I started this post about 4 weeks ago, prior to covid-19 taking its effect in our nation. I find it relevant to where we are today.

When fear and uncertainty shows up, people resort to their old habits of coping. Why? Because we want to control the situation. I call it indulging our insecurities.

Insecurity makes us realize that we are lacking in something. Often that something is control. So we indulge, we splurge, we let our improper coping methods take over because we understand them. We know the process. We know the result. It is our time-proven method of dealing with the issue. It feels safe, even if it fails. It feels safe, even if it creates more of a problem in the end.

Indulging our insecurities gives us a false sense of hope for a brief period of time. It makes us believe that we have taken charge. We make a plan. We push our agenda. We cry or scream. We tell it like it is. We let ourselves be heard. We drink it away, eat it away, drug it away, sleep it away, demand it to bend to our will, or attack with anger what has taken our sense of security.

As believers, we are not called to “cope” with fear, anxiety, and the depression that results. We are not called to control our life. We are not called to control our circumstances. We are called to give it up, give it over, trust more fully. Difficult? Yes. Worth the struggle? Absolutely.

“This is just the way I am” is not an excuse as much as it is a failure to hope in forward progress and change. Progress and change that can be found when we relinquish the very thing we are trying to control.

Don’t be comfortable in your dysfunction. As difficult as it is, if we live out what we say we believe, we will find the need to control our situation grows faint. And, in all honesty, many things in life cannot be controlled. Not by us.

Let’s not indulge our insecurities about our current situation and near future. Let’s trust God. Let’s trust His word. Let’s hold tight to the promise of eternal life and His unfailing love and mercy. Those things are certain. Those things will remain. Those things are worth trusting in.