God doesn’t guarantee me understanding of everything that will happen in my life. And that can be a source of great anxiety. I stress about what I can’t control and lose sleep over what I can’t change. But as Paul so helpfully reminds us, with prayer and thanksgiving, we can find peace. 

A New Word For An Old Foe

“Does anyone know what rumination is?”

That was the question a facilitator asked during my stay in a psychiatric hospital a number of years ago.

She continued…

“Rumination is when you think you’re strategising your way out of a problem, only to find yourself spiralling into anxiety.”

That was it. That was me. I’d been ruminating. For a very long time. And I didn’t know it had a name.

Taking The Past Into The Future

One of my favourite moments in scripture is when Joseph is reunited with his brothers. It’s an epic culmination to a life-long story. The highs of a father’s love and political power. The lows of enslavement, imprisonment and false accusation.

There must have been excruciating times when Joseph would have asked ‘God, what are you doing?’ So many problems to face, and so many opportunities to be crippled by mysterious circumstances.

Eventually Joseph is blessed with the same hindsight as we receive as the reader, where he tells his brothers:

“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50 v 19-21)

Joseph finds peace in realising what God has been doing all along. Joseph has not been in control of his life. God has. And that brings him peace, because he knows that God is good.

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