I spent most of last week on my knees on the nursery floor, surrounded by instruction sheets, hardware bags, and furniture pieces that didn't obviously connect to anything. Assembly directions for baby items are either perfectly clear or completely baffling — there's no-in-between. At some point I stopped checking the steps and started just staring at what was in front of me, trying to figure out where it all was supposed to go. By the end of the week, the room looked like a

I know the season of Advent was quite a while ago, but I am living in my own personal advent, at least for the next month and a half. This personal advent has provided me with a new perspective on waiting. Waiting isn't idly sitting — quite the opposite — waiting involves actively preparing. My wife might tell you I'm experiencing partial preparation paralysis. Anticipation can cause anxiousness, but you cannot let it cause paralysis.

Rechecking the weather app won't change the storm that's coming — but it feels productive, like staying close to the problem is the same as solving it. We do the same thing with worry. We rehearse hard conversations, run worst-case scenarios, and call it being realistic. But Paul offers something better than calm: prayer over anxiety, and a peace that actively guards your heart.