Anxiety (2)

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, . .”  Matthew 6:25 ESV

Anxious – Heidegger calls anxiety the manifestation of “homelessness.”  Anxiety is being afraid of things that are not real, things that might happen.  When I am afraid of what might happen, I feel a kind of persistent, “things are not right” emotion.  “What if” thinking riddles my life with dreaded possibilities.   It upsets my focus on the present moment and removes me from life as it is.  Anxiety undermines legitimate care about life.

Care about my life makes me stable.  When I care about my life, I make decisions concerning my present reality.  I am grounded in reality when I make preparations for future events.  I understand that life can take sudden turns and I try to anticipate some of those turns and prepare myself for them.  When I care about my life, I can prepare for some possible catastrophe.  I can start a savings account.  I can pay off a debt.  I can join a neighborhood watch.  I can get a check-up.  I can make a battle plan.  There are lots of things that I can and should do now in preparation because catastrophes are the unavoidable events of living.

Yesterday I had investments.  My future seemed secure.  Today a hurricane destroyed my buildings and my land.  Suddenly my future is in jeopardy.

Yesterday I worked for a huge corporation.  My retirement was assured.  Today the corporation collapsed.  Suddenly my plans are at risk.

Yesterday I was surrounded by soldiers.  My life was protected.  Today I made a wrong turn.  Suddenly my life is threatened.

Every one experiences some form of life catastrophe.  The past does not guarantee the future for us.  Planning contingencies and preparing is essential.  How we react to life’s twists and turns often reveals the fiber of our character.  Hopefully, we learn to go forward, to deal with life as it is.

But this is not the path of anxiety.  Anxiety is not the same as caring about possible catastrophes.  Anxiety keeps me focused on something that is not yet real but makes me act like it is.  This is the reason that Heidegger calls it “homelessness.”  When my life is centered on something that is not yet real, I do not feel at home where I am.  My present is present to me only as an anticipation of something still to come.  I am not at home with my “here and now” because I am caught in the worry about what might be the case later.  All the careful planning in the world cannot diminish my anxiety simply because anxiety is about my powerlessness to control the future, not my ability to react to it.

Yeshua knew the debilitating effects of letting anxiety get a grip on us.  In his conversation recorded in Matthew, he uses a Greek word for anxious (merimnao) that comes from an older Greek word that means “a part or share, a division or selection.”  It is literally the fear that I won’t get my share.  The relationship between “anxiety” and “my share” helps us to see why anxiety is so threatening to our emotional stability.  Anxiety separates us into pieces.  Anxiety divides our spirit into a part that is consumed with dreaded possibilities and a part that is consumed with our powerlessness in the present moment.  Anxiety fractures us by pushing the focus of living into the realm of what is not yet real.  Anxiety is worrying about who will watch out for me.  This is precisely why Yeshua tells us not to be anxious.  Anxiety discounts God’s promise to watch over us.  It is the emotion of disbelief.  When I am anxious, I say to God, “I don’t believe what you promised.  I don’t believe that you will ensure I get my part.”  Anxiety is idolatry.

Yeshua knew that men and women have cares about life.  He knew that living means planning, hoping, preparing, expecting.  But he also knew that allowing the worry about life’s “what if” possibilities to consume our thoughts and actions would reduce us into fractured individuals, constantly in fear of what might come to pass.  Yeshua knew that the root of anxiety is not the possibility of future catastrophes.  It is the fear of being powerless over the future.

“Do not be anxious for your life,” he says.  This advice is useless and ineffective unless we understand why Yeshua exhorted us to let anxiety go.  The Bible recognizes that everyone does care about living.  There is nothing wrong with this.  It is part of being human.  I care about my life and the lives of those I love.  I seek to provide for myself and my loved ones, to protect myself and my loved ones, and to insure these conditions for the future as best as I am able.  Yeshua is not saying to you or to me, “Don’t think a thing about living.  It doesn’t matter.”   He is not saying, “You need to let God take care of everything.  Sit back, relax.”  He is not saying, “It is a sin to be concerned about your future.  Be like the birds.  Cancel your insurance.  Stop looking for a job.  Let God do it all.”  No, he is saying something very different.   He is saying, “Don’t spend your present worrying about your future.  Trust in God’s promise.”

Great!  That’s really helpful.  I know that I shouldn’t worry about my future.  But what I should not do isn’t quite so easy when there are wars, bankruptcies, frauds, and evil men in the world.  Thanks, Yeshua, for reminding me that you lived like a beggar.  But I just can’t see how this is helping me!  And when it comes to Jessica Lynch, how can you possibly tell me that she shouldn’t worry!  Who knows what torment and suffering she endured? Who can even imagine how her life suddenly became a nightmare?  “Please, don’t let anybody leave me.”  That isn’t some petty concern about a retirement fund.  That’s as real as it gets.  Of course she was scared about the future.  What human being wouldn’t be?

If Yeshua were a psychologist, we might take his advice simply because it helps us stay focused with our present lives. Giving up anxiety reduces stress.  It is good physical and psychological medicine.  But it would only be advice.  When life really turns sour, most of us just go back to worrying.

