Finding Peace in Troubled Times

Interfaith Celebration Gathering

Some days it is all we can do just to put one foot in front of the other one and keep on moving through the day. Some days even getting out of bed takes more effort than we think we have. What do you do on days like this?

Do you honor your body’s need for rest, or do you push through to get things done even though your body, mind and spirit protest loudly? How about the days when everything seems to go wrong? The air conditioner goes out on your car on a 92 degree day. The freezer quits working, and the food inside it thaws and must be thrown away. How do you handle these days?

When we get into one of these difficult days, it is often tough to know what the next right thing we need to do is. Anger is certainly an appropriate response, but anger does not help our situation, especially if it is directed at people who do not deserve it. So, how do we handle tough times without losing our sanity or alienating people?

First we take a deep breath, and then we take another deep breath, and we keep taking deep breaths until we feel some of the frustration drain away. If we pay attention to our breathing during times of stress, we will notice that we are breathing shallowly. Shallow breathing does not bring enough oxygen to our brains to help us think of alternatives, answers, or how to get help. And so we remind ourselves to breathe deeply when we are stressed, oxygenating our brains as we slowly inhale and exhale.

We can also reach out to our Higher Power for help in troubled times. When we ask for help, we also need to be open to the many ways help can come to us. There is a story about a man whose house was engulfed by a flood. He climbed on the roof of his house and asked God for help. Shortly after his request, a man came by in a rowboat and invited him to get in the boat. He told the man that he had asked God for help and was waiting on it. The water continued rising and he crept further up his roof.

Next a group of people in a large boat cut their engines when they saw him and moored their boat to his house, inviting him to join them. He replied that he was waiting on the help he had asked God for. Shaking their heads, they left him there as the water continued rising until he was on the very top of his roof. A rescue helicopter came by and the copilot lowered a rope ladder to him. However, he waved them on, shouting that he was waiting for God’s help.

Before long the water had risen over the top of the man’s roof, and he subsequently drowned. When he arrived on the other side, he asked God why God had not helped him. God’s reply was that the man was sent a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the notion that there is only one way to fix our problem, that we ignore the earth angels God sends to us in answer to our prayers.

We also need to be open to looking for the gift in the problems we are facing. Each problem comes with a gift, but we often have to search for it. For instance, a lady who was poisoned by pesticides had to take iron supplements daily or face anemia. The pesticide poisoning changed the way her body processes iron, and she no longer has to take iron supplements daily. This is a small gift in the midst of the horrors of pesticide poisoning, but it is a gift nevertheless.

We also need to understand that we do not have to carry our problems with us at all times, worrying at a solution. We can visualize ourselves putting the problem in a box, placing it on the shelf in our mental closet, and closing the door. If we have allowed the problem to nag at us for a while, we might also have to visualize ourselves hammering boards across our closet door to keep the problem from jumping back out of the closet and into our heads. If the problem still persists in jumping out of the closet, we can also visualize ourselves putting a chest of drawers against the closet door.

However we achieve it, we need to find some peace in troubled times so that we can better handle the problems we face. God can and will help us with our problems, but like the man on the roof, we need to do our part to help ourselves and we need to remain open to the answers God sends us.

May the God of love add a blessing to these humble words.

AMEN