Running Away

Time is a vanishing asset in our modern world. Having time to relax, decompress, process, sleep, meditate or enjoy our families and close friends no longer exits. There is no time for daydreaming, hobbies, or play any more. More and more we hear from ourselves and others, “if only I had time for ____” But I submit its not the busyness per se that is the problem for us. It’s not the activities we cram our days with that drain us. Rather it is the anxiety within us which drives the busyness, anxiety that arises because there is no trust in ourselves, in our ability to meet our own needs, anxiety that arises from our fears about future, but especially an existential anxiety that arises because we have no faith in God who would protect, sustain, love, forgive us and make things right in the end.

With anxiety driving our decision-making we are running from our problems, pain and suffering. We’re affluent enough to choose quick fixes over the hard work of facing what challenges us. We can “shop til we drop,” immerse ourselves in the mythic battles of our sports teams without any sense that we can fight our own battles, take a pill to make the symptoms go away, deny—“I’m fine!– when everything is falling apart, go on the internet for distraction, play video games, watch tv—all substitutions for the real work of life: to connect with our deeper soul-self, to realize what is true to ourselves, to make peace with who we really are. There, in the realness of who we truly are, we meet the God who created us all and who wants us to fulfill all that we are meant to be.