My Times are in His Hands

 "America may have all the watches, but the Taliban has all the time."

I read an article by an American soldier who served in Afghanistan; he said this is a popular quote in the country. I don't watch the news, but what I know of the situation in Afghanistan is devastating. I wouldn't begin to write myself into the narrative, especially when I consider I don't know the first thing about suffering on this scale. But this quote made me think...

My default setting is anxiety and worry. When I feel out of control, my first instinct is to panic. I don't focus on the small battle in front of me, I focus on the whole war. Focusing on the dark things in our world magnifies this impulse by a bajillion. There are so many things we may think "holds all the watches"--science, medicine, global pandemic, government, self.. But what do we think, what do we really think, "holds all the time"? What eventually gets us out of any of this?

I train (and retrain and retrain) my way out of anxious thoughts by focusing on the word of the One who made us. He is our only way out. Turn to Him and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for He is God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22) God holds all the watches, AND He holds all the time.