Our Thought Life
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
Another tough week. The situation appears to be becoming more complex and not a little frightening. It would only seem logical we are all beginning to experience increasing levels of anxiety. There are a variety of ways people deal with anxiety-some are healthy and some are very unhealthy. Here are some thoughts about what I believe is ultimately the best way to deal with anxiety. However, before doing that, I want to encourage you to check with your physician if it seems like things are “getting out of hand” (i.e. sleep disturbance, trouble eating, general agitation, heart rate changes, etc.)
One of the consistent admonitions in the Bible concerns our thought life. (See Roman 12:1-2, Philippians 4:8-10, Colossians 1:1-2) Although we might not realize it, most—and probably all—anxiety begins with our thoughts. Basically, we are responding to our thoughts about a situation rather than the situation itself. We might not be aware of it because “brain time” is so much faster than “clock time”. In other words, our brains can process and respond to more information in a second than big time computers can. We are truly wonderfully made.
With all that in mind, here are some things to consider as we deal with our current situation.
Get The Thoughts Out
If you are anxious, try to slow down, catch your breath, step back and think about what you are thinking. As I mentioned last week, journaling can be helpful. Maybe find someone (a friend or spouse) you can think “out loud” with. Anxiety impacts our whole body and it feeds itself. The more agitated one becomes, the more your thoughts can escalate unrealistically. Then, the more one exaggerates, the more agitated one can become. It’s a pretty unhealthy loop. Getting in touch with our thoughts doesn’t automatically fix everything, but it does give us a starting place to get things under control.
What Is v. What If
This second idea is very closely related. Try to focus on “what is” thoughts as opposed to “what if” thoughts. “What if” thoughts are usually much more catastrophic than what we are actually facing. For example, the other night, Margie coughed once in her sleep. By the time I was through thinking about it I had Margie in the hospital and me blaming myself for being the carrier. All of this scenario was built around one cough. When I look at that in the light of day, it seems ridiculous, but that’s what can happen with “what if” thinking. Our current situation might not be good, but it is usually much different than the ones in the “what if” world.
Faith Filter
A third suggestion would be to try to filter our thought through the lens of faith as opposed to the lens of anxiety. This might require asking yourself, "How would I handle this situation if I wasn’t anxious?" Often, simply doing what we need to do to operate out of a paradigm of faith lets us know we can manage this.
Finally, I was reading a passage about one of most famous sentences in the Bible. “The Lord is my shepherd”. It was likely written when David was under duress of some sort and he well might have been “stressed out”. This author took the passage a phrase at a time.
The Lord
It begins with “The Lord”. It does not say, “a lord” or one of several gods. HE is communicating with THE Lord, Creator of heaven and earth. The One who is sovereign over all the world. The One who loves us with an indescribable love. This is who we are ultimately relying on.
Is
The second word is “is”. It is in the present tense-not past or future. This same eternal God is present with us today! Don’t forget that.
My
The third word is “my”. It’s a very personal word. God doesn’t look on us and simply see massive blob of humanity. He sees you and he sees me. We’re individuals that He cares very much about each one of us.
Shepherd
The final word is obviously “shepherd”. He is our protector and leader. He is there to guide us through the rough terrain that we come on to.
I hope this is helpful. We’ll talk a bit more about anxiety next week. In the meantime, feel free to call one of our staff is there is something we can do or just to talk. Their cell phone numbers are below.