This is the Greatest Threat of Our Time
The greatest threat in the coming days is living in a spirit of fear. (II Timothy 1:7) We are experiencing a new threat to our mental and emotional well-being with a sharp and steady increase in depression, anxiety, suicide, divorce, etc. being at all-time highs.
Stop for a minute and consider your current emotions. How are you? What are you feeling?
Do you even know what you feel? As men we often respond by saying, “I feel anger or stress…” The fact is, anger or stress is a response to what you are feeling.
As I tell my girls, you are allowed to have your feelings, but your feelings are not allowed to be in control of you. I desire for my home to be a safe place for us to share and express what we feel and learn how to navigate in a way that brings peace and clarity.
Listen to how psychologist, neurologist, and Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl would express this idea.
“Between stimulus and response, there is space, that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.”
Victor Frankl
The feeling of overwhelm has struck many of us this past year. The feeling of confusion is lingering in the air. I am confident the days ahead are filled with good news. However, we must be on guard and protect our hearts as the wellspring of life. The spirit of fear will continue to be intense and ever more present. Depression is on the rise, suicide, anxiety is at an all-time high.
Our feelings are a natural response to life. Remember the disciples in the storm? Mark 4:35-41
As we begin to recover from a global pandemic may I invite you to uncover what you feel. Your home, work, and yourself are in desperate need to be awake to what is going on in your soul.
Your choices, actions, and decisions that you are making. Are they rooted in a spirit of love and self-control?
Take inventory of the past year, the past month, the past week. How is that space between stimulus and response? Are you moving in a direction of growth, freedom, and wholeness?
How is your soul? What are you feeling?
In the days ahead we need men who are willing to live with their whole heart, express emotion, share what the flesh desires to do, and respond in a way that honors the freedom that Christ gives.
