Scripture: Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
PRINCE OF PEACE
So here it is, the second week of December, and despite my best-laid plans, I am feeling the same annual PANIC! My house isn’t decorated yet, I’ve baked nothing, I’m behind on my sewing, Christmas cards are arriving from the eager beavers (don’t you just love those eager beavers!), and my out-of -town gifts are not ready to mail. Therefore, I am writing this D-mail on the subject of heavenly peace - because I need to hear it and perhaps you do too.
The editors of Time magazine must sense this is a good time to print a story on anxiety because last week’s edition carried it as their cover. The writer, Alice Park, is a woman, so no doubt she has experienced the Christmas stress that the rest of us who “manage Christmas” in our homes feel. She discusses the difference between good stress and bad stress. “Good stress is that which summons extra energy for actors on stage, sprinters on the block, brain surgeons in the OR, jet pilots, students taking the SATs, etc. But to the rest of us, when the race is to make it to dinnertime without losing our tempers, losing our jobs, or losing our minds over the stresses we juggle, anxiety feels like no friend. Our days are filled with all kinds of personal reasons to get our adrenaline pumping and our minds churning, even before we start thinking about holiday `gridlock’, double-dip recessions, wars, terrorist threats and global warming.”
Perhaps you, or someone you know, suffer from an anxiety disorder (generalized anxiety, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, or post-traumatic-stress disorder). 40 million Americans do. Besides the overt symptoms of tight stomach and neck muscles or tension headaches, excess stress hormones wear on the body, nipping away at the DNA that keeps cells dividing and long-lived, constricting blood vessels and causing high blood pressure. Even the immune system is affected, as white blood cells that normally patrol for bacteria and viruses aren’t produced at normal, disease-fighting levels.
That’s not to say all anxiety should be battled. In just the right amounts, the hormones that drive anxiety can be powerful stimulants, arousing the senses to function at their sharpest. The fabled saber-toothed tiger springs at our primitive ancestor, who reacts with a biological red alert, bypassing the time-consuming analytical thinking in the brain in favor of a shortcut directly to the hypothalamus. Its hormones in turn produce the super-human boost it takes to flee the danger as fast as possible. Even the mere possibility that a tiger may be out there gets the system going. This nifty response allows many of us to live to see another day. However, the key is to find a balance between anxiety and peace. “Anxiety itself is neither helpful nor hurtful,” says Sally Winston, co-director of the Anxiety & Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland. “It’s your response to your anxiety that is helpful or hurtful.”
She describes two kinds of stress:
1) Challenge stress, which occurs when you feel like you can cope with a situation and despite its high demands, you have the resources to handle it. This is what we might call good stress.
2) Threat stress, which occurs when you feel unable to handle a situation and may even move into a fear or panic response, i.e. bad stress.
“If we can’t make the distinction between a room full of wild tigers and a conference room full of mere people,” says Time’s Alice Park, ” mortal terror can consume us. And while our experiences of this sort don’t come very often, there are also the subtler worries that grind us during the day and leave us staring at the ceiling all night. If worrying gets going too long, it actually overrides the ability to problem-solve, which is what the stress response was intended for.
The stress hormone, cortisol, secreted by the adrenal glands, is found in high levels in anxious or stressed people. Cortisol does most of the cellular damage when it hangs around the body too long.” Dr. James Abelson, at the University of Michigan, did a study on cortisol levels in people who were in situations of mortal fear vs. people who were anticipating a situation of mortal fear (subjects were studied who were extremely afraid to drive on freeways in rush hour traffic). The cortisol levels in both groups were the same! Dr. Abelson explains, “The fight-or-flight response, with its surging cortisol and respiratory and cardiovascular hysteria, leaves little room for learning because it often bypasses the higher regions of the brain. Anxiety (or worry), by contrast, engages the pre-frontal cortex where we collect our thoughts by planning and reasoning.”
Engaging the anxiety pathway, but hitting the brakes before reaching the panic cliff, is what allows performers, for example, to be nervous before going onstage and then do just fine onstage-plus storing that lesson for all the subsequent times they face an audience. Here is an excellent example of controlling anxiety and using it to perform better– Dr. Craig Smith, chairman of cardiovascular surgery at Columbia University Medical Center performed former president Bill Clinton’s quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004, a very risky activity indeed. Dr. Smith says that he “copes with having a person’s life on the line by learning to toggle from the initial, uncontrollable limbic reaction that arouses his senses and raises his blood pressure to his cool and deliberative pre-frontal cortex” which he says,”tells me that President Clinton’s case is no different from the thousands of bypass operations I have preformed already. I don’t let my brain go far into the supernegative scenarios where I would completely fold.”
