More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
Finding Peace in Political Turmoil: Battling Election Anxiety with Hannah Miller
What if the constant drumbeat of political turmoil through talk radio and social media was the root of your anxiety? Join me and my daughter, Hannah Miller, as we tackle the reality of election anxiety that haunts even the most steadfast, Bible-believing Christians. We share heartfelt stories of individuals overwhelmed by the relentless tide of negative media, often trapped in cycles of fear as elections loom closer. Together, we unravel the cycle of anxiety by offering practical advice, like reducing media consumption and seeking clarity from trusted sources. Our conversation is a beacon of hope, encouraging listeners to keep fear at bay and make informed voting decisions with peace of mind.
In a world where politics often feels like a battleground, we explore how to remain engaged without falling prey to anxiety. Despite the current tumultuous climate, Hannah and I delve into the reasons why we aren't gripped by fear and how you can share in this peace. We discuss effective strategies for staying active in the political scene without letting the chaos consume you. This episode of More Than Medicine is an invitation to find calm amidst the storm, equipping you with the tools to navigate political engagement with confidence and serenity.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.
Speaker 2:Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, once again, I'm delighted to have as my guest my very own daughter, Ms Hannah Miller. So, Ms Hannah, what in the world are we going to talk about today? A topic that I consider very important, which is election anxiety.
Speaker 3:That's right Now, if you're listening to our podcast. I don't know, you may experience election anxiety. You may not, but I know that I have personal friends and I see people out in the wide world frequently who experience this, and some people experience it for months, for years, leading up to the next election. Some of them, it's just a lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm telling you. I have patients who actually said to me that if this particular person is elected, doesn't matter which one, republican or Democrat that they're going to pick up and leave America. They're going to move to another country. I've heard that. I've heard people on both sides of the political spectrum say that if this particular candidate wins or their favorite candidate loses, they're going to move to South America.
Speaker 3:Right, and we heard it in 2020. We heard it in 2016. You know, I really have been hearing this for all of my life, or all of my time as a political activist.
Speaker 3:I don't really like to use that word, but I don't really know how else to say it, but somebody who's politically active, and so you know, every election cycle those things start kind of flying around and I know that there are good, strong, Bible-believing Christians who deal with this anxiety because we're bombarded day in and day out with the negative, particularly if you listen to talk radio much If you have a steady diet of talk radio or social media it ramps up your anxiety.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, and for my generation it would be the social media you know they have a constant diet of social media, and those outlets can be very divisive.
Speaker 2:Those things thrive on the crisis de jour, the crisis of the day, and you listen to talk show hosts who are speaking in a shrill, loud voice about whatever crisis happened that day or the day before. And that's how they thrive.
Speaker 3:That's right, and you see this on social media, whether you're on Facebook, tiktok, instagram, whatever it may be. You've got some influencer that's on there and they have an agenda, they have a candidate that they are supporting and it's just cranked up to a thousand percent in the months leading up to the election, and so I understand where most folks get their news from social media, from talk shows and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you, I have patients that I have to say to them you may not listen to talk radio, you may not be on social media, because they have underlying anxiety issues to start with. And I actually have them on medication for anxiety and I look at them and I say no more talk radio, no more social media, because it is fueling your anxiety and they will not get emotionally well until I put them on a diet, a social media diet and a talk radio diet. And the closer they get to the election, the worse their anxiety becomes. And it's not just my patients with underlying anxiety issues, it's just about everybody. Now I have to admit there are some people who are clueless.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know there's going to have people that are going to text me the day before the election and they're going to ask me who to vote for, who to?
Speaker 2:vote for yeah and how to vote on the referendums. They don't even know that there's a referendum coming up.
Speaker 3:Well, and I'm glad. I'm glad that they text me, I'm glad that they asked me.
Speaker 2:I'm honored. I'm honored.
Speaker 3:I'm always honored that they would. They would reach out and ask me. I don't get mad at those folks. You know they're doing what I tell all my listeners to do Find somebody you trust and, when it comes to some of these things where you don't know the answer, reach out to them. Ask them what they recommend when it comes to these things. So today's podcast we're addressing election anxiety and we're going to talk specifically about why aren't we fearful and should we be, and we're going to ask how do we not be anxious and how to be politically active without being anxious.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a good question. It's a perfect question.
