Welcome to better today with your host Shawn Maguire and with over 25 years of counseling experience, this is the Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcast that inspires you to create both an amazing family and marriage. This is the Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcast. It helps you to navigate the challenges of modern life. In this Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcast, you will be given the same tools, techniques, and stories that Sean and his team have used to help thousands of people to transform their lives. If you’re ready to make real progress, that will change your marriage, your family, and your life. Then get ready because better today starts now. How are you doing my brother, man, it’s going really good. How are you this morning? And I think
the more Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcasts we do, the more excited we get every single time. Can’t you guys tell that are listening and we’re excited that you’re here. It’s also not 6:00 AM or 5:00 AM anymore, right? So maybe we’re waking up to a little bit. I didn’t get my coffee yet and get your coffee. We did a little [inaudible]. We did a little prayer. Yeah, that’s good. It’s always good to pray every time. You know, I’m excited about our topic today. It’s how to overcome anxiety. The secret to a life well lived. Yes. Reminds me of a story. I was at this place called Carlton landing, Carlton landing. It’s in a rural by you follow Lake Oklahoma and it looks like seaside in, in Florida. It’s amazing. These beach houses like wood planked walkways, a little, I mean it was just amazing little culture. It’s unbelievable really. And we’re at this hillbilly like waterpark called the whip, it whip it and it’s this ultimate Ninja Warrior course on the water with rafts and big things.
You job walls, you scale, you climb, sounds like fun to me. It was a lot of fun, yet it’s actually swim out into the lake to get on it and getting on it was even a challenge. So I’ve ever been out there and then all of a sudden everything got quiet and I’m looking around and I’m saying, what in the world is going on? Crickets. And I looked and this guy was in the water. It looked like he was struggling. And so I ran as fast as I could. And, uh, me and this guy we ran from different places. We ran into each other like head on. Yeah. Well man, I kinda did a move cause he’s probably twice my size and he fell out. You did the is Smith Smith. He’s a 40 [inaudible] Eddie. He slid out and I slipped by him and uh, it means he fell down into the water.
Wow. I ran in, I dove in and not even thinking, help this guy get up onto the platform so that he could breathe and you know, they’re going through what was going on. Well, this guy almost drown. You know why he drowned? Almost drowned. Why did he almost fell Sean? He had an anxiety attack on the bowls. Man. An anxiety tack in the water is a bad thing. Wow. I mean, he couldn’t breathe. He thought he was dying. He was in and out, in and out. And so I just think anxiety is such a pervasive issue in our culture today. Yeah.
Such a big thing that’s so much pressure. Very, very, a humbling story. But it’s the reality for many of us. And I can only imagine. Imagine what you felt at that time better yet with what he felt at that.
Yeah. They had to get a kayaks and canoes out there to come kick him up and he was the big guys by about two 52 50 that’s a big boy. Yeah, and you know, I just want to think, how many of you guys listening today, how many of you struggle with anxiety? How many of you, how many of you would say that anxiety’s a big issue for you, that you struggle to overcome anxiety in your life? Because I know on real talk, real walk, our goal is to give you practical tools to deal with the real issues that you guys face, and I know that anxiety is something that almost all of my clients that come into the counseling office struggle with at some level. Some are great, some are small. Yeah. It’s actually really rare that I see somebody that anxiety doesn’t have some part to play and why they came to my office.
It’s really good. Whether it’s through obsessive compulsive disorder, marriage issues, parenting struggles, depression, fear of failure, overwhelming anxiety, you know, overwhelmed with their job. Stress, anxiety plays a role. You know, I remember growing up, this was never talked about in my church. I don’t remember one time anybody ever talking about anxiety or how to deal with fears, how to deal with emotions ever. I don’t, I remember the Bible and I, and I just think some of the people that I was raised around or had conversations with, you know, you’d say, well you just start growth anxiety. No, I don’t struggle with anxiety. I’m a Christian. Don’t you know what first John, when it says that perfect love drives out fear. The one who years is not made perfect in love. I don’t have anxiety because I’m a Christian. Wow. I think that’s a really dangerous place to live.
