By Brian Nixon —
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know we are in troubling times.
Political unrest. Environmental changes. Natural disasters. Human rights violations. War and famine. AI. Migration. The list could go on.
There’s nothing novel about the above list; history has seen similar convergences (think the Middle Ages with the plague, migration, environmental changes, continual war, or the Great Depression with economic and environmental crises). But—like many times in history—there seems to be a merging of many factors in our contemporary culture, creating widespread anxiety.
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), people in 2025 continue to have deep anxiety, triggering mental health issues. The APA released a poll that revealed “two-thirds of Americans are anxious about current events happening around the world.”[1] That’s a lot of anxious people.
How do we handle anxiety? There are several ways. The Mayo Clinic offers some well-rounded advice: Avoid alcohol and drugs, eat right, identify the trigger, keep physically active, and the like.[2]
Christians would add to the list: pray, study scripture, serve others, and be light and salt in a dark world. For as the poet William Stafford reminds us, “The darkness around us is deep.”
I’ll add another way: Look to people that have flourished during furious times. Find in them a means to cope during chaos.
One such person was Japanese author, minister, and poet, Toyohiko Kagawa.
Born in Kobe, Japan in 1888, Kagawa saw tremendous change and turmoil in his lifetime: Widespread poverty in Japan, military unrest, natural disaster (1923 earthquake), war, and the dropping of two nuclear bombs in his homeland.
As a Christian, he spoke out against injustice—causing conflict with religious people as well as secularists. Kagawa put it this way: “It seemed that everyone was attacking me – the Soviet Communists, the anarchists, the capitalists, the foul-mouthed literary critics, the sensationalist newspaper men, the Buddhist who could not compete with Christ, and those many Christians who profess Christ but believe in a Christianity which is sterile.”
For all his activities, he ended up in jail several times. But the bars couldn’t hold him back. In his poem “If Only There are Stars,”* he writes:
So can I steal
This lovely light
That wraps me—
This radiance
That drips
Out of the Dipper.
Dragging my chains
I climb
To the tall window-ledge;
And though
My body cannot crawl
Between those grim iron rods,
Still can I
Laugh as my spirit flies
Into the purple skies!
In his lifetime, Kagawa wrote over one-hundred books, was nominated for the Noble Prize in Literature as well as the Nobel Peace Prize. As importantly, he provided solutions on how to help heal various crises: environmental, human rights (woman suffrage), nuclear war, and political expansion. He’s as current a thinker as they come.
Kagawa died in 1955 after collapsing with a heart condition and grueling schedule of preaching, projects, and peace work. After spending time off and on in the hospital, Kagawa went to be with the Lord on April 23. His last words to his wife and people gathered around him were: “Please do your best for world peace and the church in Japan.”
From his lips he encouraged others to seek peace: The peace of Christ and peace for the world.
There are other people Christians can look to in times of trouble, models on how to navigate the negativity in the world. Do so.
But remember Kagawa’s counsel: seek Christ’s peace in pestilence and pain. “Climb” from the prison towards calm. Take the “lovely light” of Christ, wrap yourself in it, letting the “radiance” drip from you as a witness. And though a jail may engulf you, show the joy of laughter, releasing the delight like stars in the sky.
*Kagawa’s poetic excerpt is from his book Songs From the Slums, 1935. I’m pleased to own a copy signed by Kagawa and Bridgewater College President, Paul H. Bowman, inscribed in 1936. Bridgewater is a Church of the Brethren institution.
[1] https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/annual-mental-health-poll-2025
[2] https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/11-tips-for-coping-with-an-anxiety-disorder
