As much as we try to avoid or redefine our reality, we cannot avoid the angst resulting from our aliveness. We sometimes weather this angst by grabbing hold of a panacea that avoids the terror in the short term. A panacea can be anything, family, friends, money and all religions. Kierkegaard, the father of existentialist philosophy and a theologian named the “why are we here” angst, dread. One of his translators preferred to name this unavoidable emotional state, anxiety. We are all talking about the same thing but let’s call it what it is, a life-long panic attach.
What are we
to do with this universal human panic reality?
Historically, we have devised religions of every sort and in every
culture to relieve the panic to give us a short-term feeling of pseudo
security. The opposite reaction to avoid
panic is to kill the other guy and build a humanly devised sense of pseudo security. This security will eventually fail us as
religions fail because they are a temporary fix only for the minority. All of human history can be condensed into our
human search for security, both now and into eternity.
Is there not
then another alternative that is proactive?
The Jesus way is the only way.
That way is to live with faith in our eternal Father God and thereby to
trust this reality as our present and future hope in the face of our anxiety. The living angst will always be with us every
day on this earth. The only alternative is the forward vision of the very short Jesus prayer given as an
example to his disciples. They were just like us, regular powerless folk. They were filled with life anxiety as we are and justifiably
so. Please check it out, Matthew 6: 9
thru 13.
“This then
is how you should pray.
Our Father
in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this
day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
