The burden of our times. . .

In his little book on Temptation, Bonhoeffer addresses the typical problems and then shifts to a discussion of desperation and despair.  These are certainly the cause of much temptation in our age of uncertainty.  We are ever so quick to complain and complain loudly upon social media.  We are also quick to lament the stresses and pressures upon us.  Indeed, as someone rightly has observed, "Everyone I know has PSD!"  Don't we all!  I wonder if many of our stresses are due to the times and not solely due to the problems and troubles of our age.  I wonder if we find ourselves stressed because we have the illusion of control but not its reality.

Hearing my grandparents and parents speak of life in the Great Depression, I did not hear the litany of complaints you would expect of them.  In fact, one of my grandmothers actual recalled not the want of the times but the way people pulled together, pooled their resources, and worked to make a way despite the lack of so many things.  She contrasted that to the modern age so rich in things and so poor in our ability to get along and cooperate for something bigger than ourselves.  I think she was on to something.

Our stress today is not from manual labor but from weary minds.  We are weary because, for all out thinking, we find ourselves less able to control what happens to us or to those whom we love.  Yet despite this we live in an age in which we are told we are in control of our lives -- much more so than the generations who went before us.  Could it be that our stress and the ills of body and mind such stress causes us is due to the fact that we are dizzied by the constant changes and by our inability to do much except catch up to it as it passes us?  I fear that this is in part why we suffer so from stress related psychological and physical ills.  We are literally worrying ourselves into an early death but for all our worries we have nothing much to show for it other than doctor bills.

I grew up in a farming area and, at that time, farmers did not seem as stressed as they are today.  Of course, they lived in dependence upon the Lord (or nature, if you do not believe).  They did not have irrigation then or the herbicides or combines that calculated the moisture content of the crop and, especially important, its value on today's market.  They just did what they could and left the rest until tomorrow.  It is probably true of most occupations today.  Our marvelous technology has left us with the illusion that we control things and therefore it is hard to shake our sense of responsibility over just about everything.  Helicopter parenting is how this works in the home.  Parents seek to control just about everything their children come in contact with (except they have a strange trust over media and screens that I find hard to get).  We work less with our bodies but cannot seem to stop our minds and in those minds fear seems to be the most powerful force.  It has created a pandemic of depression and angst that pills cannot solve.  There is a cost to making yourself the center of things.

Christianity does not offer a fairy tale happy ending but the reality of a God who fights for you and with you.  "You are not alone" is one of the most powerful statements of Scripture.  The most oft repeated phrase of the Bible is "Do not be afraid."  Technology has not solved the loneliness problem nor has it solved the fear problem.  We are prisoners to our screens, to our need for safety, to our quest for security, and to our desire to control just about everything.  It is no wonder we are unhappy.  "Come to Me," says the Lord, "and I will give you rest."  More than any other need in this modern age, we need His rest to end our fears and answer our depression with hope.