At this point, the prevalence and causes of anxiety in the current generation are common knowledge. The books have been written, and the podcasts have been recorded. No stats are necessary to convince you that it’s an epidemic. While I am hopeful that natural cultural cycles (such as a departure from social media) and supernatural grace may turn the tides of internal turmoil, stress and anxiety have become pillars of Western living.
So, while we gnaw at the root in classrooms and science labs, the fact remains: People live overwhelmed lives, and they require shepherding right where they are. Their pastors and elders are shepherding them — but the royal priesthood of believers has also been given sufficient wisdom from the Scriptures to love one another through the thick of it. If anxiety is everywhere, we need everyone’s help.
What follows is an alliterative arrangement of principles that God has taught me through my own feeble shepherding of the super-stressed (a.k.a. college students) over the past couple decades.
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