Comments on: Anxiety is easier

By: marie

marie — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:00:00 +0000

Thanks for another wonderful post. When I read “Anxiety is easier”, it was as if God had just given me a push and said “See. I mean it — you gotta trust me.” For I had just spent the last several minutes (before reading your blog) fretting about a career opportunity and how I was going to make it work. Finally, it occurred to me that maybe I should try and trust God with this. I knew it was the thing to do but giving up control of the situation and letting go of my anxiety was so difficult. Then I read your post and well I just about fell off my chair. The timing was so perfect.

I enjoy your blog. I know the Holy Spirit is using you so powerfully to touch many lives.

Thank you!

By: onionboy

onionboy — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:13:00 +0000

This is one of the sins I bring to confession. Being older (now 48) helps to mellow things some, experience is like that for rounding out the rough spots but it is still, as you note, much easier to fret than it is to be faithful. Lord, have mercy, help us to place our hearts and minds in you, fully that the peace of Christ might rule in us.

O onionboy.ca {arts & fath} luminousmiseries.ca {faith & art}

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:36:00 +0000

Jennifer,
I really appreciate your post. My mother has always maintained that worry is a failure to trust God, and it is good to hear that truth echoed from another corner! I’ve been really anxious lately, and like you, I know what I should do, it’s just that I don’t want to do it! I Peter 5:7 comes to mind: “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” There is such peace in acknowledging our dependence on God. Blessings to you in your walk with Him.

Rebecca

By: nicole

nicole — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:23:00 +0000

Great post Jen. You get to the heart of what I continually struggle with. I know what God’s will for me is, but I am so reluctant, afraid, unwilling to follow it. I hope you are more successful than I have been so far.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:06:00 +0000

Another fantastic post. Helpful to a fellow Catholic mother with the same issues! Check out my blog for a quote that my husband found for me that anxiety equals “not trusting things to right themselves” or in our case, not wanting to do the uncomfortable things necessary to serve God daily.

Hope the Christmas party ended up being fun!

By: Tausign

Tausign — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:10:00 +0000

[You said]…”when I turn to God in a state of anxiety to seek his will for me…I know exactly what his will is. I just don’t want to follow it.”

{My reply} May I suggest another interpretation to ponder. It’s almost an axiom of ‘spiritual direction’ that God rarely speaks to us in such situations. God almost universaly speaks to us in the still quiet moments of peace.

Regarding discerning ‘what is God’s Will for me in particular’… [as opposed for all of us in general]…I’ve found that ‘I hear Him best’ AFTER I’ve really had a heartfelt conversion and desire to carry out His Will. [St. Francis called this a moment...'When the bitter becomes sweet'] This makes sense as our loving Father loathes to frustrate us. Indeed he providentially gives us exactly what we need to carry out His Will when the moment arrives.

By: Sarahndipity

Sarahndipity — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:30:00 +0000

I think that for a while now I've used anxiety as a crutch: sometimes it's easier to just sit around and stress out, to indulge in feelings of being helpless and overwhelmed, than to do what I know God wants me to do.

Wow. I never thought of it that way, but I do the exact same thing. I also have a hard time determining God’s will much of the time. At least, so I thought. But I think you’re right that most of the time we know God’s will deep down but just don’t want to do it. I’ve also noticed that it’s so easy to look at other people’s lives and say that they should obviously do X, but when I’m in a similar situation I make excuses for not doing God’s will. I tell myself it’s “complicated,” when often it’s really not.

Your blog is so great – I get new insights from it all the time. I’m a cradle Catholic, but my similar spiritual journey is similar to yours and I think we are at about the same place spiritually.

By: k

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 14:13:00 +0000

Very good post!

A few years ago (via The Cloister Walk), I came to believe that most anger is just fear. Now I can see that it's fear wrapped in ego.

By: LSK49rs

LSK49rs — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:33:00 +0000

One of the toughest lessons I have ever had to learn was that trusting God with my life means trusting that He may have a much better idea of how my time should be spent than I do. To go forward, even when there is a good chance that what I want may not be what HE wants, has been my greatest challenge as well as my greatest avenue of growth.
May the Lord continue to bless you.

By: Catholic Mom

Catholic Mom — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:20:00 +0000

Jen,

I wrote a quick post on this last weekend. What triggered it was this quote from Pope Benedict as he discussed the Letter from St. James: Thus he teaches us not to presume to plan our lives autonomously and with self interest, but to make room for the inscrutable will of God, who knows what is truly good for us.