Sometimes in conversation, things can escalate pretty quickly. My friends and I have a saying for when this happens: We say ‘wow, 2 to a 12’. We were at a level two in our conversation and things were pretty basic, but now we’re at a 12 and there is so much happening right now. It started off as just a saying but now it is part of our normal language and one of our many inside jokes.
It got me thinking about how sometimes we can easily go from a 2 to a 12 with our thoughts and how we can create unnecessary anxiety for ourselves.
We go from 2 to a 12, from A to Z, in a hot minute. We go from a harmless thought like ‘I wonder what my husband will be like’ to ‘but what happens if my husband dies and I’m left to be a widow, like, on our honeymoon?’And we are driving ourselves crazy.
Okay, so maybe that’s an extreme example. But I think we all (girls especially) are guilty of this. We get so caught up in thinking about the future and we let our minds just run with what ifs. And therein lies the root of our anxiety.
This week I (and countless of my friends) have struggled with hardcore anxiety. Panic attacks, breakdowns, nervous poops, you name it. A theme I keep hearing with my friends is ‘I’m just scared that when [insert future event], I won’t be okay.’ Or, most commonly, ‘when [future event] happens, blah blah blah.’ It consumes us.
Y’all, here’s what I’m learning. We have GOT to stop jumping ahead to something the Lord has not given us yet. He has given us A. Our job is to take A and move to B. And you know what? That’s a DAILY thing. The Lord gives us new mercies and a purpose every single day.
In Matthew 6, Jesus sweetly tells us, “therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
When the Lord let manna rain down for the Israelites to eat, this happened:
“Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Then Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it till morning.’ However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.” -Exodus 16: 18-21
The Lord had provided exactly enough manna for each day. Anything gathered past that day’s quota turned into a 2 bedroom condo for maggots (have you ever seen maggots? They’re hecka grody.)
It’s unfair of us to mentally take A and immediately want Z to happen. We are hoarding our grody manna when the Lord has given us just enough for today. He’s using our time at A to make us more effective at Z. He works in building blocks. Don’t waste your time in A making yourself sick with ‘what ifs’ about Z! And once you’re on B, don’t you dare move backwards to A.
The thing I’ve learned is victory happens from A to B. Broken chains and freedom from addictions happen from A to B. Anxiety gets squashed when we focus on moving from A to B. Be present. Focus on A. Today, you are new. Yesterday is gone, so don’t bring it into today. Tomorrow isn’t here yet, so stop obsessing about it. Move forward. Weep forward. Pray forward. Life live one breath at a time.
It’s in these moments when we learn to truly appreciate what the Lord has for us now. The peace of God transcends all understanding, and it is available to us in each moment. May we be so in tune with His peace that we take every thought captive and don’t let ourselves get to Z!
