, you better check your pulse, bro, because you may be gone. You may be. What was that movie where I see dead people? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see dead people. It was a Bruce Willis or Bruce Willis. Yeah, yeah. I went over the name of that. It turns out he was dead. That's why, you know, when the kid goes, I see dead people. I go, I see you. He didn't get it. And none of us got it till the end. It was really a great movie. But the fact is, stress is normal to life. And a certain amount of stress is actually not bad. Yeah. Because, look at a guitar or a stringed instrument. If you don't have a little bit of stress, it won't make music. Exactly. So I think stress helps us rely on God, right? Yeah. Lean into Him. Yeah. Lean into our brothers. Sure. I think that stress, I think, is where I can't tell you how many times and you've had it a hundred thousand times, where a man have called you. Why? When do they call you? Late or too early. Too early or late. But it's when you're stressed. Yeah. Right? I remember one guy. I mean, this went on for about a month. And about every couple of days he'd call me. And it's like midnight, one in the morning. It's like when he's stressed, dude, I'm not. I'm sleeping. Right. But he would call. And I remember one time, I just go, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on. What do you hear? He goes, what do you mean? I go, what do you hear right now? Just pause for a second. Yeah. And he says, nothing. I said, no, I hear you breathing. What that means is we're at least got that part down. And God can go from there. Oh. The fact is, is that in basketball, football and all of life, you know, they keep score and things. That produces stress and tension. Stress and tension and jobs. It's very real. I would never minimize it. But I would say, let's begin to, let's begin to depend on God's ability to give us a word to provide a way out. Yeah. Let's trust him. Yeah. Let's go after him. Yeah. Yeah. And what we've said a lot in Christmas network is hope is alive. Hope has a name. Hope's name is Jesus. Oh, that's good. Amen. I like it. So Romans 15, 13, write that down or get it. Romans 15, 13 says that may the God of all hope, the source of hope, fill you to overflowing. So then in your life, you'll be filled with joy. That's good. Joy comes from beginning to really hoping him. No. How do we practice that? I would say for somebody listening right now, if you're listening right now to me, bro, I don't think you can just pull over the side of the road, pray, and it's done. I think you need a band of brothers. I think you need a group of guys. You need to be in a local church. You need to be connected. Don't just go sitting the back, go, okay, did my thing. Or, hey, yeah, it doesn't work. No. You can become anxious about that. Get involved with some guys. Get with some men and know how to pray for each other. Just, you know, I think it's cool to go fishing together and all that. But I think there has to be a moment where you go, too, what's up? Yeah, exactly. And you pray for each other. Sure. So get into a band of brothers. Get with, we believe in brotherhood. In fact, our next podcast of John and I are going to do is about brotherhood and friendship. And it's extremely important. And I believe that Colossians 1, Colossians 1, let me just finish with this. Your hearts can soar with joyful gratitude when you think of how God made you worthy to receive the glorious inheritance freely given to us by living in the light. This is Colossians 1 versus 12 through 14. He has rescued us completely from the tyrannical rule of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom realm of his beloved son. For in the Son all our sins are cancelled. Man, that's the end of anxiety for me. All my sins are cancelled and we have the release of redemption through his very blood. Thanks for being with us today on Brave Men. We do have the affirmations of a Jesus follower which you would really enjoy. Write to me at Paul at cmn.ment, Paul at cmn.ment. All the tools you need to build strong men to help with your family or your men's group or your church as a pastor and a leader. To build strong men, strong families and strong churches, you'll find it at cmn.ment. And join us November 4 through 6 this year, 2021. Or every year, the first weekend of November, we do the Lions World Global Summit, which is a summit on Christian manhood. And a lot of our leaders come from around the world to join us today. cmn.ment. God bless you. Remember hope is alive. Hope has the name. Hope's name is Jesus. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian men's network. Connect with Paul at cmn.ment or write to him at Paul at cmn.ment. You