“Oh no, what we gonna do?”

The title may be out of context, but it works.

Besides the fact that it is one in the morning as I’m writing this, I was rather stupid recently. It was one of those (many) times when I felt desperate and anxious, when I felt and feared that I was heading down a shoot called the rest of college into the unknown that is the center of the earth. Not that Middle Earth seems like a bad place to be (though I’ve never been there), but my life–and I’m sure you’ve felt this way before too, if not now–seemed reminiscent of this small passage from Fish Out of Water:

The darkened water and the wind surged about them in a tightening circle, round and round. It gradually grew so dark that they could not see anything except the black, overpowering force that enraptured them, swirling against them, around them, about them, so strong that it threw the two mermaids around effortlessly within its diabolical vortex.

Yes, the protagonists of the book are mermaids. But don’t be fooled; the book’s not actually about mermaids. It’s about the school in which they end up living.

Anyhow, I had spent a long while–weeks–with high nerves about the future, which seemed unpleasant and unknown, when I was chatting with my roommate. She said, “Wait!” or something liked that, paused as she read something online, and then her confusion cleared. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m looking for jobs.” I remembered that I needed to do homework then, so I concentrated. Then it dawned on me: the future would look a lot more stable and something to look forward to if I looked for a job–like I was supposed to do. Wow, how simple! Not to mention that God has always provided for and guided me, not that He isn’t constantly directing my path! Well that was silly.

Sometimes whether the disaster is real or imagined, it may have a very simple solution. But I am talking to a host of generally stressed people, and I know that things are never so simple. My own problem mentioned above had several strings undone from the knot before that last one came loose. I wish my post could just end there with simplicity, but I can’t. I could just end with, “Fear not; everything will be ok. You’ll survive,” to which people respond, “I hope so,” and don’t feel assured at all. But you know what? God’s called you to trust in Him under pressure, and your peace is between you and Him. Day by day, we can see that God is seeing us through everything.