I would like to be the messenger of such a "good word", because if your "heart" is heavy or concerned, I would like to be part of "cheering you up"!

It is natural to be anxious in these days.

Yesterday was September 11. And we can't think of September 11 without remembering October 12. Then Madrid and Beslan; and now the Australian Embassy in Djakarta.

We don't need politicians to tell us that what happened in Bali and New York and Washington and Madrid and Beslan and Djakarta can also happen here, can also happen to us. And we certainly don't need politicians to play with our fears, and tell us that when we vote for them, then they will protect us better than the other party. The situation is too serious to become a play ball in party politics.

The great frustration is, we all know it, however hesitant we are to admit it, that we have no answers. The leaders who dominate the stage have only one answer – and their answer has been proven wrong by the verdict of history. They work on the principle that violence must be destroyed by greater violence. Violence must be met with even greater violence. The violence of terrorists or of rogue states can only be removed by the violence of the state.

But we start to disbelieve them. We begin to think that it does not work.

We start again to talk of human rights and of universal justice and the importance of the United Nations – all of which were suspended in the wake of September 11 and October 12. You see, human rights and the justice implied in them are universal values and universal laws and universal rights that transcend the authority of the nation state.

Just as for thousands of years people could not think that there is an alternative to slavery and to women's subordination – only to discover that there was, and that human life has improved with the abolition of slavery and the equality of women.

But we cannot yet think that human conflicts can be solved without violence!

Nevertheless, there are other voices. But they are not yet heard. You will notice, for instance, that Prime Ministers, when they are no longer in office (people like Jimmy Carter and Malcolm Fraser), high ranking Military Generals all over the world, when they are retired, people who know the world stage, people who are no wimps, people who have tried war and tasted power, turn and become peace activists.

"... how many ears must one man have
before he can hear people cry?
... how many death will it take till he knows
that too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
the answer is blowing in the wind."

The wind is the Spirit of God. What is the wind of the Spirit saying to the people of God? What is the wind of the Spirit blowing into our direction from the word of God?

Let us realise, first of all, that anxiety is part of the human story. It is also part of your human story! People have tried to find a word that describes this underlying force that makes us tired, uncertain and unwilling to tune into the future of God. "Anxiety" - I have also heard people here using the German equivalent "Angst". It is a world-wide phenomenon. Anxiety seems to be part of our human make up. It is the constant reminder that there is another alternative to faith in God: nothingness, non-being. Anxiety gives status to nothingness. It makes nothing into something. It gives the status of being to non-being. It seeks to spell into a word what we all experience. A force that lames us, that makes us unsure and that even leads us to kill creativity and truth and justice.

To understand this force which at times invades us and in these times comes to the surface, let us look at the origin of the word. "Anxiety" comes from the Latin "angustia". "Angustia" means "shortness of breath"; not having enough room to breathe. Those who have had a heart attack or an angina attack know what "angustia" means. They have experienced when everything contracts and an undefinable and unlocatable anguish invades them and overtakes them.

The old Germanic myth of the Midgard serpent tries to give further clarity for this real but undefinable part of human experience. A myth tries to describe what moves us at our deepest level. It wants to create pictures that point to and clarify the world view that determines us. All of life, the joys and the tragedies, so the Midgard myth, is surrounded by a serpent. When life becomes tough, the serpent winds itself around life, constricts life and makes it more difficult to breathe.

Another illustration comes from Jean Paul’s "Dream of a world without God". A man, a believer, falls asleep on a meadow. In a dream he finds himself waking up in a cemetery. Christ in an impersonation of sadness descends on the altar. The dead cry out: "Christ! Is there no God?" Christ answers: "There is none." Then the dead children awake in their graves and raise their voices to the Christ: "Jesus, have we no father?" And Christ, with tears streaming down his face, whispers: "We are all orphans. We have no Father." When the tension mounts to an unbearable intensity, the dreamer wakes up. The snake withdraws, and the dreamer weeps for joy as he sees God’s creation stretched out from sea to sea. He gratefully realises that the terrifying possibility of non-being, of nothingness, was only a dream.

What does all that mean?

Anxiety is the silent awareness that God may be an illusion. It is a life without faith in God. It signals the possibility that ultimately we are surrounded by nothingness; that nothingness is something.

What do you do in a world where faith in God becomes shaky? You look after yourself. Survival becomes the secret passion of life. Security will dominate the stage. The foreigner will be demonised as wanting to steal our jobs and back yards. It was Nietzsche who said, in a world without God, the will to power becomes the most important motivation; exercising power over the "other".

Is there an alternative to anxiety?

There are no lasting pills against anxiety. Indeed, there is nothing much that we can do about it. Our wills seem to be fairly powerless at this point. If we could simply decide not to let anxiety determine us, we would be in good shape. The history of humanity is replete with good intentions and good decisions which have never been actualised. Strength of will and heroic deeds are obviously not very effective in dealing with anxiety. How often have we said and heard "pull yourself together" - obviously to no great effect.

The story of Jesus suggests three possibilities to deal with anxiety: trust, love and creativity. That Jesus knew the indefinable but real possibility of anxiety will not be doubted by anyone who has read the story of temptation in the desert, the struggle for the will of God in the garden of Gethsemane and the cry of dereliction on the cross. What attitude does Jesus adopt towards the human experience of anxiety?

One is trust in God. Jesus seemed to have been aware that ultimately there are only two possibilities in life, unless one drowns the question of meaning altogether: either nihilism/nothingness or sinking into the everlasting strong and caring arms of the creator. Jesus chose the latter.

What does it mean when we read in the New Testament: "In the world you face anxiety. But take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)? What does it mean when Jesus confronts us with the alternative of God or money? What does it mean when we are told that our life is more than clothing? It does not mean that Jesus is not concerned about the world; that he thinks that we need no money; and that clothing is not important.

Jesus is simply, like a good doctor, interpreting our life and giving us a diagnosis. When your secret passion is money and clothing and security and your reputation in the world, then anxiety will determine your life. You will always want to have more money, more clothing, more security and more world.

What is the alternative? Trust in God. Let God be our ultimate concern; refuse to have other gods besides him.

If the child would walk alone through the forest at night, anxiety would take over. The branches of the trees become ghosts. Every rattling noise raises the fear of a snake. The same child would be happy and singing if she walks through the dark forest at the hands of the father.

A related way to deal with anxiety is love. "There is no anxiety in love, but perfect love casts out anxiety." (1 John 4:18). Why is there no anxiety in love? Why does perfect love cast out all anxiety? Because loves creates relationships. Anxiety is the awareness of the possibility of utter aloneness, of a life without God and without friends. The more we love the more we counteract the underlying force of anxiety.

This is related to a third way of dealing with anxiety: creativity. I am not talking about artists or other creative people. I am talking about the active and meaningful participation in enhancing life.

Today is SAO Sunday. "Safe an opportunity!" "Sponsor a child!". Through Baptist World Aid Australia we enter the villages, the towns, the orphanages and we help to create circumstances in which human life can flourish. We provide wells with drinkable water, we fund schools, we help create community organisations, we establish clinics – and thereby we become part of an alternative vision. A vision that will deal with human conflicts much more affectively than violence. We are not handing out aid. We are creating circumstances in which people can look after themselves. We empower people to experience the dignity of looking after themselves and their families.

Your hundred or your thousand dollars are well spent. They are part of a world wide soft revolution that will deal with anxiety by exercising a living and liberating faith in God. It is our revolution against a godless world in which selfishness and violence reigns. We would like to do what we can in preparing the way of the Lord!

TL, Kingston, 13/09/2004.