by James Amadon
In the midst of shutdowns, protests, and an exhausting election season, it is tempting to lose sight of the larger crisis that is steadily moving us into a very uncertain future: the breakdown of the earth’s natural systems, due in large part to humanity’s unsustainable and destructive way of life. Each week brings fresh evidence of volatile climatic events, pervasive animal and plant species loss, and struggling ecosystems on the verge of collapse.
It is tempting to turn away, but we must face this reality if we are going to, in the language of faith, repent and commit to a different direction. The good news is that more and more people are doing just that; here are three signs of hope.
1. The Growing Movement Away From Fossil Fuels
Fossil fuel has powered the modern world. While we can give thanks for the many benefits and improvements these fuels enabled, we have known for a long time that burning these fuels has slowly covered the earth in an extra blanket of carbon that is warming the planet to dangerous levels. Though many continue to drag their feet in the march towards renewable energy, there are signs that a big shift is underway:
- Eight million people took to the streets last fall for global climate strikes.
- For approximately 40 days this spring, the United States produced more electricity from wind, water, and sun than it did from coal.
- A growing number of cities, banks, universities, and other institutions are redirecting investment funds from fossil fuel to renewables, which are becoming cheaper and more available.
2. The Greening of Everything
More people are beginning to embrace an ecological worldview – the understanding that everything in creation is connected to everything else. This entails moving away from seeing care for creation as optional, or strictly environmental work, and moving towards the recognition that we must “green” everything. There are economists rethinking commerce from a planetary perspective, politicians pushing a “Green New Deal,” professional sports organizations committed to becoming carbon neutral, and community gardens sprouting up everywhere. You do not have to be an ecologist or environmentalist to be part of this movement – you can start right where you are in any aspect of your life and community – green it up!
3. The Rise of Eco-Faith
Driven largely by young people who understand intuitively that following Jesus requires caring for the earth, there is a shift happening within churches and the larger faith community. In her book Grounded, Diana Butler Bass traces the global nature of this shift and sees it as a “spiritual revolution – people discovering God in the world and a world that is holy….a rebirthing of faith from the ground up.” In my work leading Circlewood – a ministry that, like Godspace, was birthed from Mustard Seed Associates – I am regularly approached by young men and women eager to integrate their love for God and the planet into their lives and vocations.
These three signs of hope do not guarantee a better future, but they do offer encouragement in the midst of the current “doom and gloom” news cycles, and can motivate us to be a sign of hope in the corner of creation where God has planted us.
If you are interested in learning more about these hopeful trends, you are invited to Circlewood’s Signs of Hope webinar on Thursday, Oct. 29. In addition to sharing more good news, we will be honoring Christine and Tom Sine as “Sines of Hope” for their generosity, vision, and legacy of faith. Hope you will join us!
Have you ever heard a word or two
and thought, ‘I knew that too?’
Somewhere within….
Did you ever want to articulate
each word of knowledge spoken,
the wisest nuggets ever shared,
the things to which you’ve resonated
with ‘me too’,
like a little ‘ah’ of certainty,
of kindred-ship.
Have you thought
if you did not
hold them tightly to your breast,
these winged beasts of the air,
they might fly off,
so inconsistent they are
in their coming and goings.
And then you might have missed,
just from lack of attentiveness,
the very thing most imperative.
The one thing to connect all the others,
and close the gaps of knowledge.
While perhaps the only thing
we must recall,
is that the whole,
where-ever which way we stand,
is ever only part established
in our vision,
and our hearing.
But the fullness of it all
keeps coming round,
turning like a change of perspective,
while all we need do
is be present at the still-point
standing as a lure to draw
the birds.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2020
Don’t simply brush away the inexplicable connectedness we’ll occasionally taste as we experience certain people, places and works of art. These mere seconds of quiet synchronicity and understanding count” – Victoria Erickson
“If there is any wisdom running through my life now, in my walking on this earth, it came from listening in the Great Silence to the stones, trees, space, the wild animals, to the pulse of all life as my heartbeat.” – Vijali Hamilton
Wherever it was
I was supposed to be this morning– whatever it was I said
I would be doing–
I was standing
at the edge of the field– I was hurrying
through my own soul, opening its dark doors– I was leaning out;
I was listening.
