The Best Medicine
Remember when you were young, sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table, and someone suggested that everyone say something they are thankful for?
For most of us this experience was pretty lame -- it felt forced. For some reason, this great idea backfired and became one big hassle to get everyone to say something. Unfortunately, that has happened to me the handful of times I tried it as well. That is a real bummer.
As I have been pastoring over the last 20 some years, and even as I look at my own life, I hear of most everyone facing off with reckless anxiety, fear and worry. This happens on a daily, if not hourly, basis. I know these anxieties personally, it is like I have a relationship with them. I am not sure they are my friends, but we spend more time together than I wish was true. These scary things that encourage us to worry and fret are sometimes very real and they are sometimes very imaginary. Nonetheless, they are the adversaries we face off with nearly every day.
Over the last 19 days of being diagnosed with Glioblastoma I have had a new “friend”. This “friend” has suggested I should freak out a number of times. This “friend” has pointed me toward cynicism, fear, and heaviness. He is really no “friend” at all. But what can we do against such a familiar foe? Is there anything practical to do about worry than to just say “stop it”?
My personal practice and strong suggestion to battle anxiety is to go on a Thankful Binge! What? A Thankful Binge? Yes! Let’s go all out, listing on a piece of paper, all the things you are thankful for. I am not suggesting a forced shallow, go around the table, kind of time; even though that does have the chance of going well if the people all try with their soul to be thankful. I am suggesting we go ballistic creating a thanksgiving list!
About 5 years ago I was fighting my own anxiety, mostly about personal success. I wrote a phrase at the top of an orange cardstock piece of paper, it became what I call my “Better Than I Deserve Listing”. This was not your normal, generic list of things I am grateful for, but a comprehensive set of more than a dozen categories that would prompt me to get my mind and soul deeply thankful. Here are a handful of these categories: Experiences, Family, Friendships, Vacations, Vocational, Financial, Giftings, Physical, Spouse, Children, Mentors, Spiritual Heritage, Education and God Experiences.
The Bible is full of encouragements to be thankful. There are so many I could not contain them is this short reflection. The little phrase that is popping in my head right now is “overflowing with thankfulness” in Colossians 2:7. Let’s practice OVERFLOWING thankfulness today and every day. Thankfulness is the absolute best medicine for anxiety! This practice also produces the most beautiful humans as well. Thankful people grumble less, are happier, and have a great chance at shining!
Maybe we can all go grab a blank piece of paper today and scratch out a list of categories that would help us ponder so we could be overflowing with thanksgiving.
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Why does God let me suffer with this terrible illness? I believe HE wants to meet where I’m at and transform my hea… https://t.co/f8VI9CqAZv