Anxiety

Part 7 - Good Stress, Bad Stress

We thrive on stress and anxiety. We are bored without it. During Vietnam, vets often volunteered to return. They were addicted to the stress of violence. Home life was too boring. When doctors tell us to avoid stressful situations and anxiety, we hurt. We confuse good stress and bad stress, good concerns and harmful anxiety.

We also may think our stress is unique, our lives are the hardest, our anxieties are the most justified. Nobody has it as bad as I do. Nobody has it as hard as I do. Nobody understands the pressures I have. There is boasting and arrogance in these words. Paul frowns on this kind of talk. "Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also" (2 Corinthians 11:18). Paul lists his hardships (2 Corinthians 11:21-27). He also exclaims, "I speak as if insane" (2 Corinthians 11:23). It is not sane to boast in your hardships. It's extremely self-centered. It takes your eyes off of Christ. It contributes to anxiety.

On the other hand, proper concern and good stress focus us on Christ. "I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches" (2 Corinthians 11:27-28). Apart from the external things of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, how and what I will say, there is "concern [anxiety, worry] for all the churches."

As previously noted, Paul seeks undistracted devotion to God. He wants us to be free of sinful concern. "I want you to be free from concern [worry]. One who is unmarried is concerned [anxious] about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:35). It is good to be concerned about the things of the Lord. In the same way, Paul speaks of "the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches" (2 Corinthians 11:28).

Stress can be good; it motivates us. Concern or anxiety can be good; it prods us to action. Focus must be on Christ. Such focus does not eliminate peripheral vision. Focus on Christ does not eliminate secondary and tertiary needs. Family needs exist. Work needs exist. Christ is primary. "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Our ultimate concern and anxiety should therefore be for the church and the things of God. Paul was pressed to the limit by external circumstances. "We do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead" (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). He was pressed so fully he thought death was the only escape. His only hope was Christ and the resurrection of the dead. Again, note Paul's focus.

The internal pressure Paul experienced was his anxiety over the church. Was this good stress? Christ condemns all other anxieties except concern for things of the Lord and anxiety for the church. Why do we not have the concern, the anxiety, regarding the church we have for other things? Are anxieties over food, clothing, the future, speech, your job, home, children, and relationships pressing you? Your problems are not unique. The very thing about which Jesus warned is overtaking you (Matthew 13:22). Your life needs to be re-focused (Matthew 6:31-33).