Anxious For Nothing

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 New King James Version

Most translations and interpretations of this Bible verse suggest that the writer is saying  something like, “Don’t be anxious for anything…”  But what if the writer is saying “Go ahead and be anxious all you want, but just know that you’re ‘anxious for nothing’.  The thing you’re anxious about may or may not ever happen, but your anxiety isn’t going to change anything. All of your distress, if for hours, days, weeks, months or years will come to nothing. You wasted all of that stress and energy that could have been used for positive and pleasant purposes.”

The truth is we now know your anxiety changes plenty of things.  It changes your blood pressure.  It changes the lining of your stomach.   Your anxiety about possible future outcomes changes your ability to concentrate on the very real things that are right in front of your face. Your anxiety rewires your entire nervous system. All of the biochemicals in your brain that respond to your bidding and determine your mood and your health are affected. Anxiety changes a lot of things; it just doesn’t do anything to change the thing you’re concerned about.

Another part of these verses that I find absolutely fascinating and useful is “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”  Part of the reason most of us suffer with chronic anxiety is because we think too much.  And we think we can think our way out of anxiety and into a peaceful frame of mind The truth is if we want to have a peaceful frame of mind, then we have to allow God’s peace to bypass our thinking and take up residence in our hearts.  And as those words of the verse continue, this process will guard our hearts and minds.

Z

So if being an anxiety ball is A and being completely at peace is Z , how do you get from A to Z? That is an excellent question with a multitude of answers.  This is something everyone has to figure out for him or herself.  Some people pray and  meditate as suggested in the verse. Other people practice yoga.  Many people do something active like sports or exercise.  For some that exercise is nothing more than a brisk walk. But even a casual stroll through the woods can work wonders for the nervous system. In other situations, it's well worth the time and money to seek the support of a trained counselor.You have to find what works for you. And once you find it, do it as often as possible.

Last thing. The New Testament writer says when you pray, pray with "thanksgiving".  Gratitude is one of the most powerful forces available.  Being thankful can create a virtual transformation of your disposition. It has been said that while you are  feeling  grateful, you can’t feel anything else.  Gratitude crowds out all other emotions. Thanksgiving shouldn't be just a Thursday in November for family and feasting, but should become a way of life. With these simple changes, instead of being anxious for nothing, you can begin living for something.

Happy Holidays !

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.”  Unknown

“The Holidays” are here ready or not. For some of us, we’re ready. For others of us, we’re not.

It’s not that we don’t mostly enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas, the two major occasions that for most of us are celebrated this time of year;  it’s not that we don’t understand the importance of time with our friends and family; it’s not that we don’t enjoy an occasional concert or church service; it’s not that we don’t like exchanging presents with our families.  In moderation we respect, appreciate and enjoy all of that. It’s just that this time of year, at the front end of “the holidays”, it can hit us in the face ALL AT ONCE.  And when that happens it can be quite overwhelming. Event by event it’s not too difficult but when taken as a whole the holidays can be  daunting. When we think about the driving, at times in cold and nasty weather, the decorating, the shopping, the wrapping of gifts , the entertaining family and friends,  the preparation and serving of food, the eating too much, the dieting to lose what we’ve gained; the taking down the tree and decorations and putting everything away, it can all be hard to swallow. Even online shopping can be stressful at times. 

The truth is, none of this is the fault of “the holidays”; it's our own fault. We not only do not have to do everything at once, we  don't even  have to think about doing everything at once. Nothing says that we have to do all of the above. Although it would not be realistic to suggest that we could do none of the above, we certainly don’t have to do any of it.  It’s just that at the front end it can all be overwhelming.

Several years ago after a significant car accident, I was having a difficult time driving.  I had had several car accidents in my life. But it was the random nature of this accident and how this large car came out of nowhere to hit me and total my car that so thoroughly shook me up. I literally didn't see it coming.  Less than two weeks after the accident, I found myself driving in San Francisco in a rented minivan.  I was struggling with it to say the least.  Later in the week at a  friend’s house near Santa Rosa, my friend sensing my distress, took  me to a book store and bought for me the book, Full Catastrophe Living. The title says it all. Reading the book didn’t cure me of all my angst, but it made a huge difference.  So even now as I’m thinking about “the holidays”, I’m thinking about that book. The author admonishes us to celebrate the whole catastrophe! So just let “the holidays” play out a day at a time.  When it’s time to decorate—decorate.  When it’s time to travel—travel.  When it’s time to go to church –go to church.  When it's time to shop--shop. When it’s time to eat too much—eat too much. But just remember that it takes a lot longer to take it off than it does to put it on. When it’s time to take down all the decorations and put them all away then take down the decorations and put them all away.  You don’t have to do it all at once. It’s not, for example,  time to take down the decorations; most of us haven’t even put them up!

Thanksgiving is in the books and it was, for us, one of the best Thanksgivings ever. So all that’s left to do is Christmas.  Ho! Ho! Ho!.  Starting right now I plan to let it play out, to watch it play out.  But not just to watch, but to engage and participate in every way possible.  That’s the least I can do for my family, my friends and for myself. If we take it a day and an occasion at a time, it can really be "Happy Holidays" for all of us (and, of course, "Merry Christmas", if you prefer).

