Resurrection Clothes

Have you ever had a time of severe trial of your faith that eventually passed, and you wondered afterward why it was so hard to trust God during that test? I have, and through one of them, in particular, I learned a lesson that I’ve remembered ever since—a lesson about hope and trust in God. A number of years ago, everyone in my immediate family was experiencing serious personal problems all at the same time, and I felt responsible for things beyond my control (which was almost everything). Eventually, as these situations worsened and I was constantly worrying—really obsessing over them—I fell into a state of anxiety and depression. I didn’t seek medical treatment or counseling because I felt so hopeless that I couldn’t imagine anything making it better. And besides, the problems everywhere I turned seemed so real and unfixable that my wounded mind told me my feelings were true. I tried to turn it all over to God, but then each time I’d immediately start worrying again. Fin...

Folks in Alcoholics Anonymous speak of having “the RIDs,” meaning they feel restless, irritable, and discontent without knowing what’s causing it—a generalized feeling of anxiety and fretfulness. I know the feeling only too well, although my addiction is not to alcohol but to fixing people and circumstances. I say that, but of course it’s really an addiction to trying to fix, which results in being unhappy because I can’t fix other people—or most circumstances. Thanks be to God, over the past thirty years or so I’ve learned to more quickly recognize this temptation to fret over what’s beyond my control and instead to refocus on what I can fix: my own thoughts and actions. When the RIDs come, once I realize what’s going on, I may go for a walk, pray, meditate, read, journal, talk it out with someone, do “the next right thing” (another AA term meaning “something constructive”), do something fun, or use a technique called “focusing.”* But the RIDs eventually return, and I find...