Reflection: Anxiety in an Age of Uncertainty

Broadcast on Nevis Radio

What keeps you awake at 3am? We’re living in what sociologists call an “age of anxiety” – climate change threatens our future, Artificial Intelligence might replace our jobs, and the news constantly reminds us of global crises. Some might say it’s all ramped up in the last few months. 

There have been crises before – world wars, famines, plagues. The prophet Jeremiah lived through national collapse, exile, and personal crisis. His prayers weren’t serene – they were brutally honest. ‘Why is my pain unceasing?’ he cried out to God. ‘My wound refuses to be healed!’ 

I can think of Jesus, too, just before he was killed by the Romans, admitting ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ while still praying to God: ‘Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ Prayer isn’t about maintaining a facade of calm, or using weird churchy words, but about bringing our real fears and doubts to God. As Saint Peter would later write, we can ‘cast all our anxiety on God because God cares for us.’ 

This kind of honest, raw prayer is what so many of us need. God invites us to bring our anxieties to him and promises “peace that passes understanding.” This isn’t denial that we have problems – it’s finding stability in unstable times.

When the world seems to be spinning out of control, what if prayer could be your anchor? It’s about finding what the Celtic Christians called a “thin place” where heaven and earth meet, even in chaos.

You can pray about anything…