When Anxiety is a Focus Issue {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution}

Patricia — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 08:42:30 +0000

We have all been around overly anxious people.

Some have good reason to feel anxious. Facing unemployment or severe illness, concerns about basic needs, life and death may fill their minds and rob their peace. Others may experience extreme stress brought up by somebody else’s decisions. Likewise, many people suffer from a chemical imbalance in their brain caused by prolonged stress, chronic disease, or an immune system disorder, creating an afflux of erratic thoughts, fear, and often depression.

I will be the last person to judge someone who suffers from anxiety. Having experienced the issue before, I know the dreadful results of chronic stress if not appropriately addressed through medication and sometimes therapy.

But some people do not fit the categories above.

You follow them on social media or sit beside them at church. They may be your best friend or a close relative. They may proclaim their faith in God boldly, write beautiful, faith-filled posts and even teach Sunday school. But truth be told, those who know them intimately find them wavering between faith and fear, peace and worry, in a dance that does not translate the firm beliefs they so brazenly proclaim. Indeed, their anxiety is not a reflection of circumstances or a medical issue, but rather, it is a matter of focus.

Some people's anxiety is not a reflection of circumstances or a medical issue, but rather, it is a matter of focus. @AJC #MondayThoughts #Anxiety #faithoverfear
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We live at a focus-challenging time. Our brains are constantly bombarded with information intended to distract us and anchor our hearts on anything but God.

Let’s think about a typical morning routine: We get up, and our brains are barely awake before we pick up our phones to browse social media. We come across articles or posts that incite division, fear and confusion: Take the vaccine or lose your job. Take the vaccine, and you may die. Trust the government. Mistrust the government. And below the comments on every post, we find people’s arguments, often blurted out with obscenities.

The world has gone mad, and you took the bait. It’s not even 7 a.m., and your heart rate is accelerated.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of the book of 1 Kings, we come across a story in the Old Testament that depicts one of Israel’s greatest prophet’s struggles with anxiety and fear.

It’s a long account, filled with twists and turns and marked with beautiful displays of God’s presence and provision to Elijah, the prophet.

In summary, after a challenge between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, the God of Israel powerfully displayed his glory, giving Elijah a supernatural victory. As a result, the prophet killed 450 prophets of Baal, thus causing rage from Jezebel, Israel’s evil, idolatrous queen. She then vowed to kill Elijah, who fled in fear into the wilderness.

As we read the account, it becomes evident that the prophet was under extreme stress and anxiety. Even though he had just experienced God’s omnipotence and sovereignty over evil, he became so distressed by fear that he even begged to die. As he continued his fleeing journey, stress and anxiety prevented him from resting or hearing from God.

Finally, after walking for 40 days and 40 nights, Elijah found himself at the foot of Horeb, the “mountain of God,” hiding in a cave. It was there that the Lord told him to stand on the mountain, for he would meet him there. Scriptures tell what happened next:

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks (…), but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”

It was that gentle whisper (or a still small voice in some translations) that quietened Elijah’s spirit and instructed him in the way he should go.

In a world filled with threats, unrest and fear, this is a story that should give us pause.

Like Elijah, we may be so focused on circumstances that we have no control over that we forget God’s promise never to leave us or forsake us. We may keep our hearts so anchored in the “earthquakes, wind and fire” around us that we ignore God’s gentle voice, nudging us in the right direction.

Like the prophet Elijah, we may keep our hearts so anchored in the 'earthquakes, wind and fire' around us that we ignore God’s gentle voice, nudging us in the right direction. @AJC #MondayThoughts #MondayMotivation
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Indeed, peace and quietness of spirit are sometimes a matter of deliberate focus. May we refuse to give in to the noise of this world and instead center on that still, small voice, whose faithfulness and power sustained us in the past and promises to continue to guide our future.

“Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Sons of Korah, Psalm 46.

This article was originally published in Patricia’s column for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday, October 9th, 2021. Click HERE to see it on the AJC’s website.

The post When Anxiety is a Focus Issue {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

Finding Peace in the Midst of the Storms – Atlanta Journal Constitution Column

Patricia — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 17:50:59 +0000

Shortly after midnight on Oct. 23, hurricane Patricia became the strongest Pacific hurricane on record in the Americas. My phone started buzzing with texts from my family and friends that morning, since my name was soon to be associated with the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Pacific coast. I watched as real-time videos of the horrific storm popped on my computer screen, praying for the areas on its path. As it turned out, Patricia’s intensity decreased very quickly as the storm’s center ground across the rugged terrain of Mexico. The storm pushed inland on a speed that spared some of the country’s major cities and coastal resorts from major destruction. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Pictures of hurricanes have always fascinated me. Whirlwinds of such monstrous proportions that they can be seen from outer space, with a peaceful, small place in the middle. The eye of the hurricane. Measuring about 12-30 miles in diameter, the eye of a hurricane is the point about which the rest of the storm rotates and where the lowest surface pressures are found. Skies are often clear and winds are relatively light there. It’s the calmest section of the storm. Right in the midst of such turmoil and destruction, there lays a place of rest, peace, beauty even.

I thought about the eye of the hurricane as I lay down in the center of a CT scanner yesterday. As I looked up at the huge circle around me, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of unrest as the dye started flowing into my veins. The substance always gives me an uncomfortable flush and speeds my heart up a bit. As I breathed in and out, slowly, I thought about the results, and whether I will have the joy of celebrating another year cancer-free. Right there, in the center of the CT scanner ring, as I said a prayer of thanksgiving for whatever lot God allows, my heartbeat slowed down and I found myself smiling. Peaceful rest. Blessed assurance. The eye of the storm.

When hurricane hunters fly out on a mission to measure the pressure within the eye of a hurricane, they know that they’ll face terrible elements on their way. Regardless, they fly on, determined to withstand whatever threat there may be, keeping their focus on their destination: the place where the storm can be measured with precision, and stillness surrounds the plane.

Likewise, when it comes to life’s storms, if indeed we believe that God is in control and that he doesn’t allow anything in our lives without a purpose, instead of allowing our minds to wander to places of hopelessness and despair, we should press on through the storms, determined to find a place of stillness before God. As 19th century evangelist Hannah Whitall Smith once said: “Nothing so greatly hinders the work of God’s unseen spiritual forces, upon which our success in everything truly depends, as the spirit of unrest and anxiety. There is tremendous power in stillness.”

The eye of the storm is a familiar place to me. A peace that words cannot describe, men cannot explain, and every external assurance can never provide. It’s a peace that doesn’t depend on a good outcome. It’s supernatural peace. God’s peace. And it’s completely attainable, if only we deliberately seek God’s face, affirming our belief that he loves us and works all things together for our good and his glory. It’s praying instead of despairing. It’s spending time in his word. It’s remembering his goodness and grace to us through the years. Only then can we truly find the peace in the midst of life’s storms: The eye of the hurricane.

Patricia Holbrook is a Christian author and national conference speaker. Her first book, “Twelve Inches: Bridging
the Gap Between What You Know About God and How You Feel,” is now available on Kindle, and paperback at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and other retailers. Visit her blog to read her devotionals at www.soaringwithhim.com or email her atpholbrook@soaringwithhim.com .

The post Finding Peace in the Midst of the Storms – Atlanta Journal Constitution Column appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

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When Anxiety is a Focus Issue {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution}

Finding Peace in the Midst of the Storms – Atlanta Journal Constitution Column