Hi, my name is Pete Gazzaro. I want to welcome you today to the emotionally healthy leader

podcast. Great to be with you and was excited and I've been thinking about this message for a while

and wanted to actually release it in September just because it's a launch year for so many of us who are leading and pastoring churches.

And thus, there is generally a great increase in anxiety around this time of year.

So our topic is how Jesus dealt with leadership anxiety.

You know, what did Jesus do?

And I'm going to take my reflections out of

John chapter 7. And it's a tremendous passage when his siblings come to him, his brothers come to him,

and they are given me a strategic plan to leave Galilee and get down to Judea, Jerusalem,

the capital city where it's happening, so people can see what he's doing and thus believe in him.

So I'm going to read that passage in a few minutes, but let me just give you a bit of

introduction and a background, and then we'll dig into it.

And there are some tremendous insights in this text about for us to be able to lead, take initiative, move forward, and yet in a relaxed fashion.

I mean, anxiety is one of the greatest challenges for leadership.

You know, I try to monitor my body in, you know, am I in a good place, you know, of rest and the signals

within myself that I've strayed. So let me just begin just to see if you're off center a bit,

you know, today. One of the, here's some signs for me that I know. You know, I'm anxious.

I'm rushing. I'm hurrying. My body's in a know. You know, I'm anxious. I'm rushing. I'm hurrying. My body's in a

knot. You know, I'm doing, you know, too many things. I have too little time to get them done.

My mind is racing, especially at night. I'm not able to be fully present with people. I find

I'm with someone, but I'm actually thinking about something else, or I'm irritable

around the simple tasks of life, you know, like waiting online for the supermarket or a traffic

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