Anxiety

Deep Breathing in the Battle

Leave a Comment / Anxiety, Personal, Spiritual Battle, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

Quite often when I am visiting a patient at the hospital, we become aware of a persistent beep from the vital signs monitor. The patient’s pulse oximeter is registering a low blood oxygen level, usually a dip below 90% (98-100% is normal). The patient will sometimes crimp the sensor taped to a finger or “forget” to breathe during conversation! The beep is a prompt to take a few good, deep breaths, and almost without fail the O2 number climbs back up into normal range. We can continue our visit without further interruption. A persistent beep has been going off for […]

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Deep Breathing through a Bad Air Day

1 Comment / Anxiety, Current Events, Personal, Prayer, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

The San Francisco Bay Area, where I live, has been in the national news of late, due to the lightning-sparked wildfires consuming our state. Our region is surrounded by record-setting fires, and as a result our air has become smoky. The Air Quality Index (AQI) has for days been in the “hazardous for all people” range, with a few respites in the evening as winds change. As a lung cancer survivor, minus one lung lobe and afflicted with asthma, I am hunkerin’ down at home with the A/C and fan running night and day, sealed against the hazy soup that

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Holy Saturday: What If Jesus Had Never Been Raised?

1 Comment / Anxiety, Easter, Holy Week, Lent, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

As a teenager, I played the organ weekly for my large Catholic parish. Steeped in the rituals of Holy Week, my musical participation was the means for experiencing the events we were commemorating. One particular year, after the demands of Holy Week had run their course through Good Friday, I came into the church on Saturday to practice my pieces for Easter morning. In the Catholic tradition, at the conclusion of the Good Friday service the church sanctuary is stripped of all ornamentation. The candles are extinguished and the Sacrament is removed from the building. Empty of worshipers on Holy

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Holy Week Trilogy Part I: Headlong into Trouble

7 Comments / Anxiety, Holy Week, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal / By /

Luke 19:45:48 Many of my readers are aware that in 2013-14, I faced Stage 3 lung cancer, enduring six months of treatment—radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery—and coming out the other side “cured” (my doctor’s word). Officially NED (“No evidence of disease”) for six years now, and yes, I am celebrating the success of all that effort. Unfortunately, the fact that I gave up a lung lobe and developed asthma makes me “high risk” for serious complications if I were to contract Covid-19. I serve part-time as chaplain at a Level 2 Trauma Center that now has an Incident Command Center to

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God’s Promise of Safety

7 Comments / Anxiety, Romans 8 / By /

A teeny-tiny virus that when magnified looks worse than ragweed pollen has made us cower. My county has restricted movement and assembly for twelve days now. We all hope this intentional isolation will work to curb the spread of coronavirus, and it is wisdom and prudence to stay home, stay disinfected, and keep one’s distance from others. It’s a gift we give to our neighbors and the world, to “keep our germs to ourselves,” as my mother used to say. The great temptation we are facing these days is to go beyond prudence and sink into feelings of insecurity and

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Self-Quarantine as Soul Rest

8 Comments / Anxiety, Current Events, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

The strongly-recommended “shelter-in-place” guidelines just issued in our county remind me of a season in the life of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. It would have been in the late 1970’s or maybe early 1980’s—can’t remember—and the pastor Walt Gerber decreed a six-week sabbatical for the entire church. Everything but Sunday worship was suspended because he sensed that the congregation (and he himself, I believe) were exhausted and needed deep soul-rest. Quite a bold move for a church in a period of rapid expansion and program development. Everybody needed adrenalin-withdrawal and blood pressure checks while reinforcing spiritual practices. My recollection is

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Anxiety’s Triggers—My Big One

Leave a Comment / Anxiety, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal / By /

I’ve been on the road, driving alone in our little Sprinter van conversion RV, to meet Darling Daughter A in Ashland, Oregon. It’s a drive one can easily accomplish in one day, but I left Wednesday afternoon to get the first three hours under my belt. Without really planning it this way, I have had a mini-retreat. Driving in the quiet, enjoying the scenery, occasionally listening to music, stopping every once in awhile to stretch. It’s good for the soul! I recommend it. Sometimes a person just has to get away, into the quiet, in order to gain perspective. The

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The Apostle Paul’s Antidote to Worry

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Human beings comprise bodies, minds, emotions, and spirits. What’s going on with us psychologically has an effect on our bodies, as those tied up in knots in stress can affirm. Spiritual turmoil can put our emotions in a spin. And physical illness can cause depression. We’re a bundle of entwined happenings. All this to say that anxiety has many causes—physiological, emotional, mental, and spiritual—and therefore can be tackled from all these angles. We can also say that no problem is purely a spiritual one (or a physical one, or . . .). Our multi-faceted nature is a wonder: complex and

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Living in an Age of Anxiety

3 Comments / Anxiety, Death & Dying, Easter, Lung Cancer / By /

The original impetus for writing on anxiety came in the form of an invitation from the Lung Cancer Alliance folks, to share on the topic for a webinar in December 2017. In preparation, I am keeping a personal anxiety journal, just for the heck of it, so that I have plenty of current illustrations! Okay, I admit I am feeling a little anxious these days. I am looking forward to my April 26 CT scan, a routine image every six months to check for signs of a cancer reoccurrence. One is said to have “scanxiety” in anticipation of one’s periodic

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Does the Resurrection Make a Difference in Our Level of Anxiety?

1 Comment / Anxiety, Easter / By /

Thanks for the little breather there, around Easter. It was a busy weekend, including leading worship for a group of about 35 staff and patients at John Muir Hospital. It matters not if the congregation is 35 or 3500, a lot of energy goes into a service! So for all my friends resting after the Day of Resurrection, may Jesus refill your hearts and souls with his love and strength. Picking up on the theme of anxiety from last week, the question is whether Jesus’ resurrection from the dead should make a difference in our tension/worry level. We can get

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