Philippians 4:4-6 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.

The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

*Today I want to share with you a time when I went from anxious to peaceful, not by my own works, but through God alone. Back when I was in high school, I struggled with being the youngest of three girls, following behind my two incredible sisters. They were both smart, studious people who understood technology like it was the back of their hand. They were headed down the engineering path, following in my dads footsteps. Being the youngest of three children, I felt like I had to follow in their footsteps as well. So when I started looking into colleges, I decided that I wanted to be an environmental engineer. It was a great plan. I was going to learn all the hard science and technological aspects of sustainability and then save the world by making cars that run on toxins in the air and efficient packaging techniques that created no excess. It was the summer after junior year that God revealed to me a different plan for my future When my youth group was at Carolina Cross Connection, a senior high summer mission week, I felt a call to ministry for the first time. I didnt know what it meant, where I was going or what I was doing, but I knew I felt called. The moment when I felt my call to ministry was one of fear combined with excitement, of complete uncertainty mixed with a strange sense of comfort. Even in the midst of the not-knowing, I felt Gods peace come over me. I was called to ministry, whatever that meant in my life, and I had faith that God would provide direction and guidance for me throughout my journey of discernment.

*Ever since then, I have definitely still had my challenges and struggles through my process of discernment. My first year at Virginia Tech was a tough one. I faced lots of adversity, not knowing where I fit in, who my friends were or what I was doing with my life. I had no idea where I was being called to serve and questioned my friendships daily. I missed my solid support group of friends and my church family that I had in high school. I had this conflict of being involved with SERVE, my community-service based living learning community, and Wesley, my campus ministry. There was so much that I wanted to do with both and just not enough time to do it all. I still had no idea where I was being called. The only thing that was certain in my life was that benefit concerts were something that produced a lot of good fruit, so I held that thought close and ran with it.

*Benefit concerts have been a huge part of my life for the past three years. They are a blend of music and mission, two things I am passionate about in my life. My junior year of high school, my friend and I started the Matthew 25:35 Ministry. Based on the verse in the gospel of Matthew, we are trying to spread love and peace to our neighbors through intentional service to others through Christian community, centered solely around music. Rather than focusing on the bad, we focus on the hope, on what we can do to be here for our brothers and sisters in Christ who have less than we do. We use Matthew 25:35 as a guide and have brought clothes, specifically winter coats to those who are without. We have brought food to those people who are living in shelters or on the streets and may not have any otherwise. We have participated in fellowship with our neighbors in Richmond who don't have a place to call home. We have visited with older adults in a local assisted living facility and brought them homemade blankets, as a tangible way to show our love. This year, we are baking cookies, writing letters and donating money to support the Kairos prison ministry, a group that holds spiritual weekends in prisons around the world, in order to let those who are incarcerated know that they are not forgotten and that they are worthy of love. 2

*We had made a decision to expand our ministry and have a benefit concert at Wesley at Virginia Tech last winter. The month before the concert was a stressful one. Aside from never-ending schoolwork, the concert details were unorganized and incomplete. I tried to stay calm but each day, something new found a way to challenge my patience and to test my faith. The night of the concert, there was an unexpected snow storm. I remember the worry and the feeling of hopelessness. I remember the fear. Why tonight? Was this just not meant to be? I remember standing on the stage, my knees trembling and heart pounding. I poured my emotions into my French horn. As I played, my thoughts started to flow. I looked out into the audience and it was like a dream. I saw the performers, my family, members of the Blacksburg community, my faith community, and my friends from SERVE. As I continued to play, holding back tears, everything seemed to change. Instead of many, I saw one. Instead of two different organizations I was trying to split myself between, I saw one group of people who are passionate about service and accept me for who I am. Instead of people separated and defined by differences, I saw one body of Christ. That was it. That was the moment that I realized that this concert is bigger than myself. This concert is bigger than my fears and anxiety. This community silenced my fears. It extinguished my insecurities and replaced them with peace. Peace in my heart and hope for the future. A peace that could only come from God. A peace that transcended my understanding about this world, my life and what Christian community can truly look like. *Somebody posted a TED Talk that really got me thinking. Kelly McGonnigal talks about How to make stress your friend As a college student with about 20 things on my to-do list at a time, my ears perked up when I heard this. In this TED Talk, she talks about a lot of misconceptions about stress and how stress may actually be something that is good and can help us live longer. She explains that as a

