Blog by Alan Fadling

Two weeks ago, I shared three faces of anxiety based on ways I’ve come to recognize it and address it in my own experience. Today we’ll look at the other three faces of anxiety I alluded to there.

Anxiety is like (1) a broken warning light and (2) an attempt at time travel, and it functions much like (3) a conspiracy theory.

A Broken Warning Light 

Gem and I have worked in the nonprofit world most of our adult lives. For nearly twenty years, I served on the staff of a local church as a youth pastor, college pastor, family pastor, or some other associate pastoral position. Since 1998, we’ve served religious nonprofit organizations focused on spiritual formation and leadership development—most recently our eight years under the umbrella of Unhurried Living.

Nonprofits are largely funded by the generous donations of faithful partners, and one kind of donation we received in the early years of our work was used vehicles. They were usually older model cars in their last season of life—and our family would often be driving one of those vehicles.

One day, the red check engine light came on when one of our sons was driving. We took the old car to our mechanic to have him figure out what was wrong. A few days later, he called to say that he’d run every diagnostic he could think of, but nothing resolved the engine light. His opinion was that the computer itself was malfunctioning and that replacing it on such an old vehicle was not worth the cost.

He recommended that for as long as we owned the car, we simply continue driving it with that light stuck on. We’d just have to get used to a warning light that was wrong.

I think the red-light indicator of my own habitual anxiety is like that check engine light. It comes on, often stays on, and warns me of some major problem that may not even exist. It claims to be warning me of a problem, but it may itself be the problem.

Attempting Time Travel 

My anxiety rarely has me living in the present moment. It wants me to use the present to worry about the past or about the future.

Anxiety has me ruminating about something that has already happened, or it projects doomsday scenarios about what will probably happen in the near or distant future. In other words, anxiety invites me to do the impossible: time travel.

I can’t relive a past moment. I can’t live a future moment in advance. I can only live in the present. Grace and peace are only present to me here and now. And anxiety doesn’t much like that sort of security or well-being. It much prefers that I live insecure and in a scarcity mindset. But that’s just not what the kingdom of God is like.

Anxiety also pretends to be a prophet predicting the future. But as many times as anxiety has gotten things wrong, it’s clearly a false prophet. It’s a good thing I’m learning to turn my attention away from the frantic advice of anxiety and instead turn it toward the peaceful counsel of Jesus.

A Conspiracy Theory 

A conspiracy theory is rooted in how enticing it is to have inside knowledge that most other people don’t have. We know something most people don’t know! Any evidence that supports the conspiracy is trusted and embraced. Any evidence that contradicts the theory is rejected as part of the conspiracy.  

Anxiety does that. It claims to have evidence about how bad the future will be. An unpleasant surprise in the present will inevitably lead to disastrous outcomes if we don’t frantically worry and ruminate and find a way to take control of the future. (The fact that such control isn’t actually possible doesn’t seem to deter anxiety much.)

The love of God, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit breaks into these constrictive conspiracy loops and frees us to live in peace and well-being. Anxiety boasts great wisdom, but anxiety is wrong on so many counts. Here are a few statements that are much more true:

Jesus will never leave me and will never desert me.

I have a Good Shepherd who is always with me. I am not going to find myself in a situation of desperate want. Goodness and mercy are going to follow me every step of the path ahead.

That same Good Shepherd will provide for me even in the presence of my enemies.

No conspiracy theory of anxiety can do any of these things for me.

These six faces of anxiety have been a helpful way of right-sizing its presence in my life. I’ve learned that Jesus really is right about how unproductive and unhelpful my anxious worry is. I have a Father in heaven who cares for me even more than he cares for the creation that surrounds me. I am special because I belong to him.

Bad things will happen, but I am never alone in them. God is always with me, even when I struggle to discern his presence. Anything I could do driven by anxiety, I could do a lot better led by peace.

For Reflection:

• What roles has anxiety played in your own journey? When has it driven you? When has it hindered or even blocked you? How would you like to talk with Jesus about this?