Addictive Worry

These are worrying times.

You may be worrying for any number of big, collective reasons: the economy, unemployment, loss of savings or evaporating retirement funds, election outcomes, international tensions or war. Just one of these things is enough to keep you tossing and turning through the night - but all of them at once?

Or you might be worrying over more personal matters. Maybe the economic downturn has hit home (a recession is where other people lose their jobs; a depression is where you lose yours). Maybe you're dealing with a health crisis, or marital or family troubles.

These all qualify as rough patches, trials, tribulations. We like to use these terms to give our problems context. These little catch-phrases give us hope and reassurance us that our trials are only temporary - we’ll get through it - better days are ahead - every cloud has a silver lining - it’s darkest just before the dawn - we're building character - what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. No matter what their faith, nearly all humans rely on such aphorisms to encourage themselves and each other.

Christians, of course, ought to be better equipped than other folks to cope with life's turbulence. We can see how adversity is an opportunity to trust in Christ living in us. When we are weak, then we are strong spiritually in union with Christ (2 Corinthians 12:10). Even if we Christians don't get out of our trials alive, we have the assurance of life eternal. It seems therefore that Christians should be confident in any situation - good times or bad (Philippians 4:11-13).

But such is not always the case. I wonder if some Christians are in a perpetual state of worry - by their own choice. As if the world didn't offer enough to worry about, whether or not we have any real causes for anxiety, we invent more. If life doesn't offer us enough affliction, we will find some way to afflict ourselves. I believe some of us are actually more comfortable living this way, for reasons that psychologists might have a better grasp of. Suffice it to say that this may be similar to the spouse who returns to an abusive relationship - or the person who leaves one abusive religious group only to join another.

What are some things Christians needlessly worry over?

THE PAST. Everyone has a story. In some circles it’s called a testimony – an often tedious tale about all the stuff we went through and all the mistakes we made and the sinful lives we led before coming to Christ. The problem is that some of us continue to live in the past. While we may have to bear the physical fallout from some big mistakes - the past is over and done with. Jesus’ work on the cross took care of all this so that we can move on. With Paul, we need to "forget what is behind" (Philippians 3:13) that we may "gain Christ" and be "found in him" (Philippians 3:8-9).

THE FUTURE. I understand this one well because I lived under the expectation that the sky was falling for many years. Riots, war, famine, disease epidemics and economic collapse were always right around the corner. Of course all these things have happened in my lifetime, but anticipating them happening all at once does something to one’s mind. You become paralyzed in planning and preparing for the future - you don't think long-term - at best you live from year to year - or survive from day to day. Though you may push it to the back of your mind, you live in the grip of fear. This is one of the most spiritually toxic examples of addictive worry.

THE PRESENT. Christians ask themselves: "Am I in God's will? How can I know God's will for me? What does God want me to do? Is God pleased with me? Am I doing all I can? Am I growing and overcoming enough? Am I witnessing enough? Am I raising my kids correctly? Do I have a right attitude about everything? Why am I not experiencing a breakthrough? If I work hard enough and if I'm disciplined enough, I ought to live a blissful, problem-free existence because Jesus said so."

Or did He? In fact Jesus did not promise us a rose garden in this life (Luke 14:27). But misinformed Christians who expect otherwise are continually striving, obsessing and worrying over their shortcomings. The more rigorous this process is, the more headway they feel they are making. In its extreme form, this notion becomes asceticism, where people seek affliction, suffering and pain, believing that it will make them better, eliminate sin or draw them closer to God. While millions of Christians have lived this way, the idea has its origin with pagan gods and goddesses whose anger must be expiated by human suffering - a sick, Christ-less idea that lies at the heart of all legalistic religion.

When Christians get sidetracked with these concerns, pastors and teachers can help - to instruct, reassure and comfort worried believers that their salvation is secure. But instead, like pouring gasoline on an already blazing fire of stress and anxiety, some pastors and teachers use this situation to leverage behaviors that will benefit them and their religious institutions. They harangue believers to serve more, pray more, pay more, give more, study more, and fellowship more. They do this not only in church services, but in a continuous avalanche of books and publications designed to keep believers addicted to worry.

Such un-Christlike teaching may interpret the familiar passage in Matthew 6:25-34, where, faulty interpretation points out, Jesus tells us to stop worrying about ourselves and worry about spiritual things, i.e. in the case of those who torture this passage for their own ends, "spiritual things" becomes one and the same as their religious institution.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Moving beyond flawed interpretations of this passage, simply taking this passage at face value, indicates that Jesus was talking about anxiety over physical things, and about giving His kingdom first priority. Yet I believe Jesus is saying more here. When Jesus promises that His Father will provide for us, is He guaranteeing us endless food, clothing and shelter for the rest of our physical lives without any effort on our part? Experience and other scriptures tell us this is not what He meant. If we want to eat, be clothed and have shelter, we (or someone else) will have to work for it.

The deeper lesson here has to do with God's spiritual provision - our spiritual food, clothing and shelter. Spiritually, there is absolutely nothing we can do to feed, clothe and house ourselves. For those things, we must rely totally on God through Jesus Christ living in a total union with us. When misguided Christians stew and agonize over their spiritual condition - whether they are working hard enough, overcoming enough, witnessing enough, giving enough, praying enough, etc, etc, etc. - they are worrying about something over which they have no control. As Jesus says, "pagans run after these things," - and in all pagan religions we see people laboring, striving and worrying to make themselves acceptable to their gods. Jesus says, in effect, "Don't be like them. Stop your scurrying around. Stop your addictive worrying. Just sit down and rest. My Father will take care of you. That is why He has placed Me within you giving you His divine nature. And I am not going to leave you." God does for us what we can never do for ourselves.
Do we believe Him?

If we do, that's one less thing to worry over.

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