Do you ever feel like anxiety has you behind bars? Where thoughts just keep coming at you so that there's no way to get away from them?
Recently I've begun volunteering my life coaching services at Love, Inc. - an organization that helps people who need help getting back on their feet, many of whom have been incarcerated. This is a whole new territory for me, not having rubbed elbows with people who have faced this kind of challenge. Needless to say, I was a bit anxious as to whether I could relate to them or more importantly, them to me, a person who has been blessed with a life that has never come close to having those kind of challenges.
But that's where I was wrong. All God's chil'un have troubles. We all get imprisoned by sin of some sort. And we all need the same message. That we just can't do life well without God's help. The statistics are overwhelmingly in favor of those who have become Christians through jail ministry becoming successful citizens and not repeat offenders. How exciting! I recently talked to a nurse who worse with breast cancer screenings tell me that she definitely sees professing Christians deal with a bad diagnosis with strength compared to those who are not. All God's chil'un may have troubles but God never leaves His children.
What could be more anxiety producing than getting out of jail with no job and a record or facing a diagnosis of cancer? And yet we all walk through life with anxiety-producing situations coming at us from all sides even if they aren't as dramatic. We're told in John 16:33 that In this world you WILL have trouble.
Two verses have come to me that seem to put these clients and I onto the same page quickly. I Peter 5:12 reminds us of this fact that is pertinent to all of us: Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And I Peter 4:12 tells us: Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
But what some may not know, and what we all often forget, is the second part of last verse: But rejoice, that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. That is the only real difference between those who handle the adversity that comes to us all. And that's what we can all continue to learn more about with each valley that comes into our life. AND THAT'S what we can all share with others - how He does help us get through. We don't have to be some kind of verbose evangelist to share that point.
And so, the next time I'm feeling anxious, I just need to remember the last part of John 16:33, that He has overcome the world. And that He has brought me through valley after valley in this life. We're told to "remember all the ways which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness" in Deut. 4:9. And I can share that which I know with others that might not know that simple but hard to grasp fact.
REMEMBERING - that's the antitode to anxiety. Remembering His promises, remembering what He has done for you in the past, remembering His word that gives many more verses of comfort than those listed here.
And so I share here a poem from the Blessing Book by Linda Dillow:
A Prayer of Remembrance for the Wilderness
Even though Your ways
are not my ways,
Even though Your timing
is not my timing,
Even though I see no end to this pain,
I trust You.
And, I remember...
Your ways in the past,
Your timing in the past.
So even though I can't see
today or in the future,
Remembering turns
my pain into
Praise.
Praise because of who You are,
Praise because of what You
have done in the past.
Praise because of what You
will do now.
