Don't Panic

So that seems to be this and last week's theme, perhaps a theme for life: DON'T PANIC. We hear it all over the news now as the markets wobble on news of closings, bankruptcies and buy-outs. It is the answer to every level of the crisis..."If people/corporations/creditors/etc. can just stay calm..."

I've experienced it time and again, even recently, as a pastor and as a person. Panic and anxiety are perhaps the greatest destructive force we know. It's why FDR's line speaks to us throughout time, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." (From his First Inaugural Address)

And the truth is, we see this all the time. As I look back over the missteps in my life or ministry, I can almost universally say they were the result of panic. Of reacting to my own or others' fears without stepping back to take a deep breath. The irony always is that it's usually those whose own panic wratcheted up the system's anxiety that are the first and loudest to attack the system's response to it!

The key is finding ways to maintain relative calm in the face of challenges. That doesn't mean avoidance (we often call behavior like this passive-aggressive) but rather being able to be present but non-anxious.

These ideas have been skillfully drawn out by Rabbi Edwin Friedman in his writings, including Generation to Generation and A Failure of Nerve. Another favorite is Friedman's Fables--which I'm really hoping to lead a study of at church sometime soon.

Rabbi Friedman talks about how we live in a chronically-anxious society, and how this shapes us and all our interactions. He talks about this in the framework of family-systems theory, as he applies that lens not only to families but also to churches, businesses, governments, etc.

I could go on and on, but what has struck me here of late is how true this all is and has always been. It's a bit counter-intuitive. I mean, there's this natural tendency to tell ourselves there is a problem and we must fix it, and to feel an immediate time pressure to do so. But sometimes---perhaps far more often than we would like to admit---our rush to "fix" a problem simply exacerbates it.

May we all learn to take a step back a bit more often and think a bit before we rush to face a problem...both in our own lives, our churches, our nation, and our world!

Sarah