"Anxiety Is Not Just a Problem, but an Opportunity."
If we think of anxiety as "bad/wrong", we can miss out on what it's trying to tell us.
Anxiety, like anger, is often understood to be a “bad” or “wrong” emotion. In some churches to admit one’s struggles with anxiety is to expose an insufficient faith and trust in God. After all, if someone had total faith and trust in God, wouldn’t ground-level anxieties disappear?
How you answer that question will be largely determined by what you believe anxiety to be, and how trust in God is supposed to express itself—especially when it comes to internal struggles and tensions.
In Philippians 4:6-7 we read:
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
There is a way to read this passage that can make dealing with our anxiety seem simple and straightforward: just pray about it! And while prayer is absolutely essentially to effectively combating the anxiety that can well up within us, understanding how to effectively pray into our anxiety requires wisdom and discernment regarding what anxiety is and what it reveals to us.
Anxiety has become a fixture in our culture’s conversations around mental health and wellness. And I’ve been tracking with several trusted Christian voices I believe are speaking both insightfully and biblically into this issue. I do this to better understand how anxiety manifests itself in my life, and how to face it effectively. And I do this to better support those who live with anxiety and are looking for ways to approach their anxiety with faith and hope.
Here are two reflections on anxiety that recently came my way. I found both of them helpful, encouraging, and thought-provoking.
First up is theologian and podcaster Curtis Chang, who himself suffers from chronic anxiety. In this short video he challenges the assumption that anxiety is the enemy and offers an alternative framework for approaching fears.
Next up is a great prayer and reflection prompt from Bill and Kristi Gaultiere (@soulsphepherding on Instagram). Their approach compliments Change’s, inviting us to move beyond simply “managing” our anxiety, to welcoming it as something to be leveraged for greater self-awareness, insight, and spiritual reformation.