“US surgeon general warns ‘This week is going to get bad’.”
“Coronavirus: Young people are not ‘Invincible’, WHO warns”
“The Coronavirus Recession could become a Depression”
These are just a few headlines that seem to be circulating everywhere. It seems impossible to go a few hours without a new update that includes news that will drastically affect how we live. Google feeds are littered with information and stats about each state's growing caseload. Check your social media, it seems like every other post is a shared article or opinion about what’s going on (and for some reason they’re all unhelpful).
Internally, we’ve got dozens of unanswered questions:
Am I going to make it financially?
Have I been exposed?
What happens if I get sick?
When will it be normal again?
We’re in a pandemic. In the past 100 years, there have been a handful of pandemics, but this one is making history. Everything has been affected. The situation seems to shift daily. Even though pandemics are not a new thing, we are experiencing something for the first time in our lifetimes. It’s impossible to know all of the answers, but the cumulative effect of our questions and climate spell out one thing:
Anxiety.
For many of us, this is a nightmare. We don’t have the answers, so we imagine all of the possible outcomes, many of which are not good. We fear what may happen if our hours get cut even more or if we’re unemployed for a season. Graduating students don’t know what comes next. Parents are at a loss as their family’s routine has been shattered, kicked, and thrown off a bridge. For others, this season reminds us of the frailty of life, and that’s really scary.
At the heart of our anxiety is the question, “Am I going to be okay?” In a pandemic like this, we literally have no idea what tomorrow brings. We don’t know when it will be normal again or if we will get sick. We don’t feel secure. We don’t have control and we don’t have the answers.
But we do have something. Christians have a God that is present. We have a God who knows all of the answers. He is in control and He cares.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
Our response in a pandemic is to draw near to God. A Christian’s hope and peace doesn’t have to be founded on answers. Nor does it need to be rooted in our circumstances or in the amount of control we have over them. We cast all of our anxieties on Him because He cares for us.
The beauty of the Gospel is displayed during anxiety-filled seasons. God doesn’t just say He cares, He shows us. We have a story. The God of the universe lowered Himself to the form of a man, lived a perfect, sinless life, and died the death that we deserved. Jesus was abandoned by the Father on the cross, an agonizing event that He could’ve turned away from. But He didn’t. He stayed.
When Jesus stayed on the cross, He showed us how trustworthy He really is. On the cross Jesus purchased our eternal security. We’re His people, forever.
We may feel insecure today, but our eternity is secure. We may not know if we or those we love will get sick, but we do know the God who will be there with us. We may not know how long this season will last, but we do know that God is unchanging and loves us. We may not know where the next paycheck will come from, but we do know that God can and will provide.
We take our anxieties to Him. We pray. He knows everything. We ask Him for what we need. We can trust God to take care of us now because He has already taken care of our eternity.
We have a foundation to stand on and we have steps to take. Jesus has not only given us truth to cling to, He has also given us real ways to fight our anxiety. We fight our anxiety by bringing the Gospel into our daily lives. The way we do this is through spiritual disciplines and practices[1]. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast our anxiety onto Him.” We have practices that help us live out what the Scriptures are talking about. Here are three ways that we can go to Jesus in our anxiety:
Pray - Talk with God. Although it may feel like He’s distant, His word tells us He’s not. He’s with us and loves us. We can be honest with Him, wherever we’re at. In our anxiety we may want to turn away from Him, but He invites us to come to Him. Tell Him how you feel. Tell Him your worries. He knows them all and cares for you.
Lectio Divina - This is a practice where we read and meditate on God’s word. We enter into God’s presence by reading, reflecting, responding, and resting. Take a passage like Psalm 23 or Matthew 11:28-30. Lectio Divina allows us to sit in the truth. We get to pause and let the reality of who God is sink into our hearts. We can let His word guide our minds in this difficult season. When anxiety hits, we forget and doubt the character of God. We forget the Gospel. Practices like Lectio Divina allow us to sit in God’s word and let Him remind of us who He is. You can find the specific instructions here.
Daily Examen - The examen prayer is meant to be practiced at the end of each day, looking back and discerning God’s activity with an aim to grow in deeper awareness for the next day. In our anxiety we can lose sight of where God is. We start to only think about what we can do. In practicing this daily, we’re able to see God’s presence more clearly in our lives. The examen prayer can allow us to see the reality that God is active in our lives and this is exactly what our anxious spirits need. You can find specific instructions here.
In our anxiety, what we actually need is the Gospel. We need a faithful God to cling to, because everything else will not hold. We need a God that we can trust. The Gospel is our proof. We had no hope and no security, but Jesus delivered when we needed Him most. We can turn to Him now, casting our anxiety onto Him, because He cares and will never change.
[1] For more on spiritual practices and formation, go to FollowingJesusTogether.com