Sick with fear and worry (long vanity)

September 5, 2003 | Self

[djf]

I don't think so. How many people talk about how everything changed on 9/11? I've read a bit about the history of the crusades, and there have been slaughters (on both sides) that make 9/11 look like a day in the park. This has been a monumental struggle going back 1300 years or so.

[marbren]

I know the standard interpretation of Ezekiel 37 about the reestablishment of Israel. What about a more literal interpretation. What if all Jews come back to life, with non glorified bodies, to populate the kingdom? I realize this is just speculation.

[Lando Lincoln]

Greetings FRiend,

I printed your post earlier today and just now read it. Believe me, I share your anxieties and trepidations. I, too, became consumed with the news, with internal thoughts, with frustrations over the lack of will and determination of fellow citizens, the French, the Germans, etc. And, I have been steadfast in my concern for and support of Israel. It stuns me that so few people understand that a democratic, society is on the front line every minute of every day. Yet, they thrive through science, productivity and love of life. It shocks me when I hear otherwise people intelligent people disparage Israel.

Other people.....therein lies a major source of my anxiety. It seems tome that there is something insidious going on from within our own society. Earlier today, on another thread, I wrote:

I was just talking yesterday with a conservative colleague at work. We are so dismayed at how many people have "moved on"; how the drip-drip-drip of press reports have turned the War on Terror to a foreign policy disaster; how the liberal left continues to believe that this is all the fault of an imperialist United States; AND, how many still don't understand that our enemies want nothing less than our apocolyptic destruction. It such a shameful pity that our leader, our President - who does understand - must remain steadfast against forces from within.

It pains me to write these words and, now, to read them. But, for me, it is so crystal clear. 9-11 was not enough. For too many Americans and peoples of the west, more will need to happen before they realize that our very existence is threatened. Even then, there will be vast segments who will argue that the whole thing is really our fault, our lack of understanding.

Ultimately, and I pray I am wrong, I envision a very painful alteration of our national psyche. In the end, it will be for the better but at enormous cost. As for the enemy who wants nothing less than our annihilation, I see an unthinkable brinkmanship playing out. We will need to threaten and follow-up on the destruction of population centers to ultimately defeat the threat. This statement is not intended to be flippant. Within the next decade or so, we will be there. Especially if this administration is defeated by the powerful forces that would undermine it.

So, as for the anxiety....I have curtailed my news intake, I pray, and I love each minute I have with my family.

God Bless to you and yours,

Lando

[ChemistCat]

Tictoc, if it's not wars and rumors of wars, it's a big bump in Yellowstone that might be a supervolcano about to explode. All I can think of every night is that I've had THIS time with my husband and kids and friends and a bunch of really terrific people at my university. I had my wild 20s and my religious 30s and I'm staring 40 in the face knowing that I might not see 50--and that just puts me in the same boat with everybody else. The only people privileged to know their death date are the ones who see that the governor hasn't called and the needle is in the vein and a hand is moving toward the controls that will start the poison dripping in.

Dum vivimus, vivamus: Let us live while we live! If North Korea or Iran smuggle a good size nuke to the major interstate crossroads near my home, I probably won't have to suffer long. If the economy shatters and all-out war consumes me, I PRAY I won't have to watch my babies suffer. Beyond that, I'll just try hard to live so that when the end comes, however it comes, for me and/or for my family and country, my afterlife will be in the most desirable setting....

That said, Ladydoc is on the money with respect to the obsessive-compulsive and depressed feelings. I'm considering it myself. I what-if myself into serious funks on a regular basis. What does it help? Israel? No!

[Palladin]

The Lord has a pavilion?

Who knew??

What Bible translation is this from???

[wimpycat]

I can be something of a worry-wart myself, thinking of all sorts of what-if scenarios.

But I think about Jesus' "consider the lilies of the field" sermon, and it reminds me that taking it one day at a time isn't just good Christianity, it's good psychology...which is probably why Jesus said it to begin with.

[potlatch]

I, like many here, pray daily for things to improve in our world. I will include you in my prayers.

Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed by all the bad news I read on the internet, but we hear of every bad thing almost as it happens nowdays.

You may need to take a break from news and explore other sites that are humorous or heartlifting. I have done that.

