Quarantine Spirituality 01 - Facing our Fears

Does thinking about future from within the quarantine make us anxious?

We are months into this COVID Quarantine now... A lot of us thought the quarantine will get over soon, in a few weeks or months. But quarantine has gone much longer than planned. How can we peace in spite of the anxiety?

Not all anxiety is bad. There are two types of anxiety: acute and chronic. Acute anxiety is what we feel if we suddenly see a car speeding towards us - anxiety increase the adrenaline in our blood to help us to quickly act to move way to keep us safe. Acute anxiety spikes, stays for a few seconds or minutes and goes off. Chronic anxiety on the other hand is something that lasts for a much longer time, which takes a toll on the body. Chronic anxiety can eventually lead to depression or irritability.

Our survival depends on how we respond to anxiety? 

When we are anxious it is important to ask one question, what is the fear behind our anxiety? It could be fear of losing money or relationships or health or something else that we value.

There are two unhealthy ways of dealing with anxiety. One is to distract oneself away from one's fears by looking for some escapist behaviors. Eric Fromm is a Psychiatrist who wrote this book called Sane Society. In that he says we often use watching TV as a way to distracts away from the negative emotions of fear, anger or sadness. If suddenly TV wouldn't work anywhere in the world, then it would expose the problems that we have. We can use TV to distract ourselves from our problems. Binging on TV becomes a mechanism to distract ourselves away from our fears. 

The other unhealthy way of dealing with our anxiety is to let our fear define us. When our fear defines us, it stops us from making progress. Agoraphobia is an example of a fear that defines a person. 

A spiritually healthy way of dealing with our anxiety is something Paul talks about in Philippians 4. In verse 6 Paul asks us not to be anxious but to submit all our requests and petitions to God in prayer, fueling our prayers with our fears. Channel the anxiety into prayers.

What happens in the process of pouring out our fears and anxieties to God?

We find a deep identity in Christ. Jacob is a great example for this - what is terrified of facing his more powerful elder brother whom he betrayed. He takes the fear to God and sits and prays with God with such force that he will not let God's messenger go. We are called to struggle with God in prayer.

Posture of prayer is one of struggling with God in prayer the way Jacob. This kind of struggle does not mean we will get what we want. Struggling with God in prayer like Jacob will change us, deepening our identity in God. That is the place of blessing. Jacob was given a new identity of Israel, which means "struggles with God."

Do not let your fears distract you into escapist behavior or let your fears define you. We too are called to struggle with God in prayer, fueling our prayers with our fears. This deepens our identity in Christ, giving us peace which "guards our heart and mind," as Paul says in verse 7 of chapter 4 of Philippians. Let your fears become your prayers, then your prayers will make you strong.