Calorie-free Stress Relief

Deadlines loom large and fast at the office. All through the cacophonous day, anxious feet pound the carpeted floor, mobiles and office phones screech for attention, people literally shriek down the lines at lawyers, accountants, auditors, consultants and other professed professionals and the air smells of overworked photocopiers, stale coffee, white-collared sweat and stomachs that haven't seen substantial hot food since the packed dinner last night.

Fortunately, neither file-throwing nor backstabbing is the preferred method of stress relief in these parts. My colleagues internalise it with snacks.

They started off slow with polite Aussie-made Tim Tam nibbles, culled from a field trip to Candy Empire at Millenia Walk (Millenia Walk, 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-95 to 98, Singapore 039596; tel: 6336 2968, to be precise, for Cupboard Space who is probably hyperventilating and who should come out of the closet).

They even took some time out from threatening not to pay professed professionals for their suspiciously shoddy work to Tim Tam Slam (also variously called the "Tim Tam Suck", "Tim Tam Explosion", "Tim Tam Orgasm" and "shotgunning a Tim Tam", basically describing the biting off of opposing corners of a Tim Tam, using it as one would a straw to suck up a hot beverage and then, popping it into the mouth before the biscuit disintegrates. Natalie Imbruglia demonstrates it on Graham Norton's eponymous "So Graham Norton".) with hot cups of Aussie-manufactured Milo.

Later on, they moved on to Cheezels, Jaffa Cakes, Wagon Wheels and Penguins.

And still later, faced with the implications of the law of diminishing returns, they contributed generously to this keropok uncle's retirement fund:

God, of course, gave us a vastly cheaper, healthier, calorie-free way of dealing with stress:

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

But this sort of thing only works if there is a God who:

• has the ability and is willing to listen us and to whom we can communicate;
• has the ability and is willing to calm our worries and fears; and
• most importantly, because it is just plain silly to be psyched into thinking happy thoughts about a situation that should in reality be worrisome, has the ability and is willing to act in the world to control it and because he loves us as his own children, order it for our good (good not meaning our preferred outcome but our eternal salvation and godliness).

Thankfully, there is.