Last weekend my husband and I took a trip to visit family near Chicago. As we began our descent into O’Hare airport, the “Windy City” welcomed us with enough turbulence to make us feel like we were flying in a blender instead of an airplane. Despite all this, my husband was able to take pictures out of his window seat.
One picture, taken from around 10,000 feet up, shows a bit of Lake Michigan, the shore, the sky, and some small-looking buildings clumped together along the edge and behind, some taller, some shorter. Those further behind look like even smaller, indistinct, grey matter. Another picture, taken from much closer, reveals the unmistakable identity of the Sears Tower and John Hancock buildings, and all the buildings appear larger and more distinct, including the ones further back from the shoreline.
If you zoom in on either picture, all those buildings loom dangerously large, as though we couldn’t avoid or escape them.
That’s exactly how we feel about our problems and sources of anxiety when we zoom in on them—like there’s no avoiding or escaping them—like we’re going to crash and burn and be destroyed! If one doesn’t get us, the other surely will.
It’s only when we zoom out to “10,000 feet “away that we see a lake, some space around the buildings, and the tininess of the buildings compared to everything else—lake, sky, and surrounding landscape. Even all the buildings clumped together are no match for the breadth and height of the entire area, let alone region, country, planet, galaxy, and universe.
Perspective makes all the difference. Distance gives us that perspective. Whether it’s a building, a box, a bully, or a botheration, it causes us a lot less fear and anxiety if it’s not right in front of our face. With distance, it’s not so big, or imminent. Also, we can see all of it, from every angle, every side, the limits (top and bottom), and we can see around it. It’s not taking up all our vision-space and therefore takes up less of our emotional and thinking space.
So, how do we get that perspective-producing distance?
1. Move away from it—any way possible—physically, emotionally, psychologically. That’s how we put distance between ourselves and anyone or anything.
2. Think about other things. Good things. The more we fill our minds with or think about something, the more it captures our attention, and produces corresponding emotions. For example, watching horror movies gives people nightmares. Ruminating on how much someone intimidated us the last time we saw them makes us fearful of encountering them again. Likewise, positive thoughts about people make us look forward to seeing them. And if we can’t think of anything positive, we can think about more pleasant aspects of the situation we’ll be seeing them in.
That’s why Phil. 4:8 (GNT) tells us: “Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.”
3. Ask the Lord and wise others about it. They can help us not catastrophize about things that seem so big and scary to us. For example, if we’re afraid and feeling anxious about losing our job because of a mistake or company layoffs coming, they can remind us of all the good we’ve done there, how people respect us, etc. Or even if we do get laid off, how the Lord will still take care of us.
4. Truth from God’s Word in Scripture— As we focus on His assurances, as part of Who He is, we get His perspective, comfort, and peace. Know—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually experience the truth in them to free ourselves from the clutches of anxiety ( 8:32). Marinate our souls in them until we become imbued with their flavor. Scriptures such as:
“’Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.’” Mat. 6:25-34
“Do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7
“Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Pet. 5:7
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Ps. 56:3-4
5. Focus on and attach ourselves to Him—In our Father’s arms and lap, all that “huge”, overwhelming stuff in our lives becomes puny in comparison to Him. Sticking with Him settles our hearts and gives us peace.
“You will keep in perfect peace those whose mind is stayed on You.” Is. 26:3
And that relationship isn’t going away because He’s not going away.
“…He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” Heb. 13:5-6
6. Experience—Remembering how the Lord has helped us in the past gives us objective hope for the future and courage to face it. We see this in the heart of young David, who faced Goliath with no fear or anxiety. Why, because after facing down and defeating a lion and a bear, a “giant” person didn’t seem so big! (cf.1 Sam. 17:34-37).
7. Look down—after looking up and focusing on the Lord, join Him, through the Holy Spirit within us, to get His God’s-eye-view, seeing the whole picture. This enables us to see things not just as they are but what they could be (good). Also, to let the “what if”s be positive ones in our minds.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:11
When turbulence in life overtakes us, like it did on that plane, zoom outward by zooming upward, and soon whatever is triggering our anxiety will appear tiny in comparison to the Lord and His heavens. They will never be shaken and neither will we.
Leave a Reply