If you perceive you can cope, you will not feel as stressed. One of the problems of chronic worriers is that they tend to have predictions of catastrophic outcomes that crowd out their consciousness. A better approach may be to accept that your performance might miss the mark, or even crash and burn and then decide that even if disaster strikes, it won’t be fatal. Other coping strategies include planning and organizing ahead of time, practicing as much as possible, getting enough rest and good nutrition, making your to-do lists shorter, breaking down demanding tasks into daily or hourly bites, and accepting help. Help from God is vital. Even Jesus, when he was in the garden of Gethsemane facing crucifixion, undoubtedly the most stressful and terrifying experience anyone has ever had to face, did not think, “Well, I’m the son of God so I can handle this. I created the world; no worries. I can do this.” No, he asked his disciples to pray with him and support him and then he poured out his mortal fear to God in prayer until he came to a place of peace within.
The Bible talks about this remarkable peace that only God can give. David found this peace even while King Saul was hunting him down. “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4: 7-8
Psalm 29:11 says, “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.”
The prophet Isaiah lived in a tumultuous time in Israel’s history, so it is not a surprise to see so many references to peace in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 26:3 “You (LORD) will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast (steadfastly fixed on God), because they trust in you.”
Isaiah 54:10
“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.”
Isaiah 55:12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
Isaiah 57: 18-19
“I will guide them and restore comfort to them, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near,” says the LORD. “And I will heal them.”
We’re all familiar with stress and anxiety–they’re part of everyday life, and we’re always on the lookout for ways to reduce them.
Psalm 139:23
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.”
However, the Bible has a startingly simple solution for anxiety: trust in God, and find your anxiety replaced by a spiritual peace beyond anything you’ve experienced.
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Giving thanks not for, but in anxious situations is like the instructions to an airplane pilot to increase altitude to find less turbulence. It elevates you to higher and smoother air. It’s what takes you out of the turbulence of the Worry Zone into the peace of the God Zone.
Isaiah 32:17
“The fruit of that righteousness (right-standing and trust in God) will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.”
Isaiah calls Jesus the Prince of Peace at his birth… Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And at his death… Isaiah 53:5
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
In Matthew 6: 25-34, Jesus himself addresses worrying. He knew it was a natural human impulse. Worry eats at us. It mires our hearts in apprehension and fear. It saps our strength and drains our peace. This passage asks us if we are focusing our mental energy on the right things. Why waste our time worrying about passing matters when God has promised to take care of us? How much time do we spend each day worrying? Food, shelter, jobs, relationships… these things are important, and it’s natural to worry about how we’ll find or keep them. But this passage reminds us that these worries simply pale before the importance of Christ–and that if we focus on Him instead of on our mundane daily worries, we’ll find that God actually provides all of those things too.
I was thinking about all the references to peace in our Christmas carols. Could Silent Night be the most beloved of carols because it actually makes us feel peaceful? Lyrics about peace: Sleep in heavenly peace, Comfort ye my people, speak ye peace, saith the Lord, Hail the heaven born Prince of peace, God rest you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, Peace on earth, good will toward men, among many others, comfort us with the knowledge that Jesus brought peace to a troubled world at his birth and brings peace to hearts and minds when we allow him to be “born in us today”, as it says in O, Little Town of Bethlehem.
When my children were small, they had an album ( real vinyl albums in those days!) that they played constantly. On it was the following song. I’ve always thought its lyrics were the best definition of peace I’ve ever heard. May your heart be calmed, may you have peace about what is most important this Christmas season, and may you sleep in heavenly peace each night, as you allow the Lord Jesus Christ to live in your heart and mind.
Peace (from Music Machine - The Fruit of the Spirit, song by Wayne Zeitner)
Peace is when the wind stops blowing
Peace is where the sun is showing
Knowing that my Daddy’s home
God gives me peace
Peace, peace
I think I understand
Peace, peace
Is holding Jesus’ hand
Peace is when I’m tucked in bed
When my mommy pats my head
Peace is smiling while I sleep
God gives me peace
Peace, peace
I think I understand
Peace, peace
Is holding Jesus’ hand
Prayer : Numbers 6:24-26 The Priestly Blessing
The Lord bless you And keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you
and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.