Yeah. Cause you know the statistics say one at a five people have a severe, severe issue with anxiety and I want to say five. Well I had a five and I would say that might be a diagnosable, borderline diagnosable issue. One at a five people. Now that’s not even counting the people like us that have anxiety situations or that have seasons where we are feeling more anxious because of our kids, because of that job, because of our marriage or health. And one out of five think about that. One out of five, one of the research studies I read said they could be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at some level. And I would say that’s true in my office. I could see that if people were honest with what they think about how they feel and how they act, that anxiety out of their life. Yeah. So many parents parent out of anxiety.
So would you say Sean, the root of anxiety is basically being rooted in how you feel, you know, that makes you incapable of, you know, you know, walking through a new challenge or walking through a new season.
I think there is a multilevel issues that create, and I think it starts with our, the way we think about life, the way we process information. Because if I don’t, if I’m living in a place with God or I’m at peace with who I am in him. And I’m good and I’m confident and I really that that that’s a belief system that I hold and I’m not looking to please others. I’m not looking to make riches. I’m not looking to make this world my forever home, by the way. Yeah. If I had those thoughts, I’m going to be a person that lives more peace. But if I’m a a typical person, a typical Christian, yeah. I think of you guys by a show of hands. How many of you struggled with anxiety or fear or worry a lot about what people think about your money situation, about your relationships? Just raise your hands now. Social media, we can literally do this. They can like put all these,
hey, yeah, August. Right? We expect to see a ton of emojis by the way, right now because woo, if you haven’t struggled with anxiety, you may be holding back to right Emoji emojis on youtube. Exactly. So if this is a normal
crowd, that means about 85% of you, if you’re being honest, but it likely have your hand up.
Yeah. 85% 85% yeah. Yeah. You here me almost struggle with it at some level. So good in Jesus. Jesus spoke about this. He knew all about the causes of anxiety, anxiety over one’s basic needs for life was a huge problem that uh, he taught his disciples when he said, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. What you will eat, what you will drink, what you will wear for the pagans were about these things, you know, in like he was raised, Lee, you having us re posture to him who he is in him. There is no anxiety. There’s peace available to each and every one of us.
That’s so good. Yeah. And if you think about it, those of you that raised your hands, I want you to ask, I’m going to ask you another question. How many of you know that God loves you? So wait, wait. So you’re telling me that first John Four 18 says, perfect love drives out fear. Wow. But yet those of us that believe God loves us can still have anxiety. So this is meant to be freeing for so many of you listening that have grown up in the church or are Christians because this is part of the life experience we have on this earth is to find ways in God, wow. To discover the treasures of how to handle this life. And you’ve got to do that. It says the Lord hides the treasures but is the glory of kings to search it out. Oh Wow. This thing could be have the expectation that it’s going to be a process and a journey to address the issue of anxiety. Then you’ll be a lot more successful and being gracious to yourself and actually making decisions that can have a longterm benefit in your life.
Wow. So the joy for the journey is predicated on how we, how we give, give that anxiety of our worries, our cares away to God and trust
how we think about its PR. You know, the mind is about the mind is where the battle is won and lost in the body, executes what the mind conceives. So the body executes with the mind conceives. And if you think about it, there is a whole industry called the pharmaceutical industry. That is, it is a true ty trillion dollar industry. And what they do is they have a goal of getting a drug for every emotion that you experience that is negative. So they can, instead of dealing with code, creating coping skills that actually help you deal with the root issue. So you don’t need a drug, their goal is to give you a drug immediately to compensate for it. Now, what we know about medication is most of them don’t last exactly. Anything that you’ve been out for two years, three years, five years, there’s a great chance of your body will acclimate to it at some point. Yeah. And then it won’t work anymore. Or the side effects becomes so severe that it becomes greater than the power of what it does. That’s wow.
So regardless, you know, we start off in that dark, dark place and then we look for the escape, which is the drugs, the medicine, but it snaps right back to where we were, which is that dark place. You know that anxiety, that fear, that depression.
