Tag Archives: Anxiety

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Amos 6

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Image by Marilyn M via Flickr

Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain! those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin. Amos 6:6 (MSG)

Flipping through the channel guide on television this morning, here are the titles I saw:

  • Step & Lose weight
  • Get Luscious Hair!
  • Carve Abs in Bed!
  • Look Younger
  • Anti-Aging Secrets
  • Easy Hair Removal!
  • Weight Loss Breakthrough!
  • Millionaire’s Secrets
  • Sexy Swimsuit Body
  • Summer Sexy Abs
  • Microwave Grilling!
  • eBay Riches!
  • Get Sexier in 90 Days!
  • Look Younger in 14 Days!
  • Body Gospel
  • Look Younger Instantly
  • Food Lovers Fat Loss
  • Overcoming Anxiety

Was Amos talking to Israel, or to us?

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Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day 2 Chronicles 32

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Some time later Hezekiah became deathly sick. He prayed to God and was given a reassuring sign. 2 Chronicles 32:24 (MSG)

I was awake early this morning. My brain was buzzing with anxious thoughts. Like Hezekiah and Jerusalem, I feel besieged. As I lay in the pre-dawn hours, pleading for sleep to return, my mind recounted troubling headlines and disappointing events.

This morning, I stand post on the wall of life and hear discouragement’s taunts. I shore up my heart with God’s promises. I remind my anxious heart of God’s track record of faithfulness.

Today, I’m praying for a reassuring sign.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and linlin
Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 52

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How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger bringing good news, Breaking the news that all's well, proclaiming good times, announcing salvation, telling Zion, "Your God reigns!" Isaiah 52:7 (MSG)

Children are sometimes overrun with fear and anxiety. I can remember both of my daughters, as little girls, becoming overwrought with intense feelings of angst. The mental picture of those puffy cheeks and red eyes are indelibly etched in my brain. Tears flowed like rain as they would become almost paralyzed by their feelings. In those moments I would stop what I was doing, wrap my arms around them and comfort them with the affirmation that everything was going to be alright. Daddy was there.

Even as adults we can encounter times of paralyzing anxiety. Like grown up children, we are stymied by intense, negative emotions. 

It is a worthwhile endeavor to encourage others with the news that our Heavenly Father is there. God is in control.

It's okay. Everything is going to be alright. Our God reigns.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 48

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Sleep better. "There is no peace," says God, "for the wicked." Isaiah 48:22 (MSG)

The pizza joint was packed after a high school basketball gang and I was there with a bunch of my friends. I was the youngest of the group of teen boys. It was loud. It was smokey (you could smoke anywhere in public in those days), and it was extremely busy with teenagers and families celebrating the basketball team's victory.

I don't remember there being any discussion. In the midst of the din, the eldest of my group of friends looked around and said "Let's go." We got up and followed him out of the restaurant without paying the check. I still remember the look on his face and his laughter as the group reveled in pulling one over on the restaurant. We all laughed as we sprinted towards my friend's house, but underneath the laughter my conscience had already kicked in.

I remember hating that night. Guilt and shame have a way of magnifying paranoia, anxiety and fear to ridiculously huge proportions. I spent the night at my friends house in utter fear of police raiding the house and hauling me off to jail. I can still remember the panic in my head each time I heard a police siren in the distance.

There is no peace for the wicked.

It was about four years later that I stopped by the pizza joint after school and asked to speak with the manager. I still remember his confused expression as I explained what I'd done and handed him money from my paycheck to cover the old debt, and then some. The look on his face told me he thought I was crazy. I'm sure people walk out on checks regularly, especially teenagers, and it's all part of the daily routine of the restaurant business. Looking back now, 30 years later, I laugh at the silliness of it myself. But it taught me a good lesson.

Do the right thing. You sleep better.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and drakeguan

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 45

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Stage Manger at work backstage. "Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes…." Isaiah 45:15a (MSG)

I have been involved in stage productions since my youth and have spent the last five years in leadership of our local community theater organization. In fact, just last night Wendy and I found ourselves helping with auditions for the summer production. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people involved who the audience never see on stage. The audience sees and enjoys the actors' performance but they never see the Writer, Producer, Director, Stage Manager, Costumer, Lighting Director, Audio Director, Marketing team, Make-up Artist, and Production Assistants.

