Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Anxiety Attack

When my daughters were single-digit ages—two, five, and seven—I wowed them with a miracle. I told them the story of Moses and the manna and invited them to follow me on a wilderness trek through the house.

"Who knows," I suggested, "manna may fall from the sky again."

We dressed in sheets and sandals and did our best Bedouin hike through the bedrooms. The girls, on my instruction, complained to me, Moses, of hunger and demanded I take them back to Egypt, or at least to the kitchen. When we entered the den, I urged them to play up their parts: groan, moan, and beg for food.

"Look up," I urged. "Manna might fall any minute."

Two-year-old Sara obliged with no questions, but Jenna and Andrea had their doubts. How can manna fall from a ceiling?

Just like the Hebrews. "How can God feed us in the wilderness?"

Just like you? You look at tomorrow's demands, next week's bills, next month's silent calendar. Your future looks as barren as the Sinai Desert. "How can I face my future?" God tells you what I told my daughters: "Look up."

When my daughters did, manna fell! Well, not manna, but vanilla wafers dropped from the ceiling and landed on the carpet. Sara squealed with delight and started munching. Jenna and Andrea were old enough to request an explanation.

My answer was simple. I knew the itinerary. I knew we would enter this room. Vanilla wafers fit safely on the topside of the ceiling-fan blades. I had placed them there in advance. When they groaned and moaned, I turned on the switch.

God's answer to the Hebrews was similar. Did he know their itinerary? Did he know they would grow hungry? Yes and yes. And at the right time, he tilted the manna basket toward earth.

And what about you? God knows what you need and where you'll be. Any chance he has some vanilla wafers on tomorrow's ceiling fans? Trust him. "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes" (Matthew 6:33-34).

I don't have kids yet, this is an email from my friend, "Peace for Anxious Days by Max Lucado." It is truly a wonderful miracle how we can get through each day of our lives, struggling, yet still surviving. Everyone has to admit we may have our own anxiety attacks, yet learning how to give it all up to God, is one thing we should always have in mind. I've had my own struggles. Before, I used to worry a lot. I worried about bills to pay, stressful work, pressure, stability, and everything for tomorrow. It was then that all my worries really turn into problems. But then somehow, I learned one thing- Faith. I simply trust everything to my Faith that all my problems will be solved, all my worries be gone. And they all simply go away. Here I am now, still struggling for everyday living, but with my Faith, I know I can go through everything. And there's nothing more I can say than "Thank you, Lord..."

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