That’s why people vape. That’s what people smoke. That’s what people drink. That’s all. Get hobbies and to get obsessive about it. That’s why people are workaholics. That’s what people don’t want any free time to let their mind think. That’s why people listen to stuff in the shower. That’s like when they first get up. They do social media. That’s still, there’s no space in your life to actually think about your life issues or things that God wants to set you free from truth. If you narcotize them through some kind of a drug, through alcohol, through pornography, through too many relationships that are unhealthy. Yeah. Eddy median even serving in church nonstop.
That’s how you can, that’s an escape for a lot of people.
Well, can be an escape from dealing with the anxiety will then the devil, look, he doesn’t care where you go as long as it’s not too God. Wow. They care. It’s good. Have Your Bible and you’re reading as long as you’re just doing it for a thing to do instead of a person to know. Wow. So you’re reading your Bible to check it off a list to say you did it. To reduce anxiety instead of to get to know God, he doesn’t care what you do as long as it’s not pursuing God. Wow.
And Jesus referred to anxiety in an interesting way. He said in Matthew Chapter 13, verse 22, uh, the cares of this world, he’s had big choke the word so that the person becomes unfruitful. You know, that many of us are probably aren’t bearing the fruits because we haven’t allowed God to bear our burdens. You know, by going to him, you know, it is
a daily consistent. They roll never this side of heaven get to your place or we stopped pursuing the Lord where we are. We don’t have the decision to make, to face the anxiety. You know, I remember I was in this rock climbing experience with my son and we started out and the guy says, listen, this carabiner here, this thing is so strong, it can hold an entire bus full of men. See this rope, this rope could pull it up, a space shuttle out of an ocean. And he starts going through all these things. Do you believe me? Do you see it? And we’re like, yes, yes, yes. And we go through all these different things about, and if this falls, I’ve never lost a person on this climb. I’ve never, and he goes through all the different things that have happened and you know, my son and our listening, yeah, we’ve been rock climbing before.
And so it’s not a big deal. Some people say these kinds of things, you know that your criminal works. Got It. Well, it just so happens, this was the highest Walt we’ve ever scaled. Highest Walt. We’ve ever scaled. And so we get there and we do it and we do a few little ones. We’re good. And we get into the big one. Ah, it’s so scary. And we’re up there. And I think in my mind, I think in my mind I could die, but at least my son will know I’m brave. Yeah. Yeah. Now he might not know him, intelligent, but he’ll know I’m brave. I had a kid I headed up the harness on. I had everything on, but I remember on the ground, not in adversity, I didn’t have any anxiety and the guy was talking about our safe. It was great. It was how my resources were tried and true, how he’s a God that’s never lost anybody, which is great, right? Yeah. You don’t want to go to the guy that has lost a lot of people, at least about, I haven’t lost anybody this year and it’s January. Wow. And I’m up there in the adversity and I’m having to make decisions. Do I trust the harness? Do I trust the Caribbean or around me?
Wow. Come on.
And I think it’s so often we get in these situations with God when we’re in Sunday mornings or Wednesday night or whenever your community group meets and you talk about God and you have these nice conversations about how he’s faithful, how Peter screwed up because he rejected Jesus and betrayed him for a while. Wow. This whole truth. Let me look at her own lies. I’m just saying it’s real. Yeah. We have a struggle every day or do we appropriate the power of God through biblical principles and scripture by the way that we choose to think about the thoughts and be allowed to stay in our head. By the way we live our lives.
That’s really good. Really good shot. Um, I think about this too, Sean, cause I live in a, you know, place now where I’m straight social media for a lot of my work. A lot of the time I spend connected with other influencers and just Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcasts. You know, we’re doing a ton of stuff online now. Here’s the thing, we have, like I go to a youth camp, a camp yesterday, they actually had the take away kids cell phones, you know, and I thought it was an awesome thing to do, you know, so they can be present so they can, you know, really seek God. It’s hard. But a lot of the things that I really gathered from this week is they, a lot of kids were, you know, upset that they couldn’t connect with other friends that weren’t there and they wanted their phone to call their parents.
Oh sure. Kind of things going on. But like as I do research on some of these things, I find out that doctors came up with a word called Ring Zion. You know, where is the further of missing out and different things like that. People get to a stoplight. For instance, you may be driving your car right now, you may have your phone riding your hand. You know, the reality is lots in us, whoa. Yeah. Many of us feel like, um, that’s a big part of our anxiety. Like missing out the keys. We can try with that.
