A few weeks ago I was at a children’s indoor play area with my friends and their children. We were chatting away all fine, but during our conversation I had a real sense that something wasn’t right. There seemed to be an underlying anxiety or a trepidation. I asked my friends about this, ‘do you feel anxious all the time.’ ‘Yes!’ they replied, ‘it’s like it’s in the air.’
I’m glad it wasn’t just me who was picking up on it!
We are currently living in an age where people are anxious and where people’s mental health has been suffering. It’s not surprising that we feel this way; before we have woken up in the morning our phones have sent us a notification about the next disaster that has happened somewhere in the world. When we turn on the TV or read the newspaper, it’s always bad news (bad news sells!). Yet there is such good news around. For example, according to World Vision over 1.2 billion people around the world have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 1990; 1.2 billion people! That is a story worth celebrating! That should be the kind of thing that we hear about.
Of course, it’s not as simple as saying, ‘let’s just hear all the good news and then we will feel better,’ not at all! Our own life situations may be difficult and there may be little, if any, help. We may be juggling jobs, childcare, looking after relatives, have health conditions; we may be lonely or struggling or feel overwhelmed or just don’t feel sure how we can go on. Life can be a real struggle. Life always has been a struggle, this isn’t new.
We may have tried everything to help our mental health as well, mindfulness is a popular one these days of helping people to cope, and it is indeed a useful technique. Others like to go on a long walk or read a book or listen to music to relax them. Some people, however, find that nothing works, and much of their lives are lived in a sea of anxiety, always feeling like they are about to be swamped and drowned by a wave crashing over their heads. I’m not going to use my article to tell you all the techniques on offer to help ourselves, there are plenty of websites that you can go on for that. I’m going to suggest something that you may not have tried before.
Ask God for help.
It sounds so simple doesn’t it. But it’s not something that we always think of. We think that we need to ‘sort ourselves out’ forgetting that we have an infinite God who is all too willing to help those who ask him. Yet, this can be hard to do. Often when we struggle mentally, we can think that we can’t ask God, or even that we lack faith or trust in him. It isn’t that at all, look at the psalms if you don’t believe me! Being worried, anxious, struggling mentally is a part of the human condition and it has always been.
But as I say, try asking God for help. When things are tough, when your struggling, speak to God about it. Ass him for his peace, the peace that passes all understanding. In one way or another, he will give it to you. Say a quick prayer in the morning, ‘God, I’m worried about this, please help me today, let me know your peace.’
This is a prayer that the priest prays at the end of every church service. As the congregation is blessed, the priest says, ‘may the peace of God, that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and the love of God, and of his son Jesus Christ our Lord, and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.’
My hope and my prayer, in this age of anxiety, is that you know God’s peace.
God bless
Adam