Yell “STOP IT” With Me
The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. (Psalm 6:9)
This morning I was drinking my coffee, deleting email ads, and watching the news, when I heard a reporter on CNN talking about China’s swift nuclear weapons buildup. The buildup the US government thought would take decades occurred in two short years. I started pondering how a cold war with China is more dangerous than the one with the Soviet Union. Besides the fact that contemporary technology and weapons of mass destruction are even more capable of destroying us, we are also more dependent on China for our economy. The economic vulnerability leaves us susceptible to ongoing manipulation and threat. My thoughts kept spiraling downward until I said, “STOP IT!”
I cannot solve this problem; obsessing will only make me feel worse. Every so often, I catch myself catastrophizing. I have a gift for taking the littlest issue and building it into an enormous problem. So, when I hear about a serious issue, look out; my sky is falling. In these moments, I’ve taught myself to say, “Stop it!” and pray. Prayer reminds me that I am not in control of almost anything and should take my concerns to the one in control.
In “Carl Jung: You Can’t Solve Life’s Greatest Problems, You Outgrow Them,” Thomas Oppong reminds us of Jung’s words, “The greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.” Nuclear destruction is indeed an issue we may not outgrow, but that is where God steps in. So I turn over what I cannot change to God and trust God to help the world outgrow this overwhelming mess.
Today, think about moments when you succumbed to catastrophizing a situation. It might be as simple as an argument that your mind turns into a fractured relationship or as complex as a nuclear war. The wonderful thing about God is that God is willing to take all our concerns, rational and otherwise, and listen and address them. It is powerful to hand over what is out of our control to the One who can recreate the Universe for good.