Advent is a season of reflecting on Christ’s first advent as recorded in the Gospels, and of expectant waiting for Christ’s second advent. We are in the midst of the “already-not yet” period, having experienced the kingdom but awaiting its consummation. This is perfectly summarized in Wesley’s familiar Christmas tune.

In this short post, I want to call Christians away from the pull of anxious feelings regarding our current climate or circumstance, and toward Jesus’s cure for anxious souls. When we look around our communities, it’s easy to be swept up into the anxious feelings of the age. If we aren’t guarded against anxiety, we can become overwhelmed by the political clamor, outrage, and general uneasiness of today. If we merely fall in line with the temperature of Twitter and Facebook and CNN and Fox News, we’ll succumb to the stress and anxiety of society.