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With determination and the right weapons, we can conquer this enemy of peace.
Have you heard about the man who had a plane to catch at an early hour? Having set his alarm, he sat on the edge of
his bed all night long to make sure it went off on time.
This
man earned his PhD in anxiety; he had worry down to a science. He
believed that living one day at a time meant never sleeping so he would
always know what time of day it was.
Then
there was a little boy named Donald, whom Erma Bombeck wrote about.
Getting inside Donald's head is a good way to emphasize how foolishly we
all can capture more uptight bugs than we know what to do with.
Just before his first day of school, six-year old Donald proved he had worrying down pat. His thoughts? My name is Donald. I don't know anything. I have new underwear, a loose tooth, and I didn't sleep much last night. What if a bell rings and a man yells, "Where do you belong?" and I don't know? What if the trays in the cafeteria are too high for me to reach? What if my loose tooth comes out when we have our heads down and are supposed to' be quiet? Am I supposed to bleed quietly? What if I splash water on my nametag and my name disappears and no one knows who I am?
Fear
can be a friend when it keeps us from walking on glass, ingesting
poison, or running from a pit bull. But foolish anxiety -the kind we
feed -runs around wearing holes in our brains, creating ulcers in our
stomachs, and making any peace we might have had break up in pieces.
Anxiety does exactly what the Greek translation of the New Testament
says it does:
It
strangles the living daylights out of us. It curdles; it crumples; it
cripples. We have only so much time and energy, and it wastes both.
We must fight, not feed, anxiety by wielding spiritual and physical weapons.
A pound of fortitude
So
then, where and how can a pound of fortitude be found to control a
pound of fear before it becomes a ton of anxiety? Therein lies the rub,
because many a fear that was wise can become an anxiety that isn't.
Second
Timothy 1:7 offers a weapon and way of weighing worrisome things
properly: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity [fear], but a
spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (NIV). Joining hands
with David (who wrote many of the Bible's psalms) and his words has a
winning to it: "Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He
shall bring it to pass" (Psalm 37:5).
If there
is a truth that should be written across the roof of the sky, it is
this: Saying and meaning "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalm 23:4) is an affirmation that has
the touch of miracle in it. Why? Because when one is not afraid to die,
one is not afraid to live.
Professional
worry warts abound, camping on doctors' doorsteps with imaginary ills
until such anxieties produce the real thing. Others fall victim to the
9/11 syndrome and refuse to fly, though driving is still more dangerous.
Proper authorities
A
big part of any solution is to seek out proper authorities. Once we
have read the first-class authority, Jesus "Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow" (Matthew 6:31) it makes common sense to [md outstanding
examples of those who have taken His words to heart.
One is John Wesley. It was
said of this founder of the Methodist Church that he arose each morning
at four o'clock, preached more than 40,000 times, and traveled more
than 250,000 miles on horseback. In the course of all this, Wesley never hurried, never worried, and never let foolish anxieties wear him down.
Connie
Mack was a baseball manager, not a preacher, but he early learned a
truth that allowed him to perform brilliantly the intricacies of life.
He used to say that he forced himself to spend time preparing to win
future games rather than wasting time and energy worrying about games he
had lost. One of Mack's favorite booster phrases: "You can't grind
grain with water that has already gone down the creek."
Quoting
Satchel Paige, one of the field hands in my first rural pastorate often
mused, "When I work, I work hard. When I sit, I sits loose. And when I
starts to worry, I just go to sleep."
"The
future ain't what it used to be," said Yogi Berra as he sought to
explain that whether things are bad or better, we are most often
bothered when they are different than we thought they would be.
Courage and peace
Today
we have Afghanistan, but remember Y2K not that long ago. Remember
Vietnam, the Korean War, WWIL It is hard to picture a time when there
has not been some kind of political, economic, or social turmoil.
Therefore,
when problems come to call, let history be a teacher as you wisely
"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall [let Him] strengthen
your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! " (Psalm 27:14).
It
is good to stand on your own two feet, but some proper propping-up by
God certainly isn't out of order: "You will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:3).
Call it prayer partnership. Call it linking with your Creator. Call it
spiritual common sense.
I
like the way one lady, with ninety years linked up behind her,
approached life. She lived far out in the country, all by herself. When
asked if she was ever afraid, she replied, "Why should I be? Faith
closes my door at night, and Mercy opens it in the morning."
Cooperate with the inevitable
Whatever
anxious moments find our doorstep, we must learn to cooperate with the
inevitable if we're to accomplish well the art of living. An appointment
made, and our watch stops. Gone fishing, and the only thing we catch is
a bad cold in a rainstorm.
When
such things happen, we don't have to like what is happening. But at
least we must learn to learn from a problem. This way, it is not a
complete waste of time.
Kindle afresh
Before
we traded in our 1986 Dodge several years ago, my wife and I had a car
that majored in stalling. It reminded me of 2 Timothy 1:6: "Kindle
afresh the gift of God" (NASB). It didn't kindle afresh; it didn't want to go. It was a king of quitters.
Since then a newer
car doesn't do that. It starts, never stutters and then stops. Every
time we want to go somewhere, it kindles afresh with remarkable
enthusiasm. There are dangers all around on the highway, but the car
never notices.
It is the epitome of confidence.
God with us
Another
weapon in our emotional conquest is realizing that the secret of
finding the "peace that passes understanding" is to not waste time
trying to understand it. Just accept the fact that peace comes from the
presence of something rather than the absence of something.
And that something is God.
God
is with us when twin towers are built and when they waver and fall to
the ground in terrible pieces. God is with us long before dawn and long
after dusk.
On the blackest night or when the brightest moon sweeps away the darkness, God is with us.
Would you stand tall and sun-crowned above the crowd?
Think eternity. Think salvation. Think wonderment and awe about the Creator of it all
Prayer
The
last weapon in our fight against anxiety is prayer. An old preacher
friend of mine used to counsel me, "If your knees are knocking, kneel on
them." Or another way of putting it: "You don't have to worry about
running from worry when you are kneeling."
• The
question must always be, how can a skinny soul deal with the big, fat
problems of life? The answer is to stop feeding anxiety and fight it.
That's the message of Jesus and of others who have gone before us.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Click
on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN
DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND
MARTIN LUTHER
To Order and Read Neil's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN
GO TO amazon.com
QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book
STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.
"Positive,
powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and
appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his
strength."
Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)
"The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an
extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the
spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very
readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the
President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'
William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn
"Wyrick
has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of
American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and
readable book that has a rich depth of information."
Maynard Pittendreigh Presbyterian minister
"When
it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions,
politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr
once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because
he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the
Almighty. As Wyrick
says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more
impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he,
president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was
doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between
both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.'
Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of
politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book
for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career,
Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."
Dr. Donald W. Shriver
Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics
"v. Neil
Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's
Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should
have a wide readership."
James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia
"Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read
by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most
complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United
States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so
often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip
service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real
God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight
and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure
as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear
and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the
character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very
well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as
relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."
Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard
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