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How Do We Deal With all this Anxiety?

At an R.C.I.A. meeting recently we were talking about images of God.  I often use the example of speaking with someone on the phone.  When you are on the phone with someone you usually have an image in your mind of who it is you are speaking with.  You can envision what they look like.  So, when you are praying to (talking to) God, what is the image in your mind of who it is you are talking to?  As we went around the room there were many very interesting answers.  “God is a spirit”, one person said.  “God is love” another said.  “God is a formless apparition with strings reaching out and touching everything and everyone.”  Eventually, one person said, “God is an old man with white hair and a beautiful flowing white beard.”  This was the answer I was expecting from most of the folks gathered and was surprised when only one person said it.  When someone dies, one of the most common things we hear is that they are going to meet God “face-to-face.”  But it seems a great many of us don’t think God has a face.  Ironic!

The conversation then turned away from images of God and moved more toward the personality of God, if I can use that term.  What’s God like?  Is God loving or vengeful, or maybe both?  Does God lean so much toward mercy, that He forgets justice?  For some, it didn’t seem right that the vilest people in history didn’t have to pay a price for their actions when all was said and done.  I do not know what happens to people at the end of life or what kind of judgment they will face, and I probably never will.  I just chalk that up to the fact that it is beyond my pay grade.

What I do know (I think) is that we are first and foremost afraid of God.  And this goes all the way back to most of the people we read about in Scripture.  This weekend we read about Moses and the burning bush.  When God introduces himself to Moses (“I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”) we are told that Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.  If we remember last Sunday’s gospel about the transfiguration and when the cloud overshadowed the disciples, we are told they were terrified.  To be fair, I think that most of us would have the same reaction if we were present for those events.  But even in everyday life we live with a large amount of fear.  Fear of so many things that we have no control over.  Lately, I think it is fair to say that current events are filling a lot of people with fear and anxiety.  Yet we are told approximately 365 times in the bible, “Do not be afraid.”  I think none of us want to be afraid.  We hate the feeling of helplessness.  So, we turn to God for help.  This is where our image of God really comes into focus.  We quickly realize that all the words we use to describe God are woefully inadequate.

Instead of relying on what we say about God, let’s hang our hat on what Jesus tells us about God.  Jesus tells us that we worship and serve a God who tells us that He will never leave us alone.  Jesus tells us to consider the birds, how they neither sow nor reap, yet God looks after them.  Of how much more value are you than birds, says Jesus.  In these uncertain times, I picture God like a parent who is holding close their child who has just awoken from a bad dream.  I picture God rocking back and forth and quoting Robert Munsch, with a slight twist, saying ever so gently, “I’ll like for always, I’ll love you forever, and forever and ever my child you’ll be.”  Know this, whatever your image of God, God has you.  Always has, always will.

~Mark Mahoney, Pastoral Associate