Too much for me to handle

Ever feel like the world is crashing down around you? You might not be touched personally by tragedy (meaning yourself or your immediate family) but sadness is all around you. From your friend’s friend’s husband being killed by an armed robber to a friend losing a baby to another friend being diagnosed with cancer to a neighbor dying from cancer….I could go on, I suppose. No longer are overwhelming tragedies relegated to soap operas—they are part of our everyday lives.

Could this be my age? I’m over 40 now, which logically would expose me to more illness and age-related issues among friends and relatives. But I’m not sure that’s it. I’ve run into plenty of extraordinarily random tragedies that have nothing to do with age. I wonder if the cultural movement to encourage people to talk openly about their crises, to be real with their anguish has led to this overwhelming sense of global personal suffering.

The flip side of this openness is that it’s almost as if you need some sort of tragic circumstances to be able to enter into a conversation. And if you haven’t suffered in some way you are one of the uninitiated few. The sufferers look upon you with an odd combination of disdain and pity. “Poor slob,” they murmur. “Just wait until tragedy strikes for her. She’ll have her day of suffering just like the rest of us. We’ll see if she can handle it.”

And along with the sense of guilt you might feel at being “untouched,” you wonder if, indeed, you will be able to handle tragedy when it comes. You might begin to greet each day with a sense of foreboding, as if this is the day when IT happens. The crisis of your life. The other shoe drops, your fortune turns, and time runs out on the parking meter. You peer around corners, squint into the shadows, and generally flush any enjoyment from where you are due to the overwhelming fear of where you’ll be.

In the New Testament Book of Matthew, Jesus says …do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34). I find this a curious statement coming from a man who did know what would happen tomorrow (and would be righteous in his fear). But we can’t begin to guess what will happen in the future, so all the defenses, the strategies, and the coping mechanisms we devise for dealing with tomorrow’s tragedies take us away from today’s very real struggles…and very real victories and joys.

So, how to deal with uncertainty? How to not let worry consume us? Though I might not agree with his plans, his timing, and his outcomes, I have made a choice to trust in God. What other choice to I have? What other choice do you have?

Jesus himself is calling you to make that choice, as shown in the account of Mary and Martha in the New Testament book of Luke. (Keep in mind that worry is relative here – one person can handle the worry that consumes someone else.) Martha is freaking out at her preparations for a dinner party and that her sister is chatting away with Jesus. Martha indignantly approaches Jesus, full of righteous anger at the inequity of it all, when Jesus answers quietly and lovingly: “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Understand that I’m not talking about blind faith, I’m talking about trust. No matter what, the friendship, love, and wisdom of Jesus and the Holy Spirit within us cannot be taken away from us. We will worry, yes, but let us choose what is better.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:57.