Trust Amid Anxiety

Summary

I once sat with a young woman who was anxious about the state of the world. Of course someone could worry about any number of things in this world, but this young woman was especially anxious about wars in various parts of the world. During and after college she had lived in several different countries where violence raged across the landscape. While living in those countries she had befriended numerous people who lived week to week with the stress of guns and bombs, wounds and deaths. Now back in the States, she worried for her friends in those countries who couldn’t board a jet like she could and in just a few hours escape to place of relative safety. Throughout the day she found herself thinking about her friends in those far-off lands. Across the screen of her mind flitted images of their beautiful faces, yes, but also images of rifle bullets embedded in house walls, of blood stains on the street, of holes in the dirt where a grenade had blown up.