All I have to do to be overcome by things outside of my control is to turn on the television, open a website, or read a newspaper. I suspect I’m not the only person who faces this problem.
The world is currently full of horrors, with people gleefully -- aggressively -- sharing their uninformed opinions on the news of the day.
The assault on our thoughts and our moods is endless.
From this position, we can be drawn into a couple of reactions.
One response is to join the din, to be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.1
Another response is to allow things out of our control to affect our mood and our attitude.
If we aren’t careful, our thoughts will determine our mood, our reaction to the things outside of our control.
I am prone to stress and anxiety. I have struggled - wallowed - in depression and despondency.
I have struggled to overcome these thoughts and to silence the runaway voices that bring anxiety.
“What if…”
“What about…”
“You don’t know what might happen”
Once the voices start, and have purchase in your mind, they’re off to the races.
Molehills become mountains. Blood pressure begins to skyrocket.
Your body begins to release chemicals to combat the anxiety; first adrenaline to deal with your fight-or-flight instinct, then potassium to even out the adrenaline, none of which are particularly good for you or your mindset.
Last year, all this came to a head at the airport as my family headed to Europe for vacation. I’m sitting in my seat, waiting to take off, listening to the voices.
What if our bags are lost? What if we miss our connection? What if the kids can’t sleep on the plane? What if they won’t eat the food on the plane (or the snacks we packed)? What if we have a problem getting a taxi at the airport? What if our reservation at the hotel is messed up?
Each worry is a bit more unlikely than the last, a nod and a wink to even worse things that could happen but you just haven’t thought about them yet.
Cold sweats, heart rate racing. Too anxious to think straight.
Let me tell you, this is not a way to live.
I’ve been working hard to learn how to control these thoughts, to understand where they come from, and how to block them.
More importantly, I’m slowly learning to let go and fully trust that God will provide. God will provide.
Along this journey, I discovered a book — almost a pamphlet, really - of homilies from the late 1990s by a Greek priest who taught in Thessaloniki.
The book is called “May it be blessed,” which is also the prayer the book is largely about. “May it be blessed by God.”
From the book:
Because you will learn to say the prayer “May it be blessed” everywhere and at all times. It is not necessary for others to hear it all the time; no, say it within yourself. Besides, very many times you surely won’t have anyone in front of you. “May it be blessed” isn’t said only when someone forces you, or when you’re talking to a superior and he tells you to do something that is difficult for you; not at all. More often, one lives this prayer in the presence of God alone.
Let's say you have some difficulties some obstacles, you have some pressures from within yourself, generally from the bad that exists around you and within you, you have assaults from the devil, inexplicable things are happening to you, you're in low spirits, you're melancholic, you have various other pressures, such as that things don't go the way you're expecting, they don't happen the way you want them to, or they are slow in happening. The soul is then embittered, a person becomes resentful and is pressured - that which today they call 'suppressed' - and we've now found the words to express this.
At such moments, then, you should say in the presence of God: “May it be blessed, my God. May it be blessed.”
This has in it obedience towards God, love, trust and hope in God; it has patience, humility, sacrifice, prayer. Because it is impossible, in the moment you're under pressure, to say ''May it be blessed" - which is not just a habitual saying, but you're saying it to God - it is impossible in these circumstances to say "May it be blessed" and not be praying.
The soul that continues to say this is saying the best prayer; it's not just doing miscellaneous things. And certainly, the more willingly, the more joyfully one says it, the more you say it with love and not out of need: "Oh well, what can we do? May it be blessed" - the more the soul opens up.2
Get stuck in traffic? May it be blessed by God.
Flight delayed? Is there anything you can do about it? May it be blessed.
This is harder than it sounds. It requires us me to acknowledge that I am not the all-powerful center of the universe. It also requires a radical level of acceptance that bad things are happening, but they’re simply out of my control.
Say, I’m stressed about work. Perhaps revenue for my department has been erratic. My team is working hard, fixing efficiencies, but revenue remains unpredictable.
A small collection of things are within my control, but most are not. May it be blessed. There is a lesson for me to learn here, but that doesn’t mean the stress is gone. It simply means I have to acknowledge that I can’t fix things on my own, without God.
We are trying to put off the old man, the old nature.3 It’s just not easy.
Trials are coming for us as Christians. These daily struggles will be dwarfed by what’s to come, but how can we hope to approach those trials if we lose our temper in traffic? May it be blessed.
May this trial be blessed, and a lesson for my soul and to strengthen my faith.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then many will fall away[a] and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.4
1 Corinthians 13:1, Revised Standard Version.
Page 13-14. “May it be blessed” Transcribed Homilies of Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos, translated by Theopolis Lasswell, Thessaloniki, Greece. Second Edition 2023.
Ephesians 4:22, Revised Standard Version.
Matthew 24:6-14, Revised Standard Version.