“Where there is no counsel, the people fall…” Proverbs 11:14a

Panic

Walk His Way Revisited

Many years ago, I began to experience panic attacks. Although I was facing some major changes in my life, I thought everything was normal. One day, I was suddenly very afraid. Frantic. Feeling the need to escape. I was overwhelmed with unexplained and unexpected fear, and did not know what had caused it or what to do about it.

I was a young believer at the time, 20-something. These panic attacks were causing me to begin crying hysterically at inappropriate times—when I was at work, when I was eating dinner, while reading a magazine. I had no control over the tears. I would get up in the morning, and for a few minutes I would be fine, but suddenly the panic would overtake me. I could feel it growing quickly, and then I would be terrified, sweating, anxious, breathing fast. It got to where my boss felt I wasn’t functioning as I needed to. I could have lost my job, but my boss was a Christian man of compassion. He recommended I see a Christian psychologist.

Due to my upbringing of “get-over-it,-kid,-everybody’s-got-problems,” visiting a counselor of any kind was out of my comfort zone, but after several months of panic, I was desperate to deal with it. I thought I was going crazy. I made an appointment, feeling like I had failed Christianity 101—Basic Trust in Christ. The doctor’s office was quiet and professional. He had a chair to sit on, and he offered me a couch, on which I sat. NO WAY was I going to lie down on that couch! It seemed that would be like admitting, “I’m a sick person; I need to lie down.” The thought process seems funny to me now; in no way am I suggesting that anyone else experiencing this should react as I did nor have the same thoughts.

We talked and, over many sessions, got to the probable cause of what was bothering me. But this devotional isn’t about the cause of my panic. It is about the two most important things that doctor said to me, things that have stuck with me and served me well in my Christian walk ever since then.

Tomorrow I will share those two things with you.

Today I want to ask you a question that Jesus asked a very sick man who had spent 38 years waiting for the treatment that would heal him:

“Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6)

Before you roll your eyes (of COURSE I want to be made well), consider that you will possibly have to let something go—and it may be something very dear or ingrained in you.

Lord, show us the way to go. Sometimes we are so desperate for You to help us that we don’t know which way to turn. Thank You for Your compassion towards us.