When Your World Is Crumbling

Today as some of you read this your whole world is crumbling. There are a multitude of reasons why. What you took for granted; health, spouse, children, job, friends, and all the rest may be falling around you.

Your once tranquil life, taken for granted, started to crack and then large chunks started falling. Before you could repair it your whole world tumbled down around you. You stand today covered with a cloud of dust. Everything is disoriented. Fears arise along with despair.

Maybe you had the time to see the cracks over the years but neglected to do anything about them. Maybe you never saw it coming and the downfall came as a shock catching you totally off guard. Either way you stand today surrounded by the rubble of shattered dreams and snuffed out hope.

To make matters worse are the battles in the mind. Prone to worry. Anxiety snakes its way into your thoughts poisoning faith. Anxiety wraps its angry and violent hands around the throat of trust and hope  strangling the last breath from them. You are left with fear. Depression. Stress.

In these dark dungeon moments the enemy plays on the mind. The despair sets in like a heavy fog blotting out the light of hope. There seems no escape. No way out. No deliverance and what is worse you entertain the thought there is no DELIVERER! In these suffocating moments the thought  comes it would be easier to simply end it all. One slit of the wrist and the temptation to escape your crumbling world is promised. One overdose. One bullet and everything can get better the enemy hisses in your mind. The pain of your crumbling world screams louder than any other voice it seems. This voice demands to be heard. There is another voice. A still small voice. A comforting voice. A voice of hope and peace. It is the voice of God spoken through scripture.

 Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV) 
⁶  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
⁷  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When your world is crumbling and it feels there is not one single thing you can do to keep it from falling you can still have peace. How? Very simply. You make the choice to not be anxious about anything. In our passage today the word anxious means "do not take thought or do not take care." How often do we dwell on our crumbling worlds leading to more despair.

How do you not take thought of your crumbling world? You pray about everything. You turn those burdens, concerns, immovable mountains, sorrows, and pain over to Him in prayer. You make the choice not to worry about anything but to pray about everything. And you leave it with Him. You do not give into the temptation to pick them back up when you leave the prayer closet. YOU GIVE IT ALL TO HIM AND LEAVE IT WITH HIM.

You argue this is impossible. I reply no it isn't. I am living this truth right now. When my ministry world crumbled around me I stressed, worried, and lived in anxiety for years. I prayed but then would immediately run mental marathons trying to figure out how to solve my problems. This led to sleepless nights, dark depression, and lack of hope. Anxiety strangled the life out of me. At times I felt like I was losing my mind and my grip.

My future is more unclear but not uncertain today. I write this no longer a shepherd to a local flock but as a shepherd to an internet congregation. Why do I have peace in the middle of my crumbled world? Each time in the past few weeks when anxiety reared its head I turned those things over to God. It makes no sense. I am free. I am covered in peace. My ministry world is still crumbled in pieces all around me. All I have left are these writings and a handful of opportunities with individuals. Yet I'm living in peace.

God's peace. Not the peace manufactured by the world through the temporary escapes of sin. No. God  offers true lasting peace to people with crumbling worlds. The word peace means "quietness and rest." People without the peace of God do not have quiet minds. They have racing minds with all the possible horrible outcomes. They play out worst case scenarios envisioning themselves coping with the aftermath. God's peace leads to rest. Contentment. Stress free nights of sleep. Relaxed days of trust.

This peace of God guards, or literally protects like a sentinel guarding a gate, the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life who trust God. This peace defies explanation. It is illogical to a watching world who expect people to crumble when their worlds crumble. There is no logical reasoning behind the peace of God when a person is diagnosed with cancer, when the spouse dies, when the child rebels, when the finances run out before all the bills are paid, when the job ends, when you are rejected, when you are abused and abandoned, and when you are persecuted.

God's peace that surpasses all understanding is available. It is yours for the taking if you choose not to be anxious about anything and to pray about everything. Will you really turn those matters of prayer over to God. To take thought of those heavy burdens no more.

In God's peace there is comfort. There is hope. There is freedom. There is reason to keep pressing on.

I wish I could take your pain away. I wish I could repair each of your broken worlds. That is beyond my ability. What I can do is reach into my tool box and pull out the hope of God's word. There is peace available even when your world is crumbling. Do not be anxious about anything. Pray about everything. Rest in God's peace weary one. Rest in God's peace.