For a quickened 9:06 video or audio file. A couple days ago, I read two articles by writers who were describing their own anxiety, anger, depression, and grieving over what is happening to our country politically and to the planet ecologically. Upon awakening this morning, I began thinking about my day and noticed that I was wandering into that anxiety myself. So the first thing I did was to recognize that fact for exactly what it was: ANXIETY.
Immediately I was filled with radiant, bright, spiritual sunshine. After remaining for a while in the illumination, I tried thinking, only to find that thinking meant decay. To I re-entered the illumination. After a few cycles of thinking and re-entry, the illumination modulated into the love of God. After a while there, I could go back to thinking in a normal way, and it did not feel like decay at all.
I analyzed the core of my anxiety as “the time tension of personality.” This is normal and natural, part of the Creator’s plan for the adventure of evolution. We don’t have forever to pay adequate attention to planetary problems, and we don’t have forever to serve on this planet.
Other important facts to bear in mind regarding our darkening planet. The news media can only report on what is visible—leaving out what God and the angels are doing—and ignoring the individuals and organizations that are doing wonderful things.
So how can we have sense of proportion as we estimate where this world is going?
We also fail to believe in the wonderful destiny of our world—which is not in doubt. Or in the wonderful destiny of ourselves as individuals—which is not in doubt either—for every person whose life is, on the whole, saying YES to the God of love and mercy.
When this mega-illumination occurred, I was just beginning my standard method for dealing with temptation. First, recognize it honestly, and then rechannel the energies of spirit, mind, and body, which are seeking expression in a more idealistic direction. The energies themselves come from the Creator. They are wonderful. They just happen to be in a configuration that needs to be recycled.
Sometimes a method involves a series of steps that do not need to be completed, because before you get to the end the problem gets dissolved.
It could be depressing to be told—hey, you’re anxious? Go get yourself instantly illuminated! It only happened to me once. So what do I tell the story? Because it makes truths evident that are there for everyone: the spirit of God lives and waits and blesses and serves within you, your best friend, your guide through these difficult and dangerous times. The spirit gift of the God whom Jesus revealed as our Father.
The good news is that you don’t have to embrace the language of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man to realize these spiritual realities in your life and enjoy that sense of companionship, friendship, purpose, meaning, and value that enables you to be—at least sometimes—centered in the calm in the eye of the storm. And those times can become—let us form an anxiety anonymous club—let us believe and rejoice—the times of calm, wisdom, illumination, are destined to become more frequent, last longer, and get better.
Image credit: Edvard Munch, The Scream
