God Has Got This
My dear local friend, Lucie Dickenson, author of "Overreacting" and "The Anxious Hippie", has invited me to speak at her beach blanket book launch tomorrow in Spring Lake, NJ. I will touch upon how the style of Twisted Sister Yoga...yoga with a Christian twist, helps release control and the anxiety that manifests itself to God who is sovereign.
Here are my talking points for beach yoga:
Place a finger on each of your temples. Now offer this prayer: Thank you Lord for my amygdalae. Thank you Lord for the two almond shaped neural clusters that reside inside my brain. I wouldn’t be alive without them. Your amygdalae operate like an alarm system, they prompt a reaction for the body to respond before we know one is needed. Your pupils dilate, improving your vision. You breathe faster pumping more O2 into the lungs. Your pulse rate increases, infusing more blood into the system. Surface-level blood vessels restrict, reducing trauma related blood loss in the moments after injury. Adrenaline turns on making you faster stronger alert, better able to fight or flight. Perpetual anxiety is amygdalae with an itchy trigger finger, a mental alarm system that never quite turns off. God created our brains to replenish themselves with natural mood elevators & tranquilizers like dopamine & serotonin, which restore joy & peace. But if the amygdalae never stop, the brain never resets. You become edgy & restless. The good news is, God can calm your amygdalae.
In Phil 4 Paul urges us to “Rejoice in the Lord always” not just on good days...always. Col 1 promises “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” There is an order to the universe. He sustains everything. This is crucial: He “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” Eph 1:11. The phrase “works out” comes from the Greek word energeo. God is the energy & energizing force behind everything, even your life.
The company is downsizing, but God is still sovereign. The cancer is back, but God still occupies the throne. I was a jerk in my marriage, but God showed me how to lead a family. I was an anxious, troubled soul, but God has been giving me courage. Everyone thought the life of Jesus was over when he hung on the cross, but God. His son was dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. God took the crucifixion on Friday & turned it into the celebration of Sunday. Can he not do a reversal for you?
We can wear our hurt or wear our hope. We can cave into the pandemonium of life, or we can lean into the perfect plan of God. We can believe this promise “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Rom 8. You might question the purpose behind the threads woven into your life, but be assured, God has a pattern. He is not finished, but when he is, the lace will be beautiful.