“Panic Attacks”

BIBLE READING: Luke 12

DISCUSSION                                                                

                According to WebMD, approximately six million people will be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder this year.  Last year, I became one of those statistics.  I woke up in the middle of the night from what I thought was a dead sleep, with my heart feeling like it was about to jump out of my chest.  I checked my heart rate using my Apple watch and noticed my heart was beating at 128 beats a minute.  The more I thought about it, the worse the attack became.  I felt so worried about myself, I drove myself to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack.  While there, the on-call doctor gave me some meds to calm me down and began asking me about my stress level.  It was the week before VBS and yes, for those of you that don’t know, VBS week is one of the most stressful times for those in ministry.   I followed up with my local doctor the next day attempting to get to the bottom of what happened.  His explanation was for me to rest and slow down (HAHAHAHAHA) and be prepared because many people that have experienced a panic/anxiety attack, can think themselves into another one.  Meaning if I felt one coming on, my anxiety about possibly having another anxiety attack, would in turn send me into a panic attack.  I thought to myself, that is crazy!  However, it turns out…he was correct.  A few days later, I worked myself into another one.   The more you try to talk yourself out of one, the greater the chances of having one.  As a Christian, I immediately began to question the strength of my faith, because I was fully aware of what Jesus says in Luke 12.22-31.  However, as a minister I knew that was not the direction I needed to go.  The truth is that we all suffer with some form of anxiety, so how are we (as Christians) supposed to handle the words of Jesus?  Maybe the answer lies in us looking at things from God’s point of view. He sees things more on an eternal scale rather than the temporal scale.  God knows that if we are truly converted and trusting in Him and His word, there is nothing in THIS life that will ever be able to compare with the world to come.  I don’t know if we will ever be able to remove all the things that cause us to have anxiety, but we can do better at looking at things from His point of view to help us see what is important. The next time you begin to have anxiety, or you begin to worry about something, ask yourself, will this affect eternity? If it doesn’t… then spend more time focusing on Him rather than your issues.