This post is adapted from a devotional I gave in January 2020 at Northwest Christian University. It was heavily influenced by chapter 4 of Reappearing Church by Mark Sayers.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
We live in a chaotic and anxious world, and that chaos and anxiety are especially palpable in our country right now. It’s an election year, there are impeachment proceedings underway, and we’re perhaps on the brink of a new war… All of this is to say nothing of the facts of the frantic pace of our day to day lives. Work, school, travel, church, family, and other events, not to mention the added layer of tweetbook and snapstagram adding to the noise of it all.
“Do not be anxious about anything…”
This cultural malady was actually diagnosed well before the advent of social media and our hyper-connected world. In fact, it was 20 years ago that Edwin Friedman observed that we’ve, “become so chronically anxious that our society has gone into an emotional regression.”
And we’re all painfully aware that this is the state of the world we’re living in. We’re longing for peace, we’re longing for Shalom. As I was preparing this I got an email from YouVersion. Last year’s verse of the year, based on the most highlighted, shared, and commented on verse was Phil. 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything…”
Thankfully, Friedman didn’t just diagnose the problem of our anxious society, he also proposed a solution. What he called a “self-differentiated leader.”
Friedman’s ideas were based on his background in Family systems and she just finished her family therapy class. In family systems, the one who self-differentiates from an unhealthy system is usually the “identified patient.” That is, when someone self-differentiates from an unhealthy system that person upsets the status quo and is usually the one who is identified as “having a problem.”
Ironically, the one who chooses the healthier way of being in the world is identified as “the issue.”
In light of our societal dysfunction, then, Friedman stressed the importance of self-differentiated leaders to remain self-differentiated when the inevitable pushback comes, rather than slipping back into reactivity and anxiety. What Friedman called the Self-differentiated leader Mark Sayers calls a “non-anxious presence.” Or, as I like to think of it, a presence of peace.
All that is a lot of background, and I probably didn’t do it all justice, but I needed that background information as the foundation for us to ask ourselves this question: “What does it look like for us to be a presence of peace in our anxious world.” Individually and collectively?
In his book, Sayers hints at the first key: Recognizing that we can’t do this on our own. We can’t be a presence of peace in our own strength. No amount of gritting out teeth and trying to make it happen is going to enable us to be a presence of peace. No. Rather, we’re enabled to be that presence of peace as we join God in the work he’s already doing, and we carry the Spirit of Peace with us into our anxious world.
That changes how we look at the challenges before us. Rather than, “We’ve got to figure out how to make it happen!” We get to say, “God’s given us this goal. How can I partner with him in that?” It’s a subtle shift, but I think it has the potential to transform everything we do.
When a crisis comes… God, how can I partner with you in what you’re doing?
When we don’t know what to do… God, how can I partner with you in what you’re doing?
When there don’t appear to be any good options… God, how can I partner with you in what you’re doing?
This shift even changes (or has the potential to change) how we think about Phil 4:6.
Not as a command, but as permission. Not a task, but a blessing. Try to read the verse through that lens and I conclude with it once more…
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”