Speaker 3:Those are what we're going to specifically talk about today, because, let's just be completely honest, the state of the United States of America right now is not overly appealing, and it's not overly appealing to you or to myself, and so it's very unsettling. Yes. So we would not say that we don't have any concerns at all and that it doesn't concern us this upcoming election and the result, whatever the results may be, but we aren't anxious and fearful.
Speaker 2:That's good, that's good.
Speaker 3:So we can be concerned, we can be active and we're going to talk about those things, but we should not be anxious or fearful. So how? Why aren't we? Why are we not? Let me ask you a question Are you afraid? Are you fearful? Ms Hannah, I am not. You're not. I am not, but I do recognize that that is my general attitude towards life. I don't have a lot of anxiety. I'm not an anxious person.
Speaker 2:Why not?
Speaker 3:Why not? Well, a lot of it has to do with, well, my upbringing, but spiritually and where I'm at with the Lord, I do think there's a personality aspect about it. I think some people are just more prone to anxieties.
Speaker 2:I have patients who are prone to anxiety, and then I have others who are like a rock.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I tend to swing the other direction.
Speaker 2:You're like your mother. Your mother does not get anxious, she's not a fearful person. I mean, we've had two special needs boys, they've had heart surgeries and I've observed your mother in life and your mother doesn't cry, she doesn't fret, she doesn't sweat, she doesn't get anxious. That's her personality type. Okay, so I accept the fact that there are spectrums and what's the word? I'm looking at Continuum.
Speaker 3:Yes, there's a continuum.
Speaker 2:There's a continuum of personality types.
Speaker 3:But that doesn't totally determine it and I know this is where you're going with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:Because every believer can be rock solid spiritually when it comes to fear and anxiety.
Speaker 2:Because the Bible says maybe not a thousand times, but close to it do not fear. Do not be afraid. I challenge our listeners to go through your Bible and look up how many times the scripture tells you and me do not be afraid. Do not fear. Do not look anxiously about you, because it is God himself who challenges us, who commands us to not be afraid. And do not look anxiously about you Even when there's an election hanging in the balance and your favorite candidate, who you think is going to make everything right politically in America, may not win.
Speaker 3:That's right, you know. It's because we know who holds the future.
Speaker 4:That's it.
Speaker 3:And you know, matthew 10, 28 tells us do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And there's plenty of verses that we know. You know that. You know, are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. You know that he knows every hair on our head. He has them numbered. So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.
Speaker 3:But the overall point here, my point being that we need to have an eternal view and recognize that we as human beings, that the world, that the United States in the world, this life, is a vapor compared to the eternal souls of men and God's kingdom. And so when we have ourselves rightly placed in the history of all humanity, in God's great plan that he has written out, we're able to say, yeah, we might be living in some tumultuous times here, but the reality is is that my soul, my eternal soul, is as steady as a rock because it is held in the hand of our creator, god. That's right.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. Listen to Isaiah 41.10. The Bible says the prophet Isaiah says do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. I remember the first time I read that as a college student, and I meditated on that verse for the longest time and then I wrote it down on the index card and I memorized it because I knew that was a pivotal verse and that, as an anxious college student, fretting over my exams and realizing that I had to make good grades to get into medical school, that I had to get my heart fixed on that truth that God was with me, that he was upholding me with his righteous right hand, that I did not need to be afraid of the future. And that was just exams.
Speaker 2:The bigger picture is that God is in control of empires and nations and world history and there's nothing that happens on this planet from the time Adam and Eve were in the garden until the denouement of all of time in history that is not first sifted through the all-knowing and all-loving hands of Almighty God and all loving hands of Almighty God, everything happens. Not a sparrow falls to the ground that he doesn't know it, not a hair falls from your head that he doesn't know it. He knows everything about every king, every president, every premier, every potentate, every dictator, every tyrant. He knows everything about everything that happens in every kingdom, every empire, and he's in control of everything that happens on planet Earth. And he knows about this election. He knows everything. He knows who's going to vote and who's not going to vote. He knows who's going to cheat and who's not going to vote. He knows who's going to cheat and who's not going to cheat. He knows everything about the electoral college and how it's going to happen in the United States in 2024.
Speaker 2:And do not be afraid, do not look anxiously about you. Our God is a sovereign God and he's in control of everything. And I don't need to be afraid. There've been a lot of elections and there's been a lot of swings and sways in empires and dynasties all throughout history, and many times the thing that was good and right did not happen, but yet God used it to make things happen, ultimately the way he wanted it to happen. So don't be afraid, don't fret, don't sweat, just trust in the Lord.
