The Age of Concerns

Sometimes it seems that we live in a very worrying time, as we are particularly anxious these days. It’s almost like the anxious state is the normal state, while being carefree is a bit of a rarity, and perhaps even a little ridiculous, or at least naive. You seem to be more modern in outlook if you are melancholic than if you are optimistic about life.

It is good to have a keen eye for difficulties and obstacles ahead : Children learn nothing at school anymore, we are becoming so fat that we have to get around in carts, and smoking destroys virtually everything. You must be problem-orientated in a proactive way as they say. This means that you can solve problems even before they arise. Of course this prevents you from missing some.

Now it’s obvious that there are a lot of problems in the world. There are piles of them. Of course we have to focus on them and we must work to solve them. But there are also good and happy things. You can be in a joyful period of your life without really being pleased because the concerns and the bad mood are so rehearsed. It is as if a grey sadness creeps in, even in the bright and warm room.

We are approaching midwinter. When Christmas is over, here in our latitudes there is not much to laugh about. Nature is dead outside the windows, and the days are short, so it’s easy to get caught by the bad mood and pessimism. Spring seems so far away and the darkness seems to have embraced the country from time immemorial. We long for better times but cannot really reach them.

Maybe deep down we think that we need to solve all the problems to be happy. Maybe we have a feeling that we need to get to the end with all that’s annoying and difficult before we can begin to enjoy life.

But isn’t the trick the opposite ? To try to rejoice even though life is not perfect and we have not yet solved all the problems ? Isn’t that exactly what it’s all about, finding the joy in the middle of the concerns ? Our sorrows will never disappear. They will continue to occur. Perhaps we must learn to rejoice in spite of winter, smoking policy and obesity problems. Maybe we can train ourselves to feel good about life.

In the church it is at least what it comes to. As the Son of God came to earth he did not want us to be perfect, but that we should try to accept that the world and we ourselves are not perfect and that we never ever get a life where all problems are solved.

He wanted us to understand that we are good enough as we are with our faults and imperfections and we will never be happy people as long as we expect the worst about the future. No, we are happy people finding the courage to hope and believe that the future is bright.

The author is Pastor of The Danish Church in Luxembourg.