Cook

Rates of anxiety have risen sharply around the world in recent decades. Nearly half of U.S. adults are reporting symptoms. Also, diagnosed anxiety among adolescents jumped 61% in the last ten years.

My contention: To maintain a joyful heart in this broken world, we need a very important thing. Hope.

I used to volunteer regularly for an organization down in Ypsilanti called Hope Clinic. It started as a free health clinic for needy individuals. Later we added free laundry facilities and a food bank, then free dental and behavioral health services. It is a well-named organization.

Hope can be a powerful word. A risky word. Early on I had a love/hate relationship with hope. I learned that it’s hard to keep hope alive when your dreams are crushed or left unfulfilled.

Proverbs 13:12 says that when hope is crushed or delayed or put off indefinitely what happens? The heart is crushed also. Disappointment when you are counting on something can hurt tremendously. Maybe it’s better not to hope.

Hope has many critics. Benjamin Franklin wrote: “He that lives upon hope will die fasting.” You can’t just sit around and hope for things. Franklin sought out knowledge, he worked hard, he worked wisely, and he succeeded.

I hope Kyle Whittingham brings University of Michigan football another win against that team down south. (I still laugh when I think of that official map of Ohio where somehow the mapmaker stuck a small town in the middle of nowhere called “Goblue.”)

Another UM win, making it five out of the last six meetings, would be glorious and right in the world, but a loss is not going to crush my heart. I’ll shrug it off after ten minutes. It’s not very important.

But the Bible speaks of hope as crucial to our lives. “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13).

We know what love is, mostly, and faith is the strength of my Relationship with God. It’s not blind; it’s evidence-based. The longer I know Him, and the more of His life I experience, the stronger my faith. But hope?

Frequently these days I hear, “I hope you’re having a good summer.”

Actually, my own summer is quite a bit different. The weather has been great, but with breaking my upper arm in May, my usual summer activities are highly curtailed. No biking. No trailering, unloading, and riding the boat about on our beautiful lakes, big and small.

Speaking of boats, I keep a small anchor in a compartment under the seat. It’s great. I toss it overboard (I have faith in the rope), and it holds the boat locked in and steady. I can walk away and explore an island without worrying that the boat will have floated away without me.

Hebrews 6:19 calls hope, “an anchor for your soul.”

Five weeks after crashing by bike, I was having a hard time with hope. Sleeping in a chair, needing help to dress and still in a great deal of pain, and I could feel stuff moving around inside my arm, I was living in more anxiety than hope. It didn’t feel as if I was going to improve. My mind kept

inventing scenarios where I was messing it up somehow, and the bone would not reconnect, and the arm would not get strong again.

But now, my hope for recovery is humming along nicely. Hey, I can tie my own shoes again! Pain free.

What changed? And this, I think, is a key issue of why hope is so important. Speaking to the doctor and the therapist, I now have a plan. And I can work that plan. I can suffer through the stretches and exercises if I choose. I can envision the end of my pathway, and I can actively work to make it happen.

So, I’m thinking that the antidote to anxiety is this: Agency plus a plan equals hope. And hope is the drive to make it happen.

Hopelessness, on the other hand, is a killer.

Why bother trying if I don’t know the way forward? Why bother working toward a goal if I think my efforts will be useless?

Those of us with faith know that God has a plan. I can trust in that plan and hope for restoration of joy in all areas of life. Philippians 4:6 states, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God…”

Yes, I know this verse can cause more anxiety and even shame for some people as they can’t seem to shake the anxious feelings. And I know that anxiety is a complicated issue and trauma complicates it further and the body keeps the score and some people’s sympathetic nervous system fires habitually and thoughts and emotions are difficult to control and the sensations in our bodies are difficult to understand. Yes.

But God has a plan for healing that too. The Bible is in alignment with current science here. It may take time, but there are ways to see breakthrough. Contact me at 3upquarks@protonmail if you’re interested in the tools.

We live in a broken world, and even if the healing doesn’t come now in this life, it will surely come later.