Anxiety Antidote

The fear fac­tor in the Bible is rather con­stant. In sum­mary, all human attempts to deal with real­ity end in some sort of cat­a­stro­phe. The great­est kings become the biggest fools. Armies turn in on them­selves. Peace at any level is short-lived. In the midst of death and taxes Jesus is born.

The Chris­t­ian story is not one of seek­ing nir­vana or falling into escapist ide­olo­gies. It is the brave pur­suit of truth that looks all fears in the eye and pro­gresses for­ward. That progress is not for some social con­quest. It is grounded in the real­iza­tion that “noth­ing can sep­a­rate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” Nothing!

Con­fi­dence is in short sup­ply these days. It was pre­dicted a cen­tury and a half ago that the age of anx­i­ety would be long and take its toll on the human spirit. That era con­tin­ues, but there are some that have been able to spin it to their own spir­i­tual advan­tage. These are the ones that rec­og­nize anx­i­ety as a poten­tial teacher within.

Our anx­i­eties look for a place to go. Some attach them to pol­i­tics. Oth­ers attach them to health issues or fam­ily con­cerns. The best thing to do is to see anx­i­ety for what it is: the test of soul in the arena of faith. Jesus had his anx­i­eties (that he had to solve in the Gar­den of Geth­se­mane). He was not some aloof leader — insu­lated from real life by some entourage. Quite the oppo­site! He died pretty much aban­doned by his cir­cle of fol­low­ers and friends.

Con­cerns are a part of liv­ing on this planet. Being fran­tic is not a require­ment. We have our lesser moments, but we are able to even­tu­ally “be anx­ious about nothing” — as Paul put it. Bap­tism is the sym­bol of dying ahead of time so we can live with all of the con­fi­dence in the world. It is not arro­gance but tran­scen­dence that is the anti­dote to anxiety.