Today is Panic Day!

It’s official. Today you have permission to lock yourself in your room, grab your security blanket or favorite stuffed animal, and stay in bed until tomorrow. It’s Panic Day!

So what sends you into panic mode? A huge math test? Getting that book report done by next week? Maybe the idea of speaking in front of the class makes your hands start to sweat and puts your stomach in knots.

Whatever it is, we all face situations in which our first instinct is to hit the panic button. Tom Roy certainly knows. The Pennsylvania native came up with the idea of Panic Day in memory of his own panic attacks as a young actor. While he submitted the idea of this holiday as a joke, many people take this holiday all too seriously. Roy says, “Every year someone calls me and asks, ‘Did you create Panic Day because of all the stuff that’s going on in the world right now?’”

Good question. There’s plenty to read about or hear in the news to make anyone panic. At times events are enough to convince anyone that the world is out of control. You may even feel that way when you are forced to move because of a job transfer or when a loved one gets sick or when parents divorce. Life very quickly can go haywire.

So what can you do panic begins to bubble up? First of all, remember who is in control. As the psalm-writer reminds us: “But the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven. He watches everything closely, examining everyone on earth” (Psalm 11:4). Nothing happens to you that God does not know about or see. Trust him to care and guide you whenever panic hits.

I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the Lord, do all these things (Isaiah 45:7, New International Version.

To Do

Find out what puts your friends or family members into a panic. Remind them of who is in control.

Also on this day . . .

Today is Barbie’s birthday!

1562—Kissing in public was banned in Naples (punishable by death).

1788—Connecticut became the fifth state in the U.S.

1858—Albert Potts of Philadelphia patented the street mailbox.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.