Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Concerning the handling of life’s stresses Jon Kabat-Zinn said, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” At the time of the writing of this article, I am reflecting on a recent bout with the application of the principles addressed herein. In retrospect, the degree to which I let this situation stress me is quite embarrassing. That said, it has served as a great reminder of some things I know all too well but failed to apply. Allow me to explain.
My wife and I recently determined to switch mobile phone service providers, and the time to complete the transfer came Tuesday morning. She had to leave in about an hour from the time I began the transfer with the service technician on the phone. The process should have taken about fifteen minutes, but today is the third day she has been without service because the previous service provider failed to unlock the phones. As of this morning, neither she nor I have phone service as our old service plan elapsed at midnight, and our phones are still locked. In the time since this flub became known, about nine hours has been spent in conversation with various technicians from the two companies.
The reality is that technical difficulties are part of life in a technological world. Even multi-million-dollar companies sometimes have highly trained, well-paid workers that make mistakes costing you hours of time and leaving you without your primary means of communication. I justified my excessive frustration with the situation on three grounds. First, with my wife out and about with our three young children, I want her to have the ability to quickly call for assistance should an emergency arise. Second, my work is such that I need my phone so people can reach me, and I can reach them. Third, with all the things I need to do, I cannot afford to spend nine hours with tech support.
All these are good reasons to want this process to work, but none is a reason to let these few days of inconvenience knock me off my center. Sadly, despite knowing all of this, I allowed it to get the best of me for a time. The result is that it caused undue stress for me, my wife, and our children. This is the same wife and children I so desperately want to protect. Satan won the first round or two. Fortunately, yesterday afternoon, I finally came to my senses and reverted to what I should have done from the start. Though I had prayed sporadically throughout the process, I had not taken a block of time and just stopped to pray about the situation.
Paul was clear that the cure for our anxieties, stresses, frustrations, etc. is to lay them at the feet of our great God in prayer (Philippians 4:6-7). Having done that, I could now return to meditating on the immeasurable blessings He has poured on my family (Philippians 4:8). The result is that I stopped staring at this one unsightly tree and returned my gaze to the majestic forest that is 99.9% of the experiences in the life God has given me to enjoy. Some of you may be laughing at this confession of my foolishness while others of you may sympathize with my frustration. Whichever the case may be, do yourself a favor the next time a frustrating situation arises. Drop that baggage off with the Lord at the beginning and save yourself and your loved ones a lot of frustration. Learning to surf is so much better than flailing around in choppy waters with waves breaking over your face like I just did.