– Mary Oliver, Mockingbirds
For more poems for Ana Lisa de Jong, check out the free downloads available in our store:
guest post by Bethany Dearborn Hiser
To be honest, I never would have imagined I’d be here: sharing about trauma-informed soul care, let alone an upcoming book that I wrote on the topic.
I used to think self-care was trivial. It was a luxury I didn’t need or deserve. I felt guilty taking time for myself in the face of so much injustice and poverty. I thought my passion for the work would carry me through. Then I burned out.
From Burned Out to Beloved: Soul Care for Wounded Healers is a bit of my journey, but more than that it’s a trauma-informed soul care guide for people of faith working in high-stress, helping professions.
As a bilingual social worker, chaplain, and pastoral advocate, I worked in a variety of ministry and social service settings with people affected by addiction, sexual exploitation, incarceration, and immigration. Although I encouraged and walked with others in their substance recovery journeys, little did I know the recovery journey I needed to take.
Secondary trauma, my own workplace codependency, and a variety of other factors led to utter exhaustion and burnout.
As I’ve worked through these barriers to self-care, I’ve come to see that taking care of myself involves deeper inner healing and recovery, as well as more integrated practices than occasional excursions to the salon. For me, this is about connection to God who not only sustains and partners with me, but also helps me to accept my brokenness and tend to my wounds. It involves knowing that I am beloved regardless of what I do.
Laura van Dernoot Lipsky’s Trauma Stewardship book connected significant dots for me—revealing my level of secondary trauma and illuminating the reality that I wasn’t alone. Yet I still thirsted for more. I needed something that was rooted in identity as God’s beloved, and integrated spiritual practices, and inner healing recovery work.
I took one step after another in my own recovery and healing, and eventually began doing trainings for others, sharing what I was learning. The material I wrote grew to a 20-page handout…and I kept writing, kept sensing the still small voice, saying: write!
I never intended to write a book, yet I kept hearing that I wasn’t alone, that others were also burning out and needing recovery from secondary trauma. I’d hear stories of friends of friends who after years of planning and prayer, had finally started a non-profit or community organization or moved somewhere to work with women who were sexually exploited…and it was too much. Burnout.
So, I wrote for people who wouldn’t normally pick up a self-help book (like myself). I wrote for those who are engaged on the frontlines of ministry, social work, helping professions. I wrote for those who need a reorientation of self-care in order to be well in their work and life. I wrote to help readers unpack their false narratives, explore their identity as beloveds of God, and learn how to thrive.
We are beloved and broken. We need to know and tend to ourselves in order to be well and love others well, and because we are loved. In order to change, we need to explore the beliefs and trauma that drive our unhealthy behaviors and not just make a self-care plan. Doing so is essential for our health and those we seek to help.
I am still on the journey–pursuing recovery as a social justice codependent workaholic. I still forget to take bathroom breaks, to prioritize my daily practice, and to remember that I’m beloved, no matter what. I don’t have this figured out. Yet I’m also witnessing how our greatest burden can become the source of our greatest gift. The suffering I experienced through burnout has led to this book and to my passion to care for others who are affected by secondary trauma. I am so grateful that this is part of what I get to offer to this world.
Now, as a fellow wounded healer, I lead trauma-informed soulcare workshops internationally and mentor helping professionals. I work as the Director of Soul Care for Northwest Family Life, a network of therapists trained to work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual trauma.
I’d be honored to have you join me on the journey. This October, I’m offering a From Burned Out to Beloved Retreat in Daily Life. Dig into your own journey and join others around the globe in reading a pre-release copy of the book. If you’re feeling weary, looking to re-orient your identity as a beloved one and explore your false narratives, this is for you.
Apply here to join this put-it-into-practice book group, and go here for more info.
Bio for Bethany Dearborn Hiser
Bethany Dearborn Hiser is the director of soul care for Northwest Family Life, a network of therapists trained to work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual trauma. As a bilingual social worker, chaplain, and pastoral advocate, Hiser has worked in a variety of ministry and social service settings with people affected by addiction, sexual exploitation, incarceration, and immigration. She and her husband, Kenny, live in Seattle with their two young children.