[Gal.5:1]

Rest assured, God IS ultimately in control, and Jesus is coming back. He is our only hope. Believe and trust in Him. He will take care of it. Pray the muslims will stop being decieved by this evil and turn to the true, one Living God. Pray the Jews will repent and call out to the Lord their God and trust Him alone for salvation-Yeshua (God is Salvation). Put yourself in His hands. There is the safest and surest place to be no matter what happens. Read Psalm 91. He understands our fears. "Do not be afraid", He told his disciples, encouraging them to have faith in Him.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

I understand. I've had many "dark nights of the soul" and I know how deep that darkness can be. My answer has been my Christian faith. I've studied Bible Prophecy for over 30 years and know these events will come, many have been fulfilled before my eyes. (I used to teach in Bible Study that the Soviet Union would cease to exist as a superpower. I didn't know how, I didn't know when but I knew it would be because of Scripture. 10 years later it came to pass.) There will be many dark times ahead, worse even than the holocaust. The difference is, I know the outcome. There is much peace in that. I turn to Jesus Christ for my comfort. He understands.

[Publius6961]

I don't think so.

Well, thank you for sharing your opinion.

I am just going by the dozen or so books I have on Islam and the Crusades specifically, plus all Encyclopedias and reference books.

If you would rather fly by what you think, knock yourself out.

[Yaelle]

Your essay was very well-written, honest, and obviously touched a lot of us.

There is no need to give you good advice; others have done a good job. I thought I'd just tell you what keeps me going through all of this.

I feel as you do the palpable vibrations in the air: Israel is in serious danger. As a Jew it scares me. Frightening, too, is that most of the world could not care less, including our famous fair-weather friends in Europe.

My grandmother survived the Holocaust. Her older-middle-aged parents did not. She was able to save her two little sons, or I would not be writing this now. They lost everything material as well as many precious relatives and friends. From a wealthy woman, she became a servant.

She never spoke to me about the bad times. She would not. Instead she focused on the beauty she saw around her, saw it in everything, had a delicious sense of humor, and poured love on all of us her entire life. She lived through the fire and it seemed almost not to touch her. My father has her spirit. Of his days growing up in a foster home in wartime England, he fondly remembers the chocolate bar one got inside one's gas mask.

I think of them, and of how my childhood was pristine regarding world situations, and I hold my little ones close and pray we will stay safe. If my forebears could do it, then so can I. When things go wrong in my life, I can always say "We aren't on the train to Auschwitz yet," because it wasn't all that long ago that they were.

Israel is so hated out of all proportion to any acts she may have committed. I also don't see how this could play out in a good way. But Good will prevail somehow. It has to. G-d will never let evil win.

[wardaddy]

Damn nice essay.

Well, I damn well care a lot. I view Israel's enemies and our enemies as nearly the same.

I believe we have to detroy them and their will to wage war(terror).

That is all third world moon rock worshippers ever understand...then they can get back to killing each other.

My religion hasn't shite to do with it. I'm neither a Jew or Evangelical. I simply know right from wrong and in this instance, it's a no brainer. These folks will use anything at their disposal to destroy the west and Israel and the US and even parts of pansy Europe are targets.

It's an old fight really but that's another thread.

I say all this knowing full well that ideologically excluding this issue that I have little in common politically with maybe 80% of American Jews given their voting patterns....that is obviously not the case with Jewish FReepers by and large but that is irrelevant. We are bound by blood, culture, traditions and ideology in the face of the Islamist hegemon and it's time W realized that and did what he needs to do. Forget the oil, we found it, we drill it. We can take it.

How to peacefully coexist with a well funded Islamic world that is a collection of represive regimes sans Turkey is beyond my abilities...all I know is that we have to fight...and fight "black flag".

I have spent a fair amount of time in Israel and have lifelong Israeli friends both here and there so in all honesty, I do have some personal reasons to add to my already gut instincts.

Damn, I sure wish they had bagged that crooked beaked Hamas spiritual leader tonight.

[wardaddy]

Damn nice essay.

Well, I damn well care a lot. I view Israel's enemies and our enemies as nearly the same.

I believe we have to detroy them and their will to wage war(terror).

That is all third world moon rock worshippers ever understand...then they can get back to killing each other.

My religion hasn't shite to do with it. I'm neither a Jew or Evangelical. I simply know right from wrong and in this instance, it's a no brainer. These folks will use anything at their disposal to destroy the west and Israel and the US and even parts of pansy Europe are targets.

It's an old fight really but that's another thread.

I say all this knowing full well that ideologically excluding this issue that I have little in common politically with maybe 80% of American Jews given their voting patterns....that is obviously not the case with Jewish FReepers by and large but that is irrelevant. We are bound by blood, culture, traditions and ideology in the face of the Islamist hegemon and it's time W realized that and did what he needs to do. Forget the oil, we found it, we drill it. We can take it.

How to peacefully coexist with a well funded Islamic world that is a collection of represive regimes sans Turkey is beyond my abilities...all I know is that we have to fight...and fight "black flag".

