Redux: Jumping Off a Hot Tin Roof
I don’t usually recycle blog posts, but in reviewing what I published 2 years ago, I couldn’t help but be struck by the relevance of that post to this year’s emotional climate. It is so on-point that I thought it was appropriate to repost what I wrote in January, 2019. The words that attacked anxiety and fear in 2019 are even more powerful for the world today. May they bless you and get you through another week.
(From January 1, 2019)
This year’s “New Years” headlines are filled with craziness, but then again - they usually are. With a semi-shuttered government, ongoing bickering among anyone who can be heard above the clanging din of the daily, and the wild, world-stage shouting of yet one more betrayal, one more argument, one more impasse, it’s hard to anticipate the new year with anything but trepidation. That is, if that’s all we can see. If that’s all we read. And if that’s so, times such as these can make us jumpy, nervous - as cats on a hot tin roof.
For many, anxiety plagues them at every turn, this amorphous specter that can’t be seen, that can’t be named. Anxiety sits ugly-quiet in the gut, waiting for opportunity, for recognition, for a chance to spring forth to life yet again. I hate anxiety. I watch it attack and destroy, and it is a vile, nasty and odious creature not to be tolerated.
You see, I believe anxiety is directly from the enemy of our soul, a demon straight from hell. We can’t see it, or hear it, so we cannot define it -rising up sudden and unbidden, clouding the past with the murky specters of perceived failures and discontent, robbing the joy of a moment with “what ifs”, and spoiling the vision of the coming beauty on the horizon. This anxiety haunts our hearts and minds, bringing nameless thoughts of failure, of doubt, of worry cascading through our souls until our very breaths catch rough and ragged, stealing our joy. Even the strongest among us fall prey to the shadows of anxiety, when the enemy of our souls takes great delight in blinding us to the eternal faithfulness of God in our yesterdays - so much so that we become paralyzed with fear in our todays, and then cannot see His grace and provision on the horizon for our tomorrows.
The problem with anxiety is that it is “that which cannot be named”. We all can identify with how it feels, but rarely can we state exactly what causes it. It is panic without a name. It is worry without a cause, fear without identity. I came across a quote a few days ago that helps to define this chaotic ache:
In “The Courage to Be”, theologian Paul Tillich draws a distinction between fear and anxiety. Anxiety, for him, is this diffuse worry that has no object or point of reference.... Fear, as distinct from anxiety, has an object and a point of reference. In order to handle anxiety, you have to translate it into a fear that has a definite object. Then you can engage with it. ...” (John O'Donohue, in an interview with Diane Covington, The Sun publication. Article, The Unseen Life That Dreams Us.)
And in the end, do we not want to live a life free from anxiety - at least as much as we are able? Given how much time and energy and joy gets sucked up and away from our lives by this curse of anxiety from the enemy, it would seem a worthwhile endeavor to engage with this awhile, this examination of our anxiety, the stripping away of the amorphous cloud that is our anxiety to reveal what’s underneath it all. And - blessed are we to have a Divine One who is poised and ready to deal with our anxiety, to help us fix our eyes and hearts on the underlying fear. You see, once we name the fear hidden beneath the miasma of anxiety, it is exposed into the light of day. It loses its power, and begins to melt away. Without a cloud of anxiety blurring my vision, I can see the fear clearly. I can name it, smell it, hear it -and then - with God’s help - together - we can slay it.
Once my fear is uncovered, out in the light of day - only then can I engage with it, deal with it. Kill it. With God, I can inhale the comfort and assurance of Him who has been slaying the fear of man for millenia. I can bask in the glow of a Spirit of comfort that is always ready to walk me through that dark valley of anxiety and fear. And I’ve come to learn that with each fear slain, I get stronger. Each success teaches my heart to turn more readily to Him Who saves, Who slays fear. Each fear torn to pieces at my feet reminds me of God’s great love and provision for me, and my soul grows a little stronger. It becomes “more than”. My heart expands a little. My mind calms and sits quiet. This slaying of fear? Yes, I say! Let’s do this!
The human condition will never be free of anxiety or fear on this side of eternity. And in these seemingly dark times of accelerated change, uncertainty, and discord, many will continue to have anxious thoughts, to be laid low by fear. But we can choose to jump off this hot tin roof of anxiety and fear. Right now. Today. We have a God who has conquered, Who reigns above and outside our anxious world. We know a God who encourages, Who has fought every battle, won every war. He can slay my fear. I need only jump off this hot, tin roof, into His arms.
It’s a beautiful thing.