NOTE: We receive a small amount for purchases made on Amazon through appropriate links above.
by guest writer J. Thomas
How can I improve my conscious contact with God and gain spiritual
discernment?
Improving my conscious contact with God and gaining spiritual discernment is a question that I’ve been mulling over as a member of a 12-step group for recovering addicts for the last 10 years and as a Christian for the last 27 years.
In 12-step fellowship, we say that we “work the program” and we “work the steps.” There is wealth of wisdom in the rooms and it took a while to find a meeting that “worked” for me. My first experience going to a 12-step meeting was strange. It was in the basement of dimly lit church basement. As members share, they stare sadly and blankly at the center of the floor, as if to raise their eyes to look at the others were a shame too painful to bear. I feel out of place, and it takes another 5 years before I finally come back to 12-step. And when I do, there is such a difference. Still in a church basement, but with better lighting – but really, it’s the people. Sharing about their victories and failures, sometimes even laughing at how God is keeping them sober despite themselves. Once committed to a healthy community and reading the literature, I eventually begin to work Step 11 with the help of a trusted sponsor. Step 11 states, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.” That’s a nice definition of discernment – knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. And the way to improve it, equally clear – through prayer and meditation.
Photo: Pedro Lima through unsplash.com
From a mainstream Christian perspective, I sift through my memory verses I learned in college through The Navigators’ Topical Memory System. The winner is what Paul writes to the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2 ESV). So, if you define spiritual discernment as the ability to know that God’s will is good, acceptable, and perfect, discernment is gained by (i) resisting worldly patterns and (ii) renewing the mind. The authority on spiritual matters comes from the Bible and the Holy Spirit within the context of a community of Christians. Bible verse, check. Holy Spirit, check. Community of believers? Let me tell you what one of my many youth group pastors pointed out to me. Paul uses two distinct words, conform and transform, which both mean to change. However, the word conform emphasizes change coming from an external pressure while the word transform emphasizes an internal change that makes its way outward.
As an analyst by trade, I know that there is a lot to unpack here, and I am excited to share with you my story on how I weave the two takes on spiritual discernment together that will both demystify discernment and provide a useful application to increase freedom one day at a time. Let’s take a deeper look at 2 questions: How is my relationship with God and spiritual discernment connected? Why do I need spiritual discernment and knowledge of God’s will?
How is my relationship with God and spiritual discernment connected?
By knowing God, not just knowing about God, I begin to recognize His voice and wisdom for me. As a teenager growing up in the 1990s, my dad smokes Marlboro Lights, and I am getting more curious about cigarettes. After four occasions of stealing my dad’s cigarettes and smoking them in the attached garage when my parents aren’t home, I begin to worry that I’ll become addicted if I continue. My burning question – is smoking a sin? It’s not an easy answer because it’s not one of the Ten Commandments. I also don’t see direct Bible references, only something about how my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, but it is way too abstract for a teenager to grasp. And if it is a sin, is my dad sinning every time he smokes?
With my budding relationship with Jesus, I literally enter my closet and through prayer, I ask God the question, “Is smoking a sin?” I quiet down my own thoughts (meditate) and pretty soon a thought comes to mind: “What does it matter to you? You don’t smoke.” Whoa! Where did that thought come from? It certainly wasn’t from me because I have exactly two possible answers to the question – yes or no. This third answer, that didn’t come from me. Because I’ve encountered God and have a personal relationship, I recognize the love in His voice. It took the whole dad-thing out of the picture. There was no more conflict between my dad’s actions and what I felt uneasy about in my own internal compass. And after receiving a communication like this, it was simply a matter of obeying or disobeying a direction that was just for me.
Photo: Samantha Sophia through unsplash.com
Prayer and meditation is a two-way street, not a one-person monologue to God. How did God communicate His will to me? He used my thoughts – but an inspired thought that I discerned was not from me or from the world. The miracle is that I believed and followed. I admit that I tried a few more cigarettes after that encounter, but soon afterwards, I prayed confirmation of God’s revelation to me – to really know – it was God’s will and by the Holy Spirit, the willingness to believe and put it into practice. God’s direction can come from anywhere – people, books, sermons, my own thoughts. When that direction is verified through the Bible and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the context of Christian community, an inkling can become a God-encounter.