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Speaker 3:Well, and it's two things here. One is the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men in the nations. That's the one point we're trying to make, and the second is the sovereignty of God over the hearts of man.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Because you see, if your heart is firmly in the Lord, if your soul is written down in the Lamb's book of life, then what are we to worry about? You know, psalms 27, 13 through 14 says I am still confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What a word.
Speaker 4:Wait for the Lord.
Speaker 3:It continues. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. I will say this again, let me read it again I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. How can we say that? Because my name is written down in the Lamb's book of life and no matter what happens and that's why Christians who are in China being persecuted, those in North Korea who are persecuted, those in all of human history, when they're in chains, they're persecuted, they're beaten, they're starved and their physical outlook is so dire.
Speaker 2:They say this.
Speaker 3:I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living because their name is written down in the land's book of life.
Speaker 3:And so we have to come at this kind of two pronged, knowing that you know what God is sovereign over the affairs of men and over the nations and the kings and kingdoms. He's also he's sovereign over my soul and he's written my name down in the land's book of life. And if you're sitting there and you're thinking I don't, I'm not confident in that, then I would beseech you to come to the Lord, put your faith in the Lord and take, take time to make that happen before it. Pause this podcast and make that happen, because that's ultimately where doing away with the fear and the anxiety that's what it comes down to is knowing that our souls, your soul, is held in the hand of the Lord God.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right, exactly right. Philippians 4, 6, and 7 talks about how God gives us a peace that passes understanding. We commit everything to him that he imparts to us a peace that passes all understanding. And it's up to us to learn how to trust in God and when we trust him with our life, with our finances, our future, our family, when we trust him even with the elections.
Speaker 2:You know, there's just some things in life over which we have no control and we have to give to God the big things in life and really you have to give him the little things because, truthfully, there's so many things in life over which I have little to no control and I have to give those things to God and trust him that he will control and take care of the issues of my life, and that includes this election. There's no reason for me to be anxious about the election because, no matter which way it goes, god is still in control and he's still able to accomplish his eternal purpose in my life and in the life of this nation, because he sits on the throne of the universe. Heaven is his throne and earth is his footstool. And once I have that perspective, then I can sit back and I can relax. I don't have to fret or worry about the outcome of this election, because I understand that heaven is his throne, earth is his footstool and he's able to accomplish his eternal purpose regardless of the outcome of this election.
Speaker 3:Well, and that kind of moves us into that next area, that next category that I wanted to talk about today, our next bullet point, I guess, so to speak. And how do we not be anxious? And first of all, well, we just go to the book of Romans, which is be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, if you're finding yourself, if you are finding yourself full of anxiety, and your mind is just, you know, it's like a toilet bowl, you know it just swirls and swirls, and swirls and swirls, and it just goes down and down and down and down and down, until you're in the miry pit and you're mentally just in the dark and in a dank place that you don't want to be in. And Romans tells us be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so well, what does that mean? Okay, that's all well and good. How do I renew my mind in regards to anxiety?
Speaker 3:Well, we're going to put our counseling hat on that's what I like to say on my podcast and we're going to apply scripture to our thought life. And one of the verses that I like to go to the most is, following the verses that you just mentioned, philippians 4, 6 through 7. Let's go to Philippians 8. You're all familiar with it. What does it say? Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Wait a minute, dwell on these things. So, when we're going to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, the scripture also tells us in Philippians 4, 8, these are the kinds of things that we should be thinking about. And we know that fear and anxiety are not of the Lord, and so he's not going to tell us to think about things that are going to produce fear and anxiety. And we know these are the things he said to talk about, to think about.
Speaker 3:And the very first one, this is the one that I come to the most when I'm talking to folks who are struggling with the fear, the anxieties, because anxiety is when we start thinking about what could be, what may be. It's usually futuristic, it's making assumptions about the future and about things that could happen. And you know, what stops all of those things in its tracks is Is it true? Do you know? 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt? No questions, you can't. Nothing in the future is for sure, because you don't know the future and so you can't say I mean, there might be a 99.9% chance that what you think. But you know what. We still have a sovereign God who works miracles, and who works miracles in the affairs of men, and so we can't look at things that we're anxious about that are in the future and say, well, yeah, it's definitely for sure, true?
Speaker 3:It's going to happen because we can't read the future.
