A scene that unfolded as I looked out our patio doors this week pretty much summed up the last year. The people building a house on the vacant lot adjacent to us for no apparent reason obliterated a number of beautiful hundred year old trees that were a blaze of colour every October.
I might as well say it — I was angry. I felt — and was — helpless to prevent something that shouldn’t have happened. And that, I think, is how a lot of us feel processing the events of these past months.
We have been shut down, had our travel cancelled, lost our jobs, been unable to see our families, and tragically have seen people we love suffer and even die.
A sense of helplessness always leads to anger. That anger can be expressed outwardly in physical or verbal violence, or it can go inward and be a significant root cause of depression and anxiety.
I cannot be the judge of how governments around the world have handled this pandemic — I’m glad for sure I didn’t hold public office. But I do know that people are deeply unhappy and many are angry. And I fear that the mental health effects are going to be with us long after the virus has subsided. The other day I told a psychiatrist friend he had better be ready for some bumper business once all this is over.
But there are things we can do which may help.
We can remind ourselves that God is in charge of this world. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Lord of the beginning, the end and everything in between. No matter how helpless we may feel, he is not. He can bring good out of the worst situations.
We can choose to give our anger to him. That means forgiving the nasty neighbours who chopped down those beautiful trees. Forgiveness does not pave over the wrong — it hands the wrong to God to deal with. It releases mercy in me. And it delivers me from the corrosive effects of internalizing my anger. Bitterness is a punishment we inflict on ourselves which is worse in its effects than whatever wrong was done to us, because we live with it forever. It enables our perpetrators to torment us long after they are dead and gone.
And we can carry each other’s burdens. In seasons where natural human contact is limited or even forbidden, we need to bend over backwards to stay in touch with each other and support each other in our respective areas of need.
And finally, we can remind ourselves that God has a plan to bring out of all this which will make it worthwhile for those who can grasp hold of it. Some of the plagues of Revelation are described as inflicting spiritual or psychological torment on unbelievers only. We have a comfort in God which can keep us when the world is falling apart. And maybe, just maybe, there will be a lot more people wanting to hear the good news of Jesus after all the bad news they have had.
And for me, I take comfort in the fact that the end of the Book tells me there is a tree waiting for me that no one can chop down.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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