Just Stop It

HERE is a remarkable Saturday Night Life comedy sketch that perfectly describes how the majority of Christians have been told to handle their anxiety: just STOP IT!

Sometimes we say “Just stop it!” to our kids or our friends, but mostly we say it to ourselves. We try to white knuckle our way forward by willing ourselves to not be anxious. Rarely does that work well. Our therapists have a word for it: repression.

The apostle Paul suggests a different approach. He invites us to NAME our anxiety - to surface it, to talk about it with God, and to stop just trying to STOP IT. He invites us, instead of staying in our anxiety, to let it out.

Paul writes ”Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” There’s a way out here - can you see it? Instead of choosing into more anxiety (which is what happens when we repress things), we are invited to let them out. And Paul adds in ‘thanksgiving’ as an alternative way to look at the world - which scientists have proved over and over again is a gateway to more peace and more happiness.

Take a few BRIEF moments to name your anxiety. Then DOUBLE that time in gratitude for various aspects of your life - and see where you end up today.