A Visit from an Old Friend

“But we’ve got lots of water, cool, clear refreshing water.  Just drink our living water; it will make you  free.”   From the album Our Front Porch by Ralph Carmichael and the Young People. Circa 1974.

I’ve told you several times about the listening “room” (closet) that I employed and enjoyed at the Enterprise State Junior College.  I’ve told you how besides assigned listening, I spent countless hours dropping the needle on a myriad of composers many of whom I discovered for myself.  As a reminder, there were three turntables and three sets of stereo headphones and a large shelf of albums. I was able to help myself to any of the records on the shelf for as long as I cared to listen.

But I’ve never told you about the listening “situation” at my senior college,  Samford University.  In the basement of the library was a music library.  There were shelves upon shelves of music related books and textbooks. In  the back of the room were listening stations much like at the junior college. I again could help myself to those records.  I don’t remember a lot about that other than the equipment was there and I was there from time to time.  I seldom  did any extracurricular listening because for those three years when I wasn’t in class, I was in the practice room, the library or rehearsals with the A Cappella Choir. Samford had a thing called Jan Term  which was classes in January.  For J-term you took only one class.  You were in that class most of the day for four weeks and at the end of the term you earned whatever semester credits were applicable for that class.  I earned entire semester credits in January in all three of  my years at Samford. Besides the music school listening area for music students, Samford offered a listening area for the entire student body.  Only it was a little strange. This listening “room” in the student  center was actually the student center itself.  Along the wall in the entrance to the student center were three female phone inputs for headphone jacks and three comfortable chairs.  To listen to any particular album, you had to ask the student clerk, who was in a small room with a window, to play that album.  You signed your name with student ID and s/he handed you a set of headphones. You then plugged in the phones, sat down in the chair and enjoyed your music.  I don’t remember there being any sort of catalog in that check out room. You just had to know what you wanted to listen to, tell the clerk and hope s/he had the album in his library. At the end of the session, you returned the headphones and he crossed your name off the list.

Although I was earning a Bachelor of Music Education and was singing and studying “serious music”, there was one album I listened to over and over in the student center. It was an album of Christian  contemporary music called Our Front Porch: New Sounds of the 70s by Ralph Carmichael and the Young People.  This album wasn’t just “new sounds of the 70s”, it was new sounds period.  “Christian contemporary”, which has exploded in the last twenty years, was in its infancy then. The music was groundbreaking in its scope and style.

Last night   I thought to do something that I’d never thought about doing.  I searched “Our Front Porch” on YouTube. The entire album popped up. I enjoyed listening to it last night and I’m enjoying listening to it now. I’m reminded why I liked it so much; it’s fresh, clean, positive and encouraging.  In 1975 as a struggling music student I found encouragement anywhere I could find it.  I still find encouragement anywhere I can find it. Encouragement isn't in short supply, but sometimes you have to look for it.

There is a young lady in my "sphere of influence" who has a unique request for Christmas. She has asked her parents for a turntable. And she's asked the rest of us to give her an album.  But here's the thing,  she doesn't want her favorite albums; she wants us to give her our favorite albums. I found a box of albums that I have not looked through in years since I have not had a turn table for thirty years. I looked through the albums one by one to find one or two that she might enjoy.  I was totally surprised with the last album in the stack, Our Front Porch by Ralph Carmichael. I had forgotten I ever owned it. So is that one I'll give her?  I doubt it. Not because I'm reluctant to part with it. Just because it meant so much to me doesn't mean it would mean anything to her. Besides she hears something like it every Sunday at church. I'm leaning toward Fogelberg, and Simon and Garfunkel. I'm sure she'll flip over that.

An Extraordinary Day at the Waffle House

“In my most secure moments I still can’t believe

I’m spending those moments with you.

And the ground I am walking, the air that I breathe

Are shared at those moments with you.

In the songs I’ve been singing quite often a phrase

Comes close to the feeling of you.

But I never suspected that one of those days

The wish of the song would come true.”  Everything that Touches You, The Association, 1968.

It is not unusual for a song to create in me an immediate feeling of ecstasy and joy.  It is more unusual for me to already be in that state of mind when a song matches that feeling perfectly. Such was the case earlier today with The Association’s song "Everything that Touches You".

In the fall of 2005, at the age of 52, I entered the Dalton State College  to pursue a business degree.  During the years I was in music school, I always thought it was odd to be studying music at an undergraduate and graduate level instead of business or science or medicine or law or anything more academic. I excelled in music school, but I always felt like I should be doing something else. The itch to do so never left me. So  in 2005 I scratched that itch.  Halfway between my house and the school is a Waffle House near Tunnel Hill, Georgia.  That Waffle House became my study hall. My reasoning was that I could go to the library to study and have to walk to the student center to get coffee.  Or I could take up residence at the Waffle House where I could study with a bottomless cup of coffee.  So that’s what I did. For four years I spent from one to three hours there nearly every day on my way to classes or to an exam. It worked really well for me and for the server too.  I was always very generous in my appreciation of the time, space and effort.

