Jesus Manages the Four Spaces of Anxietyਨਮੂਨਾ

I can relate to Mary and Joseph. I have 3 children and when they were young, I lost each of them at a mall or playground. Yes, we’re all very proud! When you lose your child in a public place, 3 minutes feels like 7 weeks. I can’t imagine Mary and Jospeh’s fear as they tracked him down. The fact that they were anxious and alarmed is human, but what happened next astounds me. They cast their anxiety on Jesus, he doesn’t catch it. We see this with his parents of course, but when he was an adult, his disciples often tried to put their anxiety on Jesus and especially the religious leaders, with their various traps and snares. He was able to connect deeply while the reactivity was flying around the room. I marvel at that.

When someone puts their anxiety on me, I am prone to catch it. I am also prone to spread it, but that is another discussion for another day. But one remarkable attribute of Jesus is that he was often in highly anxious situations, in fact people were highly anxious at him. But he didn’t catch it. We are prone to catch it, aren’t we? When we catch reactivity, it is harder to see what is really going on. We make assumptions and we fixate on others instead of paying attention to what is happening in our self. One secret to Jesus’ effective ministry was paying attention to the anxiety coming at him from others and making sure he didn’t catch and spread it.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to deepen your capacity for reactive people and be less triggered yourself? Our world is in dire need of followers of Jesus who follow his example of stopping the spread of contagious reactivity. Today, you might pay attention to the anxiety flying around. When you intentionally notice, you are less prone to catch it.