Fortunately, Yeshua is not a first century guru.  He is not just another ancient sage, dispensing wisdom for living.  Jesus is God’s Messianic agent.  He has a deeper perspective on the real issues of living.  He is telling us why anxiety is a killer.  Anxiety, he says, comes from the illusion of control, and illusion that can affect us in many other ways, all of them destructive.  Why am I anxious?  I am anxious because I see my life in the hands of a fate over which I have no control.  I fear something will happen to me that I am powerless to prevent.  With this fear in my soul, I will use my energy to try to gain control over the possibilities that threaten me.  I will focus on the fear that my anxiety produces rather than on the reason I am afraid.

If I fear financial ruin, I will focus on amassing wealth.  Investments, bank accounts, collectibles, stocks, real estate, a diversified portfolio, brokers, insurance.

If I fear physical harm, I will focus on building protection.  Walls, alarms, bodyguards, weapons.

If I fear dying, I will focus on fighting age.  Cosmetic surgery, diets, fashion, denial.

If I fear loneliness, I will focus on seeking partners or escaping reality.

Each one of us can write our own list of the actions we take to keep anxiety at bay.  But Yeshua saw these actions for what they truly represent–the illusion of a desire to control, the belief that faced with powerlessness over my future, I can reshape my present by exerting control over my life in order to prevent the dreaded future from happening.  His response to this futile frenzy shows us a deeper issue in our lives.

The context of Yeshua’s remark is important.  Too often we hear this incredible command out of context.  From the pulpit we are exhorted to stop caring about the details and place it all in God’s hands.  Along with this exhortation comes the suggestion of guilt.  Are you building up a portfolio?  Don’t you know that God wants us to live simply!  Are you installing burglar alarms?  Don’t you know that only God can provide security!

Yeshua says none of this.  His call is about the core of our lives.  He remarks that what we consider the most important things of life will have a direct bearing on how we live our lives.  He shows us that we cannot have two “most important” goals. In particular, we cannot consider our relationship with God the “most important” part of our lives and at the same time act in ways that show we believe that control of our future is chaotic and malicious.  Yeshua says that either we will serve God or we will serve ourselves.  One or the other.  It cannot be both.  After this preface, Yeshua tells us not to be anxious.  He says, “Because of this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life.”

We are told to let anxiety go, not because it is stress reducing, not because it is futile projecting, but because anxiety divides us into serving two masters.  Anxiety disrupts our ability to serve God.  Why?  Because anxiety convinces us that God is not in control.  And if God is not in control, then it is all up to us.

If God is in charge, how can future possibilities cause us fear?  This is not to say that bad things cannot happen.  Of course they can.  In fact, we all know that they do.  But anxiety would have us believe that God is not part of our future, that we are left in the hands of fickle fate set to destroy us.  Anxiety confronts the foundation of our belief because it says that God does not love us.  Yeshua is telling us that we cannot provide for our future on the basis of self-reliance or self-control.   We are not in charge of the universe, not even our own tiny universe.  Life’s events are not within my power to control.  Anxiety is the demon of illusion.  This demon whispers in my ear, “What if God doesn’t care about you?  What if God can’t take care of you?  What if God wants to harm you?  You can’t count on Him, you know.  You will have to take care of yourself.”  So anxiety convinces us that we must do two things – worry about possibilities that have not happened and reshape our present to prevent them from happening.  Emotional disbelief.

Yeshua answers, “Ridiculous!”  First, he says, God is in charge.  Align yourself with Him.  To do so you will have to give up the notion that you have any control over your universe.  Oh, yes, you have complete control over how you respond to your universe.  You have complete freedom of choice about how you react to the inevitable twists and turns of living.  But you cannot prevent life from having twists and turns.  In fact, if God is in control, these twists and turns don’t end up in your life unless they first pass through His hands.  There are no accidents in a universe under God’s control.  You may not like what happens, you may not understand what happens, you may be shocked by what happens, but God knows all this and He still is in charge.  Get rid of the illusion that the future is a raging monster ready at any moment to tear your life to pieces.  Start by re-focusing your mind on the mind of God.  It is His universe and His show.  Once you have settled this issue at the very bottom of your psyche, you will stop listening to the whispers of anxiety because you know they are lies.

Secondly, come to terms with life as it is.  God loves you.  There is no more fundamental fact of existence.  God’s love is the very foundation of all creation.  If you really want to know this, start at the beginning and dig deep.  You will find that God is the Great Hunter; seeking those He loves across time and space to bring them to His home.  Nothing is big enough, scary enough, tough enough to separate God’s love from us.  I can decide not to accept His love for me.  I can decide that I would rather face the future myself.  But that won’t change God’s view or His intention toward me.  So, Yeshua says, come to terms with this:  God’s love is the most powerful force in the universe.  And it is directed toward you.  Stop acting as though the future is out to get you.  Stop listening to anxiety’s siren call.  Place your trust in the only One who will never fail you and let your worry go.

God knows.  God loves.  God cares.  And because God is the sovereign Lord of life, His knowing, loving, and caring mean that your future is under His control.   Now which master will you serve—the one who whispers that you are powerless to prevent the fearful, terrible things that might happen to you or the one who says, “Come unto me all of you who are burdened and I will give you rest”?  Faced with an uncertain future, you are not powerless.  You get to decide whom you will believe.

That is enough to defeat any form of anxiety.  If you let it.

Topical Index: anxiety, fear, powerlessness, control, future, blessing, Matthew 6:25