On Keeping Calm and Carrying On by Chris White

Recently my wife and me bought some humorous drinking glasses at a souvenir stand while on vacation.  What tickled our fancy about these is that there was a black line around the middle of the glass.  Above the line it said “optimist” and below the line it said “pessimist” playing on the old proverbial question about temperament “is your glass half-empty or half-full?”  These glasses answer the question in a straightforward way: it all depends on how much is still left in your drink.  Of course, if you were having something stronger than a soda in one of those glasses, it would seem more logical that the words “optimist” and “pessimist” would be reversed to reflect one’s sensations based on their consumption.  All kidding aside, it does strike me that whatever your disposition tends to be, your feelings and attitudes tend to follow closely.  If a similar turn of events happened to both a pessimist and an optimist, they might experience the same result in the end, but their experience of those events would be radically different.  An example that underscores this was a CNN news story I watched a couple of years ago about an entire town located in Oklahoma that was leveled in a matter of minutes by a tornado.  As you listened to the survivors tell of their experiences invariably there are two reactions: “we all survived and that’s what’s important” and “after thirty years in this home, we’ve lost everything”.  Both will be sleeping in the Red Cross shelter and eating government surplus MRE’s that night, but one will fall asleep that night with gratitude while the other experiences the disturbing sleep of desolation.

A friend of mine, himself a fellow blogger and a realistic optimist, reminded me of Viktor Frankl’s famous words  “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way (from Man’s Search for Meaning).”  As an accomplished psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl knew what he was talking about here was true and vital.  Our approach to life, our way of viewing our present circumstances, our way of thinking about our perceived future affects our destiny and sense of well-being.  The good news about all of this is that when life circumstances are beyond our control, we can with the help of God possess a “peace that passes understanding (Phil. 4:7).”  Let me pass on three principles from Scripture that point us in this positive direction.

Consider the words of Jesus about worrying over the most basic necessities of life:

^“ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matt. 6:31-34).”
I would suggest that the first principle is having a clarity that if the God of the entire universe concerns himself with your life (which he does), worry on your part should be downgraded to prayerful patience. When Jesus tells us to not be anxious, he is not describing an attitude of careless unconcern but rather forbidding us to worry ourselves sick about such matters.  To get into that state of mind usually leads us to an unnecessary panic that is quite faithless.  God does exist.  He does care about you.  Tell him in quiet or vocalized prayer what you are needing.  Convert the energy of worry into patient and persistent prayer.
The second principle comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians:
“ I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.  Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me (4:10-13)”.
What Paul is describing here is a contented confidence that God will provide the strength you need for what you must do that day.  In the parlance of recovery literature, this is “one day at a time” on steroids.  I chuckle a bit at this because I have had many days that were so bad, I was more on the “one-minute at a time” plan.  But the point is made by me writing this to you right now: obviously I made it through each and every one of those past days.  I believe it was the great missionary to China Hudson Taylor who said where God guides, God provides.  If you are in a hard place today, dare to trust that God will give you all the strength you need for today as you need it.  And tomorrow? Ditto.
The third principle follows: have the perspective that God does permit problems and difficulties to come our way for specific training.  The apostle James wrote “ Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,  for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-3).” 

When Jesus taught what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” to his disciples, part of that prayer is that God “..will not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  What is in view here is not the temptations of the flesh per se, (although they can lead us into all sorts of trouble) but rather the “trials of various kinds” that James speaks of here.  We would be foolish to pray for trials and foolish not be pray to be delivered from them, but absolute fools to think we can live in the present world without our fair share of them.  Often what troubles folks the most is the haunting question “is this happening to me as a judgment because God is mad at me?”  If you think that way let allay your concern by stating the obvious: if God was mad at you, you would probably be dead and in hell right now.  But instead, you’re reading this article.  Thus, the alternative explanation that there are simply some things God wants to build into your life that cannot be done apart from the crucible of personal suffering.  God does not pain our lives gratuitously, but rather purposefully, and that purpose is for good, even if the intentions of those who cause your suffering are completely evil.

We are not taught to be grateful for the trials, but grateful for the certainty that they will build in us a spirit like tempered steel, strong under stress.  Having the perspective that you have more to gain from a hard thing than you’ll lose can and does make it bearable.  Knowing that it is part of God’s specific training program for your life should bring a certain peace that surpasses understanding even in the midst of scary or painful circumstances.

One of the current pop-culture icons is the British propaganda poster from World War II that says “Keep Calm and Carry On”.  Good advice even if the Nazis aren’t bombing your house today.  But the key to keeping calm is not whistling in the dark, but a grateful heart and a sure knowledge that God is in control and bigger than the insurmountable problem you face today.