To demystify my example, I probably heard dozens of public service announcements on smoking, even more pastors and adults telling me not to do it. To add to that, many inklings from my conscience when the temptations to experiment arose. Maybe 100 messages like this telling me that I shouldn’t smoke. But for whatever reason, on that 101st time I heard it, it clicked in my head. I attribute that difference to my Lord and Savior.
Why do I need spiritual discernment and knowledge of God’s will?
Discernment and knowledge of God’s will allow me to do the only thing I can do in this life – enjoy the journey. When I walk through a challenging life season, the most difficult thing is confusion. The uncertainty of not knowing why or how long I will endure a sour lot. Spiritual discernment does not promise exact reasons for God’s will, but it is a way for me to attest that His way is good, pleasing (NIV translation), and perfect. Paul provides a framework for gaining discernment that can be applied every day with a little thought and intimate time with the Holy Spirit.
First, is to recognize the worldly patterns that pressure me – and to not conform. I recently went through a difficult season with my wife where I was constantly asking for us to sit down and talk about important issues in our marriage that had been building up. Each time I ask, I get the message that she is too tired or that it is not a good time. As I persist on a particular topic that’s causing me sadness, I feel wounded that she doesn’t want to talk it out with me. As I meditate and allow myself to feel the feelings of rejection, I realize that this thought, “my wife doesn’t want to talk with me” was an echo of a thought that my parents didn’t want to talk with me.
Growing up in a Korean-American home, the language barrier, generation gap, cultural differences, and time-constraints of an immigrant family led to my feeling deep isolation and loneliness. I was not asked about my day, and I couldn’t communicate to my parents basic feelings like “I feel sad” because I didn’t know the word for “sad” in Korean. Unconsciously, the family context (the world) sent me a strong message – my parents don’t want to talk with me. In my formative years and adolescence, this message penetrated my flesh like a bullet and got lodged in there. What I realize is that my wife, unknowingly, is pushing on the spot where the bullet was lodged each time she communicates she doesn’t want to talk. She didn’t shoot the bullet, and even I didn’t realize it was there. Through meditation, I uncover the worldly pattern responsible for my woundedness.
Photo: Jacek Dylag through unsplash.com
Second, Paul writes that I can be transformed by the renewing of my mind. As I discover this bullet, I cry out to God and feel the pain of growing up in an emotionally neglectful family. I renew my mind with the truth that my heavenly Father does want to talk with me. He wants me to share about my day. He wants me to listen. He wants to communicate back to me. In that encounter, God does heart surgery and removes that lodged bullet from decades ago. The old pattern thrust upon me by an external system is cast off, while I let a new thought into my heart. As I let God’s truth come into my heart, the Holy Spirit changes me from the inside out. I don’t feel with such intensity a woundedness when my wife says she doesn’t want to talk. Feeling misunderstood in my intentions or invalidated in my feelings, still hurts – a lot. But it doesn’t cut me to the core like it once did. I am still in the process of healing. My childhood and marriage struggles were difficult and confusing times, but I am enjoying the journey because I can say with confidence that all of God’s will and good and acceptable and PERFECT.
The Holy Spirit changes me from the inside out.
Bio for J. Thomas
Almost 20 years after returning from a short-term mission trip to Mongolia, J. Thomas is publishing his book Dry and Barren Land: Walking through Seasons of spiritual dryness in a blog format at dryandbarren.com. As a religion major at Dartmouth College, he studied philosophy, biblical studies, and the sociology of income inequality. J. Thomas lives in New Jersey with his wife of 17 years and their 4-year-old daughter who loves being read the book, The Thomasbears and Great Door, a book (for kids of all ages) he wrote for his wife on their 4-year anniversary. He taught himself guitar to express love to God in worship and devotion. J. Thomas also picked up a new hobby in July 2020, tweeting under @dryandbarren to translate mainstream Christian truths for our generation.
by Christine Sine
“Heaven’s kingdom realm can be illustrated like this:
“A person discovered that there was hidden treasure in a field. Upon finding it, he hid it again. Because of uncovering such treasure, he was overjoyed and sold all that he possessed to buy the entire field just so he could have the treasure.
