High Stress Society

Have you been feeling anxious lately?  If so, you are one among millions.  Everyone seems to be worrying about something: global warming, terrorist attacks, Russians hacking, GMOs, the apocalypse. We wear fit bits to monitor heart rate, footsteps, sleep patterns. We carry communication systems in our pockets, and live by text messages, tweets and snapchat. We have spin-toys to calm nervous energy, and “safe zones” where we can silence opposing ideas and opinions and hug teddy bears.

Some careers are built on stirring worry.  The news media thrives on bad news, real or fake. Leave it to advertisers to tell us how to look, what to eat, drink, drive, wear, what to think and how to vote. Multi-billion dollar businesses grow fat on “solutions” to climate change. Politicians claim they have a fix for everything from health care for the masses to controlling the earth’s climate.

I admit there are days when I want to live in a Star Trek universe with Captain Kirk at the helm and Scotty fixing everything that goes wrong with the engine while I wile away hours in the holodeck living in time periods, worlds, and situations I pick and choose.

Worry is really about wanting and knowing we lack control of our lives, our environment, our circumstances, our destiny. We all want to do and think and act any way we want, but imagine the chaos and heartache if we all got our way.  That world wouldn’t end worry, but exacerbate it.

God created us.  He knows our hearts.  That’s why God gave us commandments and instructions, boundaries that will keep us safe, purposeful, productive, happy.  Do not worry… Do not be afraid… aren’t suggestions, but commandments.  The message:  Trust ME. I know what I’m doing.

It’s not easy to obey when we want to know what’s happening now and have sway in how things turn out.  But turn out from whose point of view?  God sees the whole picture. I see, hear and read the fraction.

So what do I do when I worry in the wee hours when darkness surrounds me?  I think about who God is: Almighty, merciful, just, salvation, omnipotent, omnipresent, love unfailing, life eternal.  And I rest easy, knowing He has a plan. He never sleeps. And all will work out according to HIS will in the end.