Anxiety is my tormentor. It comes when I feel like I’m losing or have lost control of a situation. In years past I, while I was still drinking, control was my friend. Or so I thought. So now when a sense of losing control hits me I get anxious. The thing is my anxiety does nothing for me. What it does is put me on edge and makes me irritable. I get nothing positive from my bouts with anxiety. I’m not talking about normal stress. I’m talking about anxiety that shuts me down. At times I even stop talking to people in an attempt to regain control. Truth is, I control very little in this life.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, “What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun?” (V 2:22). So what do you get from anxiety? Where does all your anxious striving lead you. I can speak to where it leads me, and it’s never a good place to be. It’s destructive and disruptive to everyday life. It also has a negative impact on our physical body. My anxiety brings tenseness throughout my entire body. I can literally feel my muscles tense up. So what I get is a body so tense I can’t sit still. It also disrupts my relationships because I stop communicating. Anxiety torments our soul.
The answer to the question is “nothing.” We get absolutely nothing from our anxious striving. At least nothing positive. My anxiety is the fear of losing control. What drives your anxiety? There is something driving it, and we need to know what it is if we are going to have any chance of overcoming it. It’s a hard road. But one we must take. I don’t think my anxiety will ever completely go away, but with the help of Jesus, I can limit its effect on me. I lessen the grip anxiety has by giving control over to the one who is ultimately in control of all things, Jesus. Next time anxiety grips you ask yourself, “What do I get for all my anxious striving?”
Add comment
Comments