As way led to way after graduation in 2009, I now work for a company that’s a stone’s throw from that Waffle House.  I go there quite often. I appreciate all the servers there, but there is one who  was there back in my college days so I’m especially glad to see her.  And she always welcomes me by name with a friendly smile and greeting.And whichever server sees me come in has my iced tea at my favorite booth before I can sit down. I went to lunch there today.

For over ten years my wife has worked part-time for a drug store that’s just down the road from my office and this Waffle House.  She was working there today.  After I’d ordered my food and while I was drinking my tea and surfing the net, the phone in my hand rang.  I saw it was my wife.  When I told her where I was, she told me that she had gotten off early and would stop by and visit with me.  That changed the whole tone of my lunch experience.  I had been planning to catch up on the world situation and check Auburn football but now I had a much better reason to be there. My wife was coming to join me.  We’ve been married over 42 years, but it's still a thrill to be surprised with time together like this.

When my wife showed up, my server-friend welcomed her with a friendly smile and greeting.  It felt like a homecoming of sorts. I finished my sandwich as my wife finished her coffee.

After my wife left for home and I left for work, I was experiencing that “goodness of it all” feeling that I get from time to time when the clockworks of the universe seem to click in place.   I just felt good all over.. I tuned my  radio to XM channel 32 and “Everything that Touches You” began to play.  The music was like a soundtrack for what I was seeing and feeling. I just couldn't imagine things being any better.

That experience was several hours ago.  As I drove by the Waffle House on my way home from work, I noticed that it looked no different than any Waffle House.  Just looking at it, there was nothing particularly special about it. It looked like an ordinary Waffle House. As I think about the serendipitous  rendezvous with my wife, it was one of thousands of such get-togethers. I really don’t remember what all we talked about. And to be honest, listening to it just now, "Everything that Touches You" sounds like an ordinary 60s song. But none of this makes the experience less significant; it just makes my emotions less significant. Not every experience needs to be transcendent to be meaningful.

After consuming the delicious dinner prepared by my wife, it's hard to think I'll ever be hungry again.  But tomorrow around noon I"ll probably be looking for somewhere to eat. Wouldn't it be nice to find somewhere extraordinary to eat? Well, maybe. But I'll probably just go to the Waffle House.

Is there a there, there?

"Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight." from An American  Tail 

During every election cycle some phrase takes on a life of its own and is repeated ad nauseum.  Back in 2012 somebody said, “At the end of the day” and it caught like wildfire.  I couldn’t watch any news or listen to it on the radio without hearing “At the end of the day.”  The best I could figure hearing it over and over in context, it  meant about the same thing as “when the dust settles” or “when all is said and done.” But what they all said was, “At the end of the day.” 

During the 2016 election cycle another phrase caught fire.  I didn’t hear this one as often as “at the end of the day” but I heard it quite a lot.  Somebody said, “Is there a there, there?” and then everybody said it.  Again in context it seemed to mean “I can’t tell you for sure that there’s anything to this story, but I’ll tell you just in case.  There may or may not be a there, there.”  Whether any of those saying it knew it, they were all quoting from a book published in 1937 by Gertrude Stein.  In her autobiography “Everybody’s Autobiography” she tells the story of going back to Oakland, California to see her home place after being gone for decades. When she got there instead of her farm house and seventeen acres of farmland, there was a commercial development.  Out of nostalgia and sadness she said in her book, “There’s no there, there.” 

When you think about it, there’s no “there” anywhere.  Everything is “here.”  Where I sit I’m “here” and you’re “there”. But where you sit, you’re “here” and I'm "there".  But I’m telling you, I just checked and I’m right “here”.   I had a dramatic lesson in location in June of 1975. Until that trip I had never been in a “foreign country.”  And there I was in Zurich, Switzerland.  I was “there” in a foreign country.  The problem came when I got turned around in downtown  Zurich.  I spoke no Swiss and the people I talked to spoke no English.  Nobody was able to give me directions and I had a choir bus to catch in twenty minutes.  I was in the twilight zone. The thing that quickly became painfully clear was that I was not in a “foreign country.”  I was a foreigner in their home.  They all knew exactly where they were and understood each other perfectly well. I was the one who didn't belong.

Astrophysicists will also tell you that you are “here”.  They say that since nowhere is the center of universe then anywhere and everywhere is the center of the universe.  Imagine that you have an enormous map the size of the universe on your wall and there’s one of those arrows that says “You are here.” And when you move, the arrow moves with you.  When American Indians perform those tribal circular dances, they are celebrating that they have become the center of the universe.  The universe is bowing to them. The dance doesn’t just represent the center of the universe, it is the actual center of the universe. There is in fact a there, there. But for them, it's here.

Maybe it's neither here nor there, but at the end of the day we all say things we think are original when we're just quoting somebody else. And I'll tell  you this. If you get lost in Zurich, find a policeman. He can  speak a little English.  Besides you aren't very lost after all. Your hotel is less than three blocks away and you won't miss your bus. And somewhere far, far away your grandmother is patting your shoulder and saying "There, there. That wasn't  so bad, was it?"