Not Just Helping to Cope

The way I understand how the term "coping" is used today is that if you have a problem, that problem will always be there and you just have to find away around it. Many times I see coping as a negative factor,  similar to that most popular hopeless phrase “It is what it is.”

I don’t want to live with a big stinky pile of trash in the middle of my kitchen that I just have to keep walking around. I want to find away to get ride of it. Getting to who we are, our identity, will help us overcome many struggles and stressors. However, I don’t think this starts with what comes from us. It has to come from something—someone greater than us, who knows us better than we know ourselves. Scripture states He, God, knew us before the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4). What does He already know about my life and who I am that I don’t know? I guess it would be best to ask Him!

Jesus says He came that we would have life to the fullest in John 10 verse 10. Yet, the reality is that many people don’t even feel like they are living, much less feeling fully alive. I think there’s a parralel between coping mechanisms and how we live. I would define living as "thriving" and dying as "fear". The more fear we have the more we have to cope. The more life we have, the more we receive peace over areas in our life that the world expects us to faint under. Thriving would take a problem and issue in our life and allow the peace to surface through it. It doesn’t mean hard things won’t come our way. After all, Jesus said we would have many troubles in this world. He also gave us authority to over come the hardships and to receive His peace. The only way I know how to activate His peace is to come to Him. 

In my life, coming to Him looks a lot like prayer—but it’s more of listening to what He has to say then verbalizing my woes or requests. In the same chapter that Jesus says He came for us to have life to the fullest, He also says that His “sheep”, or those that follow Him, would hear His voice. Coping comes to a halt when we start to hear Life speak directly into our hearts. He calls out our purpose and our identity.  These aren’t reliant on other’s perspectives or the stopping of anxiety, depression or fear. I, and many people, experience these emotional shifts; however they lose momentum when we hear Life speak our purpose and identity. It’s like we can see clearly again when this happens. Our perspective changes and we feel a higher sense of what it mean’s to live. The more I hear Life speak into who I am, I become more like Him. No longer am I running from the void of negative emotions that can feel so heavy, overwhelming and draining, I can start to get filled with a substance that allows me to stand on who I am meant to be.