I have spent a fair amount of time in Israel and have lifelong Israeli friends both here and there so in all honesty, I do have some personal reasons to add to my already gut instincts.

Damn, I sure wish they had bagged that crooked beaked Hamas spiritual leader tonight.

[SSN558]

The evening of September 11th, I sat at a picnic table with a group of students at a nearby University. The were many groups of students sitting at tables and the mood was somber. Then a group of six arabs walked through the court yard with heads held high, laughing and telling jokes in arabic. Unbelieveably, they were pointing fingers.

I stood up and faced them with a cold menacing stare, and they all fell silent as all the eyes in the court yard were now upon them. I think they understood.

It will stick in my mind forever. I wish I had grabbed someones cell phone to report their activity to the FBI.

[George W. Bush]

Israel has plenty of nukes for Tehran and for Mecca/Medina and other sites and Muslim capitals.

There won't be any more central Muslim religious sites if Israel is forced to go nuclear. The Muslims know this. Their leaders don't care about the herd but they value their own hides.

I think the Iranian resistance is spying for us and for Israel. I expect Israel is going to hit Iran very soon. We'll front for Israel in advance intel and in political cover afterward but they'll be the actual strike force. Given the hatred and suspicion the Arabs generally hold for Iran, they'll make some protest. But only enough to quell their ignorant masses.

[niteowl77]

My mother worried about her (then new) baby boy during the Suez Crisis... we were all going to die because of it. She was worried that the Sputnik-era Soviets were going to enslave us all with their space-age superiority. The Cuban missile Crisis was going to be the end of the planet. Even then, the world had gone "crazy," and a still-adolescent TV news machine was already depressing my mother. Around 1963, our old-fashioned, small town, family doctor told my mom to leave the room while dad watched the news. Considering the limited news programming of the era (still in b&w in many homes), his prescription would be considered a miniscule dose today, but it worked. People like you and I (and many others here) have to "up our meds" a bit in these times of 24-hr news (or the pseudo-news which passes for same).

Truly, if my mom had been exposed to CNN during the Six Day War, she'd have been institutionalized. Had my grandmother been condemned to witnessing round-the-clock, 2003-style coverage of the Huertgenwald, she would have become despondent enough to die from it.

My only child is now in Iraq, and he's not living in one of the finer Iraqi neighborhoods; his deployment is possibly being extended for the second time. I will confess that I had a bad spell on Thursday myself: I had gotten an unwelcome bit of news from Iraq, and I then made the mistake of coming on FR and reading threads and replies from some of the people here who are either oblivious to the morale of military families, or who are genuine sadistic SOB's. I pray they are the former. Once I detatched myself, I was all right again. The Son of God had to get away from the noise on occasion, so how much more does a weakling like me need to do the same?

Islam MAY kill me, but worry WILL kill me... just more slowly and insidiously. I try to go on with life, spend what I can, keep the chin up, and trust in Jesus Christ to do the heavy lifting.

[George W. Bush]

Israel cannot "sustain forever" this kind of pressure. They are being valiant, in a courtly, Victorian sort of way-it's almost Christian, all this turning the other cheek until there are no cheeks left.

What? Is there some other Israel that I haven't heard of? I only know of the incredibly shrewd, tough-as-nails Israel with the superb intel services and at least 200 nukes.

No need to start the evacuation just yet. Where would they flee? New York?

We and the Israelis know the world is too small for us to hide from the Muslim fanatics. Israel will stand and fight, no matter what. So will we. And we'll be watching their backs.

Israel and America are actually closer now, after 9/11, than we ever were. And a strike on Iran's reactors by Israel will get far stronger support from us and Britain than their Eighties strike on Saddam's weapons reactor.

[Mamzelle]

A good read--your concerns are reasonable, but I pray you make your way out of that abyss.

I write to ask a question--who confronted you after the Sept 7 conference, and would you suppply more details as to their nature of these people's complaint?

[niteowl77]

"What this means is not to let your fears dictate your actions. If you fear that something might happen and you react to that fear and plan according to it, you are letting the fear control your actions and write your orders. At that point, you are no longer in control. Fear has taken control, and fear will make you do many stupid, irresponsible, and foolish things. If, however, you don't take counsel of your fears, you can make your own plans according to your own goals and objectives. Don't let yourself be fooled into fighting against fear instead of fighting against the enemy."

George S. Patton is not one of my personal heroes, but he knew his business. Like the late General would have done, I choose to bare the teeth right back at them, rather than shrink from even contemplating the task at hand. We do have an enemy, but though that enemy may be able to meld and morph, it is not omniscient.

[nutmeg]

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