Breathe. Calm. Breathe

Apparently a single social media post has gone rampant like a virus and raised everyone’s anxiety about this weekend and this week among our churches across the country. One denomination, not the ELCA, decided to post an alert on their website in bright red letters.

Let me be clear, according to FBI statements there are, as of this moment that I am writing on Saturday evening, no credible increases in threats in our New England states. While I understand everyone is on edge, and that’s justifiable based on last weeks events, let’s all take a step back from social media, Fox News and MSNBC.

Tomorrow in worship, likely you’ll be in your home, pause and pray. Breathe deeply, repeat a word of peace like Shalom or YahWeh or Maranatha. Then go outside for a walk, get some fresh air. Yes there will be a time of acting, but may I advise that tonight and this weekend we enter into a time of prayer.

I’m also mindful of the words of Edwin Friedman who years ago accurately described our society. I think if he were alive today, he’d liken our level of anxiety to an addictive drug. I wonder if we seek it out because of something in our brains that can’t get enough, even though we know it’s not good for us.

“Those five characteristics (of a chronically anxious family/system/church/nation) are: 1. Reactivity: the vicious cycle of intense reactions of each member to events and to one another. 2. Herding: a process through which the forces for togetherness triumph over the forces for individuality and move everyone to adapt to the least mature members. 3. Blame displacement: an emotional state in which family members focus on forces that have victimized them rather than taking responsibility for their own being and destiny. 4. A quick-fix mentality: a low threshold for pain that constantly seeks symptom relief rather than fundamental change. 5. Lack of well-differentiated leadership: a failure of nerve that both stems from and contributes to the first four.”
―Edwin H. Friedman,A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix

For now, let’s step back from the computer and catch our breath. Yes, we have work to do, but right now our work is to pray.