What I Do When I’m Anxious
Reminding myself of the eternal story
Photo by Tim Gouw: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-white-shirt-using-macbook-pro-52608/
(A three-minute read.)
I’m going to be brief today. I’m in the thick of writing a paper for my doctoral work, with a deadline bearing down on me, in addition to preparing for a weekend trip to Alaska (on that, see below) in a few days. So I figured I’d just share a quick thought today about how I deal with anxiety.
I’ve been meaning to share some reflections on this for a while, and I mentioned it briefly in my sermon this last Saturday.
But it’s really quite simple: whenever I get anxious about something, I just take myself to “worst-case scenario” and then ask myself, “So what?” I then remind myself that I’m a part of a bigger, eternal story, and all that really matters, at the end of the day, is that eternal story.
That calms my anxieties and relativizes everything else.
As an example: if a parishioner criticizes me for something and I start getting anxious about my ministry, I just say to myself, “I could lose my job and be fired, but so what? I’m in a bigger, eternal story—and so long as I’m tight with Jesus, that’s all the really matters.”
Simply put, I remind myself of transcendence.
This may sound silly. It may sound juvenile and shallow.
It may sound a bit escapist as well—like I can just detach from reality and pretend that nothing in this world matters.
But it actually has the opposite effect on me.
It helps me deal with reality in a way that isn’t codependent.
Instead of hustling to think I have to fix everything myself so people can be happy with me (which often doesn’t lead to healthy outcomes for anyone), I can bring my full self to a situation, realizing that failing wouldn’t define me—since failure would simply be an episode and not a destiny or identity.
Thus, I could fail at parenting, marriage, ministry, writing, my PhD studies—whatever—and it wouldn’t ultimately matter.
I could lose my wife, my children, my job, my reputation, my money—for any reason (whether self-inflicted or externally-induced)—yet I wouldn’t have really lost anything, since I’d still have Jesus.
It’s sort of like Paul, writing to the Philippians, who said that he considered everything else in life—even his religious accomplishments—to be as “garbage” compared to knowing Jesus.
And so it is with me. I’m living in a bigger, eternal story—with Jesus at the center—so that relativizes everything else, undermining my anxiety.
Again, all this may sound naïve and childish.
It may also sound dismissive and simplistic—or that I’m reaching for easy religious cliches, or “toxic positivity,” that bypasses legitimate anxiety that needs to be dealt with (rather than being suppressed).
That could be the case at times, I’m sure. But I don’t think that’s what I’m talking about here.
To be sure, there are myriad other factors that lead to anxiety (genetics or trauma or many other things), which need to also be attended to.
But at least in these types of situations I’m talking about, doing a little Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—reminding myself of the eternal story I’m living in—goes a long way in lowering my blood pressure, quieting my spirit, and not allowing anxiety to overwhelm me.
Perhaps you may find it helpful as well.
As noted above, I’ll be heading to Alaska this week for a quick trip. I’ll be speaking over the weekend in Palmer.
That reminded me that there are times when I go speak in places without realizing—or remembering—that some of my newsletter subscribers/readers reside in those places, thus missing an opportunity to connect.
So I’ll try to be better about giving you a heads up about that.
I try to limit my “speaking appointments” outside my own “parish,” but here are some occasions over the next ten months or so when I’ll be speaking elsewhere (as always, you’re more than welcome to come worship with me and my congregation every other Saturday morning at 11am at my church in Freeport, Maine):
November 1-2: Palmer Seventh-day Adventist Church—Palmer, Alaska
April 17-21: Victorian Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Big Camp—Victoria, Australia
July 18-19: Alberta Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Camp Meeting—Alberta, Canada
If you’re around any of these places, come on by and say “hi”!
Shawn is a pastor in Portland, Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram, and listen to his podcast Mission Lab.
This message was timely more than you know.
Helpful. Thank you, Shawn. Have a good trip, and, as always, thank you for engaging. You are a blessing.