Speaker 3:We can only know what is true by what has already happened. And the Word of God, that's right. Those are the things that you can look at 100% reliably and say, well, this did happen. You know, yesterday I had a hot dog for lunch. So that's 100% true, I know what happened. And then the Word of God that's right, true, I know what happened. And then the word of God, because we have a because of who our God is he's a keeper of his word, a faithful God, a true and loving God. So all of those things you know.
Speaker 3:When you start feeling yourself kind of going down the toilet bowl of thought life as far as anxieties and all of that thinking about the future, I dare you write it out on a little note card, write this little verse Philippians 4, 8, out on a note card. And every time I start, whip that note card out and start reading through it and start thinking about well, what is true? Well, what do I know about the Lord? What is true about the Lord? What is true about the fact that he holds kings and kingdoms in His hands, whatever's honorable, whatever is right? And you just start going through the list and you know what you can do? You can write little bullet points underneath it to remind yourself of what is true, what is honorable, what is lovely. Train your mind. You transform your mind to stop going down the toilet bowl and go back to the things that are that the Lord wants us to be thinking about All right.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you one last question before we have to wrap it up. How can people be politically active without being overwhelmed with anxiety?
Speaker 3:Sure, because we don't want them to be politically inactive. You know, we kind of broached on it a little bit earlier. Folks being kind of living all the time and you telling folks, look, you just need to turn the radio off, you need to get off the social media, the news outlets, you need to do all that. So if we're saying that to folks but yet at the same time we're asking them to be politically active and to be engaged, are we talking out of both sides of our mouths?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so. And here's the answer in my mind is people have to be balanced. I always challenge people to live a balanced Christian life. For example, I tell people if you knew that Jesus was coming back in four weeks, what would you do differently? And people oftentimes say well, oh my goodness, I'd go tell all my friends that Jesus is coming. They need to get their life right with the Lord.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 2:I say wrong answer, because if you're living a balanced Christian life, I wouldn't change anything I'm doing. I would just keep on plotting. I would keep on doing the things that I do every day because I try to live a balanced Christian life. I have a plan. I make disciples, I share the gospel, I worship the Lord and I would continue to do that till the very end. And I wouldn't have to cram.
Speaker 2:Remember how people would cram in college and they would not study until the very night before the exam and they would cram all night long. That's foolishness. When I was in college, my dad taught me this. He said, son, you study every day, so then on the night before the exam you just go out and eat pizza and drink Coke and go to bed early. And I did that a lot in college because I was balanced and I studied in advance. Well, if I knew Jesus was coming back in four weeks, I wouldn't have to change anything. Because I have a balanced Christian life, balanced with Christian ministry, balanced with my family, balanced with my medical career, I wouldn't have to change much. Well, now the election's coming up in just a few weeks, what do I need to be doing?
Speaker 3:Well, there's the other side of it. You know, you're saying we say don't cram so, and this is the folks who they don't pay attention. They don't pay a lick of attention all through, you know, for three and a half years, well, for three years and 10 months, you know, and then all of a sudden, a couple of days before something is going to happen politically, they're, you know, looking around on the internet and trying to fight. So you've got those folks. And then you've got folks who marinate in it day in and day out all the time.
Speaker 2:That's right, yep.
Speaker 3:And I would say to those don't do that either.
Speaker 2:And they stink politically.
Speaker 3:Well, and a lot, yeah, and a lot of them are, they are very anxious, and so those are the two ends of this kind of continuum that you have that I would say don't fall in either one of those camps You've got to be balanced.
Speaker 3:You have to be balanced. Find somewhere you know that you trust you can go to and read that newspaper or that magazine, listen to those podcasts, do whatever it is, and on a semi regular basis, and that way you just slowly drip, drip, drip, drip information into your brain. And that way you're ready. You don't have to cram but you're not so marinated in it all that you're anxious and you know live you're. You're just like on caffeine all the time Cause you.
Speaker 3:That's right you don't want to be either one of those, and it will really behoove you if you find reliable sources that you can go to in the meantime and be balanced in it.
Speaker 2:That's right. All right, ms Hannah. We're running out of time and I appreciate this talk about election anxiety, and I hope that our listeners will understand how they can have a peace in their heart that passes all understanding by trusting in the sovereignty of God, abiding in the word and abiding in prayer, and living a balanced Christian life, but also a balanced family life and a balanced political life.
Speaker 3:Thanks to everyone for listening and joining us today.
Speaker 2:And it's always an honor to have Ms Hannah on More Than Medicine. Thanks, Dad All right, we'll see you next week and until then, may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