“Heaven’s kingdom realm is also like a jewel merchant in search of rare pearls. When he discovered one very precious and exquisite pearl, he immediately gave up all he had in exchange for it.” (Matt 13:44-47 TPT)
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that every time I sat down in my office my eyes were drawn to the beautiful mother of pearl shell shining brightly in the light in my display cabinet. My pearl of great price I said every time I looked at it. It reminded me of the other pearl like objects in my collection – a peacock rock and laborite and of course my opals that sparkle with the same glorious opalescence of pearls. My pearl of great price hidden in plain sight in the midst of familiar objects I rarely take time to notice.
Not surprisingly, it is this magnificent shell that came to mind when I started to think about creating another contemplative garden. And so the garden above came into being filled with objects that I consider pearls of great price and discovered in the unexpected but ordinary places of my belongings.
I wasn’t really sure why I wanted to create this garden. It did not have any significance in the liturgical cycle of the year or in the cycle of the seasons either. Then I thought about the discernment process I have been going through and I realized that in this context it has a lot of significance.
Three questions have surfaced for me as I contemplate my garden:
- What have I “sold” or given up for Jesus, my real pearl of great price?
- What is the field I have bought because I thought there was treasure hidden it?
- What have I found in that field that really does qualify as a pearl of great price?
Here is what has come to me:
- I gave up family and friends in Australia to travel the world but gained family and friends throughout the world as a result and I have ended up with closeness to my family in Australia I would never have experienced otherwise
- I gave up a house in New Zealand I thought would be my forever home and lived as one “with no fixed abode” for many years, finding instead a place of belonging in God and eventually a home in Seattle that is more than I could ever hope for.
- I gave up the stability of medical practice in Australia and New Zealand and found instead a journey of vocational exploration that has been far richer than I could ever imagine.
- I gave up the financial security of medical practice for a life of wandering with few resources and found in the process the amazing faithfulness of God to provide in abundance for my needs.
- I gave up a life of rigid certainty and clear boundaries for one of uncertainty but creative openness where the boundaries of of life and faith were shattered and redefined. In the process I discovered the joy and delight of growing intimacy with a God who has no boundaries.
As I contemplate this list today I am overwhelmed with awe for all that I have gained because of my willingness to “sell” what I once thought was of great value to “buy” instead a relationship with Jesus who has become not just my Saviour but also my very special companion and friend. The treasures that God hid in the fields I “bought” on my journey through life have been rich and varied – not just pearls I feel, but also diamonds, sapphires, opals and many more that are valuable to me alone. Some are precious stones I still cannot name either because they are still partly buried in the field or because I may have dug them up but still have not identified them.
What Is Your Response?
Take some time this week to think about the pearls of great price that you have dug up throughout your life. What have you had to give up in order to buy the “fields” in which they were hidden? What did these “pearls of great price” look like? Why are they precious to you? What have they taught you about God and what it means to be a follower of Jesus?
Once again I am posting the beautiful Taizé style service from St Andrews Episcopal church in Seattle. I hope that you find this to be as relaxing and refreshing as I do
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taize for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Rev. Richard Weyls, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below.
“My Peace,” “Atme in Uns,” and are songs from the Taize community – copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“Parable Song” – By Kester Limner and Andy Myers, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“Shepherd Song” – Words adapted from John 10:11-18, music by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“Kyrie for October 11” – Text by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY) Music copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Alex Tang
We are living in fear. One tiny RNA virus named SARS-CoV-2, averaging 0.125 micron in length, brought our civilization as we know it to its knees and caused great health and socio-economic disruptions. With the COVID-19 pandemic infecting 35 million people with more than a million deaths, all of us irrespective of our social status, ethnicity or country’s healthcare level of care are at risk. Especially vulnerable are those who are over 65 years of age with co-morbidities. Countries, states and cities are forced into lockdowns where everyone is confined to their homes to prevent the spread of the virus. The economic ramifications of the lockdowns with retrenchments, closing of companies and millions falling below the poverty line is a sad unfolding drama. For many of us, our fear is our constant companion in these times. We are fearful of our health, our safety, our future and of the future of our communities. After about seven months, this fear has permeated into our subconscious and is manifesting as irritability, anger, anxiety and depression. Often we do not know why we are feeling the way we do. Some people have cleverly named it “Covid-19 fugue” but it is actually a bondage of fear. This bondage of fear kept us blind to the very thing we need – hope.
