“Set your minds on
things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden
with Christ in God.” (Col.
3:2-3)
“We use selective inattention and forgetting to get through
life; we assume it is the crazy pace of our lives that is killing us when
really it’s our inattention to our deepest desire, the desire for God.” --Marshall Jenkins
One of the oddities about life in America is that we are one of the
wealthiest nations of earth and yet it seems we are being killed by our
wealth. Not a day goes by where I don’t
read of or hear of some new way in which abundance is causing great stress in
some way to the body and mind. I’ve had
a few days recently where I’ve been more stressed about worrying about my
stress level than the actual stress I was enduring. Technically I think this is called recursive
anxiety: being stressed about the possibility that I might have too much
stress. Don’t think I’m joking
here. The only thing funny about this is
that I’m confessing the truth about how my mind sometimes works. I will tell you that I have had to
deliberately tell myself to trust God and quit this faithless worry. Quite a few days now and counting! Here is the heart of the matter: most of the
stresses we are feeling come from a fear and dread of loss. It might be a fear that you are going to lose
a spouse through an illness, a job you’ve worked your whole life, a home you’ve
enjoyed for many years, maybe even your own dreams for a better financial life
for your family. But can I tell you
something as a fellow worrier? The truth
is the only thing we can really hang on to in this life is God Himself. We hunger for things that are permanent and
then reach for and try to hang on to things that are transitory by nature. This is why our attention must be drawn
towards heaven. It is only with God that
we will find our hearts at peace and fully satisfied. And in the end, only God can calm the storms
of fear we all have.
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