health psychologist, her goal is no longer to get rid of stress in a persons life but rather to make people better at stress. We should think about stress as a way that our bodies are preparing us for battle. I really liked when she talked about the impacts of the hormone oxytocin, which is released by our pituitary glands when our body is responding to stress in our lives. Oxytocin fine tunes our brains social instincts. It makes us crave physical contact with friends and family. It makes us more willing to help and support the people we care about. When oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating us to seek support and to tell someone how we feel instead of bottling it up. When life is difficult, our stress response wants us to be surrounded by people who care about us. When we reach out to others, either to seek support or to help someone else, we release more of this hormone, our stress response becomes healthier, and we actually recover faster from stress. Our stress response has a built-in mechanism for stress resilience, and this mechanism is human connection.

*When I was watching this video, I couldnt help but think about how this stress relief mechanism seems like such a holy and God-filled system. God longs for us to be in perfect relationship with God and with others. God has given us each other, as Christian community to be here for one another, support each other and help each other through times of hardship and trials. God is also always available and longs for us to talk to God, which we can see in this passage in Philippians as Paul writes that through prayer and petition, we should give our worries to God in order to obtain Gods peace. Now, this peace is different than earthly peace. Gods peace can happen in the midst of struggling, pain, hardship, and discomfort. Gods peace fills us up with a comfort and hope that the world cannot provide us. As described in the Wesley Notes bible commentary Gods peace is that calm, heavenly repose, that tranquility of spirit, which only God can give.

*In Philippians 4, Paul goes on to say, Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. God is calling us to live out the teachings that we learn about in the Bible in our lives daily. God gives us guidelines by telling us to fill our lives with the best of things- things of truth, beauty and praise. God wants us to live our lives in a beautiful way. As I mentioned before, one beautiful thing that has found its way into my life and has brought me much peace and joy is music. Where do you find peace in your life? One of my life mottos since coming to college has been live your passion. Find something you are truly passionate about and fill your life with that, all for the glory of God. Lately, Ive been thinking about a small adjustment to this motto by saying, live your peace. I think the two go together. When you are using your gifts, focusing on your strengths given to you by God, that is when Gods peace transcends and begins to shine through your life to others. We are called to be the peacemakers. In a world where war, conflict, sickness and destruction floods our media and communities, that can seem like an overwhelming and impossible task. But just like with everything else in life, we have to turn to God for guidance. We have to give our prayers and petitions to God in order for God to work in our lives *I challenge each of you to focus on finding your peace, finding your passion. Kelly McGonnigal ended her TED talk on stress by saying, One thing we know for certain is that chasing meaning is better for your health than trying to avoid discomfort. And so I would say that's really the best way to make decisions, is go after what it is that creates meaning in your life and then trust yourself to handle the stress that follows. We can trust God to handle the stress that follows. Because it will follow. But so will Gods spirit of peace as we rejoice in Gods goodness and allow the Holy Spirit to work through our lives.

*The truth is, I still dont know. I dont know if God is calling me to be a youth minister, local pastor, guidance counselor or leader of a non-profit organization. But I am filled with Gods peace, knowing that as I go through my life, God will continue to give me signs and opportunities to explore my calling during this season of my life and in the future.

*I want to leave you today with this prayer, the same prayer that Paul had for the Christians in Rome as he wrote: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. And let us go forth from this place today, being intentional about our actions and living our lives in a way as if to say Peace Be With You to everyone that we meet. Amen, amen.