Well, happy New Year, Becky.

Happy New Year to you, honey.

Yeah.

Did you forget my name?

Well, I didn't expect you to say that.

I asked you if you wanted to begin, but you put it on my hand.

So with that, it's a new year.

And not only that, it's a new decade. As the year ended, I did say to a number

of friends, see you next decade. And so here we are. We're in the roaring 20s. And let's hope that the

roaring 20s brings some significant healing, not just to us and to many of our

friends, but to our world, to our country. And as we look at, well, just the political, the social,

the financial, the relational, the physical matters of our day

and our age, it is a day of anxiety, a day of worry. And we want to address how worry keeps people

from being able to anticipate and to engage actually this coming decade well.

Well, and I've, the verse I chose for last year that it dealt with exactly that, the worry and the anxiousness.

It was Philippians 4, verse 6, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and

petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts

and your minds in Christ Jesus. And because I chose that verse, it was heavy on my heart when I would

find myself in a ball of worry or a very anxious body with a stomach ache or headache or muscle ache.

I really had that before me and I realized I really don't want to end my final years as being

Becky Allender here on planet Earth. I don't want to end it with the anxiety

...