Wise Treebeard and the Challenge “To Be”: The Role of Christian Counseling in Dealing with Anxiety, Part 2

In my previous article, I shared some of my own experiences of learning to be truly present to whatever I am doing. We are so often busy planning our lives, and attempting to do so many things at once, that we become anxious and distracted. By shifting the focus from doing to being, and learning to slow down, we can actually become more effective at our tasks. Even more important, we can appreciate God’s presence as we discover who He wants us to be.

The Struggle to Slow Down

Wherever you find yourself, listening to the advice of Wise Treebeard to not be hasty makes all the difference in your ability to truly be where you are. Marriage is the best example of this, but it is also true of friendship, and especially of child-rearing.  Many people go to church without putting their roots down and actually being in the church.

We are the microwave people. Think of the feeling you get while you wait for the computer to load something – this must be one of the worst feelings ever. “Come on, come on, come on!!!” Yet it seems that sitting and “doing nothing” is part of what we are intended to do. The computer wait could have provided a little break in our day, but we are so busy in our souls that slowing down is very distressing. Take driving as an example: few people are actually present to the moment of driving on the road. Drivers feel distress when they are slowed down for any reason.

Speed is Not Effective

Currently, instead of being a people who do a few activities with commitment, we are a people who want fifteen activities today and we want them all to happen five to thirteen minutes faster. We aren’t training for the moment when we need to stop and give the time – by being in the moment. Rather, we are plagued by our preference for speed, the philosophy of rushing through, and of tapping our feet when the storm hits a lull. We watch YouTube, do email, check Facebook, all the while with a movie on, while texting, cancelling plans to clean and create, and end up just finishing the project into the wee hours of the morning.

I believe it is the goodness in our hearts that drives us to strive in this way, but a lack of wisdom takes us out of the adventure of day-by-day, moment-by-moment life, and into anxiety. When you’re anxious, you probably feel as if everything depends on you – but that’s not how the Bible describes it.

The Challenge to Be

Watch out for hastiness! Be where you are! It will make you late, it will cause a crisis in your over-stuffed life, but perhaps it will force you to trade accomplishment for full living. If it does this, it will make you more human. In God’s eyes, to be human is an incredibly lovely and exciting thing. I’ve been in Bellevue for ten years, and this city is wealthy, inventive, productive and busy. To a typical Bellevueite’s eyes, being human is distressing! And some would say that being human is even depressing. Consider the relationship between that woeful sentiment and the mental and spiritual rush of being ‘hasty.’  Then consider the lilies of the field.

Christian Counseling Can Help You to Be More Fully Human

As a Christian counselor, I know as well as anyone that Jesus was giving a tall order when He said, “Do not worry.” But the Word of God repeatedly emphasizes this theme. If anxiety is taking its toll on your mental, physical or relational health, or if you think it would be worth working with a professional on managing schedule and soul, please consider the option of Christian counseling.

Photos
Photos from freedigitalphotos.net “Red Lilly Flowers” by bplanet; “Business Man Run” by renjith krishnan