Zephaniah, a minor prophet speaking at a time of great socio-economic disruptions caused by the Babylonian conquest (death, pestilence, famine), noted, “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 NIV). While we are in bondage, it is easy to lose sight of the Lord who offers hope. Instead, we are drawn into the downward spiral of fear, anger and anxiety to deep depression. This depression is different from the medical condition depression which needs expert psychiatric/psychological help and sometimes medications. This depression caused by the bondage of fear is caused by our present circumstances, the resilience of our spirits, and the power of principalities and power that hold sway in this fallen world.
Paul writing to the Corinthian Christians who lived in a world similar to ours with its natural and socio-political disruptions explained how to break the bondage of fear in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (NIV)
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
With the spiritual weapons supplied by the Holy Spirit, we can take responsibility for our mental health by breaking the bondage of fear. There are three steps we can take to break this bondage of fear.
First, we name the fear. Naming, in the biblical sense, is knowing. We have many fears so it is helpful for us to ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify or name them. Then we subject each of these fears to the following rubric.
1. A fear situation where we have control and can act – situation mastery
This is a situation where we have the ability to control and to take action. One example is washing hands, wearing masks, staying at home, social distancing and attending services online. Here we have situation mastery. There is no need to fear being infected by the virus.
2. A fear situation where we can’t control but can act – ceaseless striving
A situation where we can do something but are in a situation where we have no control over. One example is a person suffering from cancer. That person has no control over the cancer in his/her body. However, the person can do something about seeking treatment. Often, many people are not satisfied with sticking to the treatment of a medical oncologist. They will try alternative medical treatments, faith healings, herbs and even some obscure claims from the internet. This is ceaseless striving. Our fear drives us to keep striving, often in vain.
3. A fear situation where we can control but can’s act – accepting
Here is a situation where we have control but can’t act. This is often a very fearful situation as our natural instinct is to do something. Not being able to do anything is very stressful and anxiety provoking. One example is if we own a hotel, we have total control over the total operations of the hotel. Unfortunately, our hotel is in a country or city under pandemic lockdown. We cannot act to get guests because of the movement control order. We fear that we will lose the hotel to the bank. Millions of business owners, especially the smaller ones, live with this fear. It is also likely that many churches will be closing because of the pandemic.
4. A fear situation where we can’t control and can’t act –letting go
There are situations we find ourselves in that we have no control over and there is nothing we can do about it. Some of us live in fear for our loved ones who live in another country or city. We not only worry for their safety but we fear for them too. These are very fearful situations but if we are able to name them, we can break the bondage of these fears.
Second step after naming our fears is to befriend them. If our fear falls under the category of situation mastery, do something about it. We will find that the hold fear has on us, as we do something about the situation, lessening. In the ceaseless striving category, we should choose to be realistic and not just act to do something. In the last two categories, it is about accepting and let the Lord do what He has purposed for our lives. This is where trust and hope come in.
The third and final step is to continue praying. Fear will always try to keep us in bondage and away from our trust and hope in God. We have to be vigilant in our thinking. Do not be distracted and let our thoughts be drawn to where our fears dwell, especially in ceaseless striving and areas where we must let go and let God. It is so easy to be drawn back into the bondage of fear. Paul has the antidote for us in Philippians 4:6–8 (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
We are living in difficult and fearful times. Frederick Buechner in Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC’s of Faith writes, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” It is easy to let our fears take control of our lives. We may be living in bondage to fear without knowing it. God has given us the means to break this bondage and the freedom to live with our fears. The key is trust and hope in the Lord. May we live in freedom from fear. Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer is a good guard against living in bondage of fear.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
——————–
Alex Tang is an author, spiritual director and practical theologian. Visit his website Kairos Spiritual Formation at www.kairos2.com
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