Well, it’s trying to keep up. So I think that so many of us have this idea of what life should look like and we believe the lies that if we’re not engaged in every opportunity, that we are missing out, that our life is somehow less than ideal. Yeah. But the reality is we have more information available to us in a day than our grandparents had in a lifetime. Wow. So I think it’s not the information, it’s not the thousands or hundreds of connections that are going to bring you life. It’s the one first with God. Wow. And it’s the other ones that he calls you to. So if you have that one connect connection with God, that’s real. That’s true. That’s tried well. Then just like me, myself, when I’m up there in the air, it’s a different experience. Climbing that rock. When I was on the ground, the guys like this carabiner can hold a bus.
This, this rope could pull, uh, the space shuttle out of the ocean. He’s going over that harness. The harness is so snug. You could use a possible slip out. And I’m like, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I know. And by the way, I know, I know. And I’m not being saying that was prideful, but I’ve heard this speech so many times and so many different ways, but when I was on the top, my actions betrayed my beliefs is I had a moment where I froze. Wow. I had a moment where I froze and I looked down and there was my son way down there. Yeah. But my actions betrayed my beliefs. Do. I really believe what is safe on the ground will be safe in the air when I’m scaling the wall and that’s like the mountain that God calls us all to climb towards him. Is the mountain like that Moses Clown Sinai? Yeah. It’s the calling to live out this life. Trusting him. Even when we’re scared, we’re afraid.
That’s really good. The shortest step in your life can be the biggest step with God in a, and this is the quote thing, seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things should be added OMT but see God seek him and like he’s with you through all of that. That’s really good Shah.
And you know sometimes you can’t take a step. You’ve got to take a leap. Nobody’s takes a step across the Grand Canyon and it makes it, makes it out to survive. Some situations, my brother, you simply must take the leap.
Yeah, take the leave, walk by faith and not by sight. Even if it’s
high in the air, like you rather well brother. Yeah, we are on our time going to wrap this one up because we’re going to do a part two plot, probably part three, part four. There’s so much content, but we wanted to engage you first to just help you appreciate that. As Christians you can feel anxiety and you can love God at the same, the real life that we live, the real talk that we have, the real walk that we get to enjoy real talk, real walk is, is filled with temptations. To be anxious is filled with real problems that God will make a way for you to see quaintly start stepping out of and you may not have step five available. You may just have the next step and next step. That’s really good. So guys, I encourage you to identify the areas of your life that you feel like you’re struggling with anxiety in, and we’re going to go to the second Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcast on this issue.
We’re going to jump more in and we’re going to get some strategies as we go through it. God, but there’s so much value. Sometimes people go so quickly to the strategies, which I am very, very guilty of this often. Yeah. Yeah. We miss out on the connection point that we’re real people and that we do struggle and it’s in it and it’s part of the process that God understands our frailty as humans loves us. And it’s not the overwhelming information that’s going to change your life. It’s a little bit of information that God breathed his life upon the ads you actually apply to your life and live out as your destiny. So true. So true. Shine. Whew. The more we trust in God, the more we can rely on him. Hey Man, and you know, if you guys say this is great, but I need more. We have a counseling practice called nuvision counseling and consulting, and we have a team of biblical counselors that marry Biblical truths with cutting edge counseling techniques that would love to join you in your story. And if you want to connect with one of them, go to New Vision counseling that live division, counseling.live live.org. We say this every week.
Where’s the coffees? True? Yeah, there we go. You guys didn’t even have, not yet. It would mean the world to us. If you could go rate us on iTunes and we have social media, we have youtube, we have all these. Shawn was engaging in put. It really helps get the word out that you do not have to stay the same, that God has a way forward. Taking biblical principles and applying through practical strategies. No walk. Real talk pod Christian and premarital counseling in Edmond podcast where the influencer meets the councilor influence around the street, meets the counselor. Woo Week and we’ll talk to you again really soon. God bless. Peace out. Peace out.