I was in my little local, quaint post office earlier today. It’s made of brick and has gorgeous maple trees out front. During Christmas, they set-out a red metal mailbox marked “North Pole.” Been that way forever. A lot of my friends have spent their entire working careers there.

A story I just read, though, claims that the U.S. Postal Service may go “belly up” early next year. With losses of $11 billion this year, and the ol’ checkbook almost out of money, things look dire. Of the Service’s 635,000 employees, perhaps 220,000 of them would lose their jobs by 2015, anyway…provided the doors are still open.

We wonder how our world got this way, don’t we? I have a stack of booklets written by a local postmaster, who served a small rural community eons ago—beginning in the 1930’s. How quaint his recollections are today! Taking mail on horseback. Visiting at the counter with customers who were really friends and family. Fred was a real character.

I wonder if those days are soon gone. Like many of you, I’m a creature of habit, of routine. I love routine. I wish I could live my life if it would include periodic trips to the post office, especially at Christmas when I could put in a letter to Santa.

But what do we do when the old ways die? The familiar? What do we do when our world is turned upside-down and nothing makes sense anymore? One day you’re going to the post office like you’ve done since A.D. 46, and the next minute an earthquake threatens to make Japan extinct. Or Greece can’t pay its bills, and your local banker says that might end up affecting you and me.

I have two pieces of advice, unsolicited—already noted. In order of importance:

•Take a walk outside if you can. The terrors that we face as adults, moving through this strange new world, well, they don’t seem nearly so formidable if we breathe fresh air. The Bible says that God gives us even the breathe in our bodies; we should be grateful for that.

I am a firm believer now in the power of positive thinking, albeit not the Peale/Schuller kind, necessarily. Rather, at the end of the day, when everything else we could rely on has burned away, there are simple realities and blessings we can enjoy and milk for all they’re worth. A walk through the trees and meadows, or even down a small-town sidewalk can reinvigorate us. I highly recommend it. And, remember, if you are facing bankruptcy or health problems, so are many others. At least you’re not alone.

•The second (and most important) bit of advice is to call on the name of the Lord. This is what we learn that the ancients did, from the Bible. He always heard them in their distress.

As I like to say, God will hear anyone: a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, even an atheist. Part of the biblical story is that He has mercy on us, the sometimes-pitiful creatures that are made in His image—spirit.

If you can, try these things. And, if you can again, let me know how it goes for you, will you?