Anxiety (02/29/2024)

I could feel it perking. Anxiety. The community soup supper is today. There are more moving parts than in a herd of centipedes on the march. How to coordinate everything? How to think of everything that needs to be considered? Last night it reached crescendo level as I tossed and turned. And then inside my head I heard, “Have no anxiety.”  And I knew the rest. I recited Philippians 4:5-7 to myself:

“The LORD is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

I felt guilty while at the same time relieved and hopeful: guilty because I’d realized how foolishly I’d been acting as if it was all on me and relieved and hopeful because I’d realized I am not doing this alone – the LORD is with me as well as a community of volunteers.

And so, I found myself bringing today and the community soup supper and all the volunteers and all the tasks to the LORD. I asked the LORD for grace and guidance for myself and for all involved. I prayed that the day would bring glory to the LORD and a renewed sense of community to the volunteers and guests. And as I prayed, a sense of peace washed over me, filling the space that had been occupied by anxiety. And then I slept.

This morning, that prayer is very much on my mind and in my heart as is the peace of knowing that no prayer is unheard. This morning, I thank the LORD for the day, for my life and the lives of all whom I will encounter this day. I thanked the LORD for the community and for the opportunity to work together and to come together for the glory and love of our LORD. And with confidence I pray, “be with us, LORD.”

Anxiety appears to be so prevalent in our world right now. As I write, I wonder if it isn’t that we as a world have wandered from our relationship with the LORD and our faith that the LORD is near. Can we, as a world, turn back, realize the LORD is near, and bring our needs to the LORD knowing our prayers are heard? I wonder if during this Lenten season we might repent as individuals and as communities and even whole societies for those times and those ways that we have strayed and then turn back. I believe we need this Lent, this season of “turning back.”

May all of us on our journeys of faith, buoyed by hope, and fueled by love use this holy season of Lent to truly search our hearts, minds, and lives for how well we are living the LORD’s will for us – to love the LORD with our whole being and to love one another as well as ourselves. May we find the way back through prayer to a life of humility and gratitude, to life of purpose and direction, to a life of no anxiety because of our true faith in the LORD who is near.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.

Thoughts? Questions? Requests? - email katewiskus@gmail.com