Tuesday 29 March 2016

I'm so anxious right now



I don’t know if any of you cats out there struggle with anxiety but if the statisticians haveanything to say about it then there’s probably quite a few of you.  I have mild anxieties about the kids, life, money etc; the usual cast of characters, but it manifests itself in a little bit of an odd way for me (which I’ve heard is fairly common for anxiety).  Confession time:  I have to check the front and back door are locked twice before I go to bed and usually the same amount each time I leave the house.  This “tick” provides a fair bit of amusement and confusion among my family members but they go pretty easy on me and for the most part leave me to my oddity.


We were off to church on Sunday this week when halfway down the road I realised I was out in back yard putting out the washing (cast your stones if you must, LOL!) and there was a chance I had left the back door wide open.  From that moment on it was all I could think about so I asked my husband to go back so I could check.  He did so without comment (because he’s cool like that) and what do you know?  The door was indeed closed and locked.  Surprise, surprise…
 
Back in the car daughter number one piped up “why do we always have to do this?”  [Patience my young Padawan, your time of worry will come] to which my husband replied “when you are worried about something it’s all you can think about but if you can check the thing you are worried about and discover that it’s OK then you don’t need to think about it anymore and you can go on to think about something else.  Kind of like death really; Jesus took away our fear of death so now we don’t have to worry about it anymore and we can think about other stuff”.

Nailed it!  One of the greatest comforts we have as Christians is that death has lost its sting; its worry; its terror.  When Jesus took our punishment for us on the cross he took away all fear of God’s anger and judgement after death and we can instead look forward to a post-humous world without fear, pain or anxiety.  This is a great load off our minds and now we are free to think/worry about everything else in the world; like whether or not the doors are locked.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
    the covering that is cast over all peoples,
    the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 25

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