Sabbath Devotional :: Anxiety: The Power of "Palms Up, Palms Open"

The clock is ticking. As we approach the single digit days before the election, I find my stomach clenching, my hands curling into tight little balls, my brows furrowed. I’ve started having flash backs to November 8th, 2016. Something in me broke that day.

As a mildly left-of-center Midwesterner who had a son working for the 44th President, I felt like a stranger in a strange land in my very own USA. I was flummoxed by the choice of so many of my fellow citizens, and even among a majority of my sister and brother Saints. I still hold to the Church’s proclaimed stance as non-partisan and international, but an ethnographer might have a hard time defending that. As a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have become accustomed to feeling (for the last 40-some years) a bit of an odd duck among my adopted kin. There are aspects of the US-centric culture, assumptions backed by elaborate traditions or unique interpretations of scripture that sometimes obscure the commonality of our devotion to God. I continue devoutly to add my own spice/accent/contributions here because I feel God guiding me to do so.

What has troubled me in these recent weeks is the uptick in my anxiety levels. Objectively of course, what’s NOT to feel anxious about? What with the pandemic; social mores constantly flouted; polarization on every front; home life and work life patterns thrown in the pulsing Cuisinart of our current situation – anxiety seems a legitimate reaction.

But as a Christian and a Latter-day Saint, I find myself craving a refresher course in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

These words leap out: “not as the world gives give I unto you.”

There are so many lures that bind me to the chaos and disorder of this world. And I too often fall for them. This scripture gives me a keen reminder that I need to seek for peace that isn’t encrusted with the cares and complexities of this mortal world.

Clearly during Jesus’s time, the Roman government in the Middle East was complicated and divisive. Its system provided not just the policies but the literal wooden structure on which Christ was crucified.

While scanning the internet for uplift I happened on this quote by Mandy Hale:

“During my prayer time the other day, God reminded me that the posture for releasing something and the posture for receiving something else is identical: Palms up. Palms open. Not clenched tightly together from fear. Not clutching on to something that we are refusing to let go of. And not clasped behind our back in anger or bitterness. Palms up, palms open.”[1]

Palms up. Palms open. What wonderful reminders (and ones that have echoes to the holy postures within the temple). This is what I need to practice – relaxing into release and into readiness for receiving. I need this reminder to unclamp my anxiety and have the courage and surrender to accept the future – whatever it may be.

Another sustaining scripture is Romans 8:31: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”[2]

Regardless of the results of this election, our hope is not anchored in the success of one candidate over another or one philosophy over another. To survive spiritually with vigor and stamina in whatever the future holds, our hope is in Christ. He invites us to come to him with palms up and palms open.

In fact He did that very thing himself to the people in 3 Nephi 11.[3]

“Arise and come forth unto me, [that] ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.”

May we come to Him as he invites – with palms up and palms open.

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[1] https://mandyhale.com/…/dash-of-sass-palms-up-palms-open/

[2] Biblehub.com adds this interpretation from the original text: τίς, not τί, in opposition to ὁ Θεὸς: who – what adverse power – can there possibly be, stronger than God?

[3] https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/…/bofm/3-ne/11…