Give Thanks and Carry On

The other day I saw someone with one of those “Keep Calm and Carry On” stickers on their laptop. Suddenly the thought struck me, “well what if I can’t keep calm? What if circumstances come crashing down on me, anxiety takes over, and things become bigger than my ability to reconcile that it will all be okay? How am I supposed to keep calm?” As a person that struggles with anxiety and a worry-prone personality, I know firsthand that fear doesn’t submit to logic because fear isn’t logical. So how in the world are we supposed to quiet our fears to a state of calm when our souls ache from the wounds left by a flawed world? What if instead of trying in vain to keep calm and carry on, we gave thanks a carried on? What if we admitted that our fears aren’t ordered by our reasoning abilities because we know fears aren’t reasonable? Fear doesn’t submit to logic. Fear submits to God. What if we lived every day trusting that He has our ultimate good in mind, that “His secret purpose framed from the very beginning is to bring us to our full glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7)? Would we be freed to give thanks in the eye of the storm, to simply abandon unfruitful attempts to maintain a cool exterior and channel the turmoil of our souls into song of thanksgiving? Because if we are being brought to our full glory, there are no circumstances in which you cannot sing His praise. And the beautiful thing is that that verse doesn’t read “you are working towards your full glory.” It reads that he will “BRING us to our full glory.” He doesn’t want our efforts to keep calm. He wants our praise even when we are anxious, worried, and overcome, our faith that He will bring us. We are simply meant to grab His hand, and give thanks. The rest is His job. And that is where we find rest for our souls.