What To Do With Your Anxiety?

With school on the horizon there is a lot of anxiety in the air. The school administration is worried, “what will happen if or when one or more of the children come down with the Coronavirus?”, Or, “What about the staff?” The teachers have similar concerns and fears, they are not sure what each day will look like when students come in. Will they be sick? Are they carrying the virus? How can I best protect myself? Then there’s the parents who since March have had their children at home with them. Now they love them, but let’s be honest they are ready to send them back to school so they can get back to a normal life. Parents want to get back to work, see their children succeed in something other than video games and eating them out of house and home.
I want to thank the school board for their due diligence as they conducted meetings with the public addressing this very topic of when, how, and why we need to bring our children back to school. There was much discussion on virtual learning, in-person learning, home schooling and other avenues to make sure all the children received the best education they could. In the end, the decision comes down to the parents, what do they want for their children? How comfortable do they feel sending them back to school? How do the teachers feel? Can they handle this situation? I know none of these decisions were reached lightly nor can every situation or circumstance be foreseen.
However, I do know there is a God in Heaven who can calm all our fears and anxieties. Who calls us all to come unto Him and lay all our cares and concerns upon Him. The Psalmist writes, “When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer” (Ps. 94.19, NLT2).[1] We can all say, we have had doubts during this virus. Doubts about when to go out, when to stay in? Whether to go to work or stay home? Should we go to church or not? What are we to do? So much doubt, but yet when we are in Christ there is great peace and comfort.
The Apostle Peter, giving instruction to the church gives us some great advice for a time such as this. He writes, “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5.5-7, ESV).[2] You who are younger, all of you children, teenagers going back to school need to listen to those ‘elders’, those who are in charge. I know sometimes you don’t want to, but I am here to tell you they are truly looking out for your best interest. Looking back at what Peter says, when we will subject ourselves to them, it allows us to ‘clothe ourselves in humility toward one another.’ Humility is not something many of us have these days, just look around the country, the attitude is, “It is all about me, what I want, what I desire.” This should not be our attitude, we must have an attitude of humility, Paul said, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2.2-3, NIV).[3] Humility is always on the lookout for others to help, to encourage, to love, to lift-up, to protect, to make better, to befriend. It is when we humble ourselves before God that He in His perfect timing will lift us up. But more important than being lifted up, we find ourselves in a place as Peter puts it where we can ‘cast all our anxieties on Him.’
How amazing is this! We have a God who wants us to cast our problems upon Him, He does not want us to keep them to ourselves, but give them to Him. Why? Because He cares for YOU! How about it, will you let go and humble yourself and cast all your cares on the One who Cares For You?

[1] Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Ps 94:19). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Pe 5:5–7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[3] The New International Version. (2011). (Php 2:3–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.