A month ago, I was acting in a show. At the end of one scene I needed to make an exit and come right back in at the beginning of the following scene. My coat was on a coat hook at the opposite end of the stage and it was my responsibility to exit through that far door and grab my coat. I made my exit through the nearest door without thinking about my coat which was now abandoned stage. I was going to look really silly entering a few minutes later without my coat when the audience could see it was still hanging on the hook by the door.

I scrambled around backstage, cursing myself for my mental lapse. As I approached, the opposite end of the set, I found my coat hanging on a hook backstage. In the scene change, one of the backstage crew had noticed I'd left the coat. They immediately ran to grab it and put it back stage where I would find it. Crisis averted. Without a a crew backstage making sure everything was under control, I'd have looked really silly.

When I read "you are a God who works behind the scenes," I really appreciate what that means.

Yesterday I wrote about a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day I had the previous day. It would have been easy to say to myself, "God, why are you absent?" I could have looked at the evidence of what I saw and concluded that God had let me down. I know that's not true. God is at work. In the spotlight, on the stage of my everyday life, things appear to be going wrong, but backstage God is actively at work. I may not see it until after the scene is over, but the Great Stage Manager is behind the scenes administrating far more than I can comprehend. He is aware of more than I see, and actively engaged to make sure I don't blow my next entrance.

Relax. We've got the best possible Stage Manager at work behind the scenes of our life.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Ervin Noordin

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 42

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Many paths from which to choose. "But I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going. I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch. These are the things I'll be doing for them— sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute." Isaiah 42:16 (MSG)

There are mornings when I wake up and set out with no clear sense of direction, but with an overwhelming sense of burden. Everything seems muddled and the road ahead seems to branch off in a million different directions. I feel the need to take three or four different paths today because of competing demands. Which way do I go first? Which path should take precedent? If I take that path, will it eventually merge with the others? Maybe this is the wrong way to start.

This is why I regularly find it beneficial to start the day in a little quiet time with God and His Message. I regularly find God speaks directly into my circumstances and my need through which ever chapter we're reading.

I'm headed off into the day, but I know God has a hold of my hand. He is directing me. He won't leave me for a second.

Thanks for the reminder, God. I needed it today.

  Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and wheatfields

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 38

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God is my belayer. It seems it was good for me to go through all those troubles. Throughout them all you held tight to my lifeline. You never let me tumble over the edge into nothing. Isaiah 38:17 (MSG)

I have, on a handful of occasions, gone rock climbing. I went through very basic classes to learn safety and had the experience of working my way up a few simple rock faces. I enjoy it, though sIowa does not provide a plethora of rock climbing opportunities, so I haven't actively pursued it.

Even on a man-made climbing wall, however, you can find yourself high in the air. Your muscles ache and begin to spasm from the unique tension and demand that climbing puts on them. It would be easy to fall. That's why you should always be tied to a belayer who can ensure that, in the event of a fall, you will not fall far.

We all see our share of troubles in this life. It is a part of the journey. We live in a broken world with other broken people and we are bound to experience the effect of it. Sometimes life feels like a rough climb up a sheer face of nothing but troubling obstacles. But when God is our belayer we can trust that  He holds the life-line and will not let us fall to our death. We may lose our grip and slip down the face of the cliff, but God holds tight so that we can approach the rock face once more, find our grip and begin the ascent again.

photo courtesy of wikipedia

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 33

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Simplicity. The answer's simple:
   Live right,
   speak the truth,
   despise exploitation,
   refuse bribes,
   reject violence,
   avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living! A safe and stable way to live. A nourishing, satisfying way to live. Isaiah 33:15-16 (MSG)

Today at work I'm preparing for a couple of upcoming training sessions. In my job one of my many tasks is to take very broad and deep data from research and assessments and translate them into a simple message. I've got to distill a veritable encyclopedia of charts and graphs into a short bullet list that people can grasp and which they can easily translate into behavioral changes in their conversations with customers.

Perhaps that's why these two verses stood out into today's chapter. Life begins to feel so complicated at times. After a couple of weeks in which I've mostly been away from home, I'm definitely feeling the pressure this morning in my office. I'm scattered. There's so much to do and I don't know where to begin. It's always good to sit back and try to distill the broad range of issues, relationships, questions, needs, desires, dreams, and to-do lists into a simple handful of priorities that I can hold onto. That gives me the simple direction I need to step out into the day with purpose.

Keep it simple.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and perfectfutures