We live in a world that surrounds us with a host of reasons to be anxious. Global headlines warn of impending doom: wars, recessions, disasters, etc. Beyond collective anxieties, your own personal challenges (family, finances, health…) add another layer of stress.
I’m interested in how we deal with the resulting anxiety regardless of the issue we face. How do we cope? The practical answer is to create contingency plans where possible and not dwell on what’s beyond our control. This approach works when viewing problems from a distance, but it falls short when issues hit close to home. Some challenges come with such overwhelming force and suffocate you under their pressure — at least that’s how it feels. Anxiety is in this case unavoidable, and there’s certainly no mental space left to create “contingency” plans.
People have various ways to manage the tension — some effective, others less so. There’s really no magical solution or universal remedy, and I won’t pretend to offer a secret formula to deal with this. I’ll only point to how reading an old story; initially as a way to escape, turned out to provide the anti-anxiety remedy that I desperately needed. The story isn’t fictitious. It’s a true story. The events really happened and it’s my hope that we see why this matters to us today.
When Men Are Made Great#
The story takes place circa 6th century BC when Daniel, a servant of the Neo-Babylonian empire and later the Persian empire, received a series of divine revelations about the future which are now recorded in the biblical book bearing his name. One prophecy in particular (Daniel 8) caught my attention as it foretold the coming rule and subsequent fall of Alexander the Great — arguably the most accomplished military commander to ever have existed. Alexander inherited the Macedonian kingdom (present-day Greece) and expanded it all the way to northwestern India. Some scholars question the book’s authenticity, arguing that no one could have predicted Alexander’s rise 300 years in advance. For them, since there’s no such thing as ‘prophecy’ or any sort of foreknowledge, the book must have been written after the fact. They believed the book to be a forgery created to inspire the Maccabean resistance (168-164 BC). Lest anyone worry, I’ll only mention that the scholarship supporting its authenticity is solid. Moreover, Jesus our (omniscient) Lord himself believed in its authority and authenticity (Matthew 24:15). Let me therefore not bother you any further with scholars and their quibbles.
The book of Daniel opens with the account of how Jerusalem was besieged and how its inhabitants were taken into Babylonian captivity. In his book “Dominion” , Tom Holland (not the actor) describes how the Jews found themselves exiled in a city “vast beyond their wildest imaginings”, “amid temples so steepling that they seemed to brush the sky” — the greatest of which was called “Esagila” and was deemed the oldest building in the world: “The very axis of the cosmos”. Invasion, destruction and exile; this was no doubt a very low point in their history. Tom Holland continues:
It would have been easy for the exiles from Jerusalem, numbed by defeat and a sense of their own puniness before the immensity of Babylon, to have accepted this bleak understanding of man’s purpose. Rather than fall to the worship of Marduk, they clung instead to the conviction that it was their own god who had brought humanity into being.
I might have lost some of you when I started mentioning dates and empires long gone, as history is perhaps not everyone’s favorite subject. However, I find it so helpful to step back and realize that we’re not living in the darkest times by any stretch of the imagination. Thinking about these desolate exiles steeped in national despair, even at this lowest of junctures, God spoke! He called them to cling to His voice and not be led astray into trusting the foreign idols that had displayed their greatness so vividly and unmistakably. In His wisdom, God chose to give them a vision of even greater empires to come; speaking as He who transcends time and human strength. This truly leaves me astounded.
God doesn’t ignore their current troubles, but rather, He reminds them that He stands above the evil that has befallen them, and that His intimate knowledge extends far beyond events that lie generations beyond their own. How deep does His omniscience run? For God’s purposes are unwavering and His plans prevail. If someone becomes “great”, it’s only by God’s design and through His preordained plan. Nothing in man’s power is able to frustrate God’s decrees. He does not merely sit and watch events unfold to decide how to respond; rather, He holds the reins of all creation. He charts every route and the end of every possible trajectory is known to Him. Nothing ever takes Him by surprise.
Peace Amid Stormy Seas#
We do need regular reminders of this glorious truth to know that people aren’t just throwing out empty platitudes when they say: “God is in control”. He really is. Perhaps we forget. Or perhaps the darkness around has filled us with doubt. The psalmist says this:
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Psalm 46:1-3
I must first acknowledge that if the earth were literally to be moved into the heart of the sea — a scenario climate change alarmists and activists believe we are on the precipice of — I would likely be the first to succumb to panic, throwing the above nice poem out the window. This would not be because my intellect failed to understand the implications of God’s omniscience and omnipotence. It’s rather despite it. The purpose of God’s truth (and I keep forgetting this) is not merely to make an intellectual impression; it must penetrate the innermost depths of my soul and seize me to the core. This is why I must pray!
No one really knows for sure what will happen. Perhaps doomsday is fast approaching. Perhaps also nothing major is going to happen in the near future. No one really knows. No one can predict all the ripple effects of actions being taken right now (no matter how well thought out). No one can ensure their future. That’s not to mean, obviously, that we should cross our arms and wait for the inevitable. We must labor hard to see a good outcome because we do have some agency! However, even then, the good outcome we hope for is not guaranteed.
Therefore, I must entrust the future to the One who holds it — and with it His own. My primary care should be that I’m His own, for only separation from Him is to be my greatest fear. As long as I’m His own, whether through prosperity or exile, good fortune or adversity, armageddon or universal peace; “All things work together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). I must believe. I must not forget that He knows it all and has it all under His control. I must rest in the truth beautifully expressed here by Casting Crowns :
When I’m lost in the mystery, To You my future is a memory, ‘Cause You’re already there.
