Every morning when I awaken my oldest child, hand him his
juice bottle, and open the curtains, he asks me, ‘What are we doing today?’ At
first, I began to describe in detail what the new day would hold. When he was
younger, he would take it all in, then assume his favorite prone position to
finish off his juice, then sit on my lap before going to breakfast.
However, about halfway into toddler-hood, that all changed.
When he would ask me what the day ahead held, no matter what my answer, from a
visit to the pool, to pancakes with purple elephants, he would throw an
absolute fit. Sometimes small, often large but always making clear that this
was not something he wanted to do.
Nearly every parent knows that when children reach two and
three years old they throw a fair number of tantrums. Some doctors say it’s
because children cannot yet communicate or process the complex thoughts and
curiosities that are going through their minds, and the resulting overload
translates into incredible frustration that regularly takes the form of screaming,
crying, and kicking.
What eventually curbed these ‘What are we doing? Where are
we going?’ tantrums was the answer my wife and I began giving. Instead of
literally answering what the day or journey ahead held for our little one, we
have gotten into the habit of simply saying, ‘We’re going to the next stop.’
This answer regularly and surprisingly pacifies him. Apparently he really doesn’t want all the details – they’re
too confusing – he simply wants to know that we’re headed someplace, and the
details will take care of themselves.
When you and I look at the complexities and curiosities that
fill our lives – that frustrate and overload us, we are not much different than
the little people at the day care. We too can become overwhelmed to the point
of lashing out in adult tantrums of various forms as we obsess over the same details
regarding the journey that awaits us.
I often wonder if God’s preferred answer to you and me isn’t
also, ‘The next stop.’
When we obsess over the ‘What are we doing? Where are we
going?’ questions, and we search for details that will only confuse, aggravate,
and irritate us we desperately need God’s reminders that we are in God’s hands
and that all will be revealed in time. We need to recall that God is present in
every moment of our lives saying things like, ‘Do not worry about what you will
eat, what you will wear, or where you will sleep, for your heavenly father
knows all of these things. Today’s worries are enough for today. Concentrate,
then, on the things right before you, for I am the only One who knows what
awaits you and I will be there right beside you to walk with you, equipping and
fortifying you, for there is no place you can go where I am not. So relax, and
follow me to the next stop.’
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Reading
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Life and Death of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs
A History of Anxiety – Patricia Pearson
