Final exam.
Presentation.
Project due.
New job.
Moving to a different city.
All of these lead to one common reaction: anxiety.
It often starts of small, a tightness in the gut. Then it begins to spread as the sweat begins to collect on the palms of your hands. Your mind quickly dives into problem solving mode and begins playing every possible outcome in your head. Old experiences are analyzed for any similarity or connection that could inform your future actions.
Before long, what was once excitement for a new experience, has been perverted into a crippling state of anxiety.
And we sort of get used to this reaction.
We begin to live with it.
We tell ourselves that’s its just the way we are.
We tell ourselves its necessary. If we don’t get anxious, then we might not be motivated to analyze every possible outcome and we might mess up. Or, even worse, embarrass ourselves in front of others.
This is what I like to call The Myth of Redemptive Anxiety.
It is the idea that in order to be prepared for every possible outcome we have to be anxious. It is the idea that through anxious thought, analysis, and reflection we are better off.
This not only applies to future events but to past events as well. After an embarrassing moment we relive it over and over again, running through every possible choice and action we made, trying to figure out what we could have done differently, and often berate ourselves relentlessly. We feel as though a moment will define us unless we spend time redefining it in our minds.
The insidious and often unrecognized Myth of Redemptive Anxiety tells us that salvation from our anxiety will only come through the implementation of more anxiety. In other words, anxiously observing a past situation or potential future situation will better prepare us, thus preventing mistakes, errors, or sins.
Definitions:
Anxiety – a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Desire to do something, typically accompanied by unease.
Redemptive – acting to save someone from error or evil.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t reflect on past situations, learn from the past, or plan for the future. Of course, all of those things are necessary and incredibly helpful to function in this world. What I am referring to is the imbalance.
This imbalance takes form when our mental energies are consumed by these thoughts. Our attention is focused on them. Cortisol shoots through our bodies for hours or even days.
And, the result? We become less productive, less likely to react to new information in the desired manner. We become tired from a lack of restful sleep.
Slow, forgetful, and foggy.
We live in a world confined by our closed conscious thoughts; not open to the expansive, inviting, invigorating, and fulfilling present.
Although I do not think anyone consciously wants to feel more anxiety, we say yes to it all the time.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus addresses this very issue.
“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 than food, and the body more 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? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Matthew 6:25-27
In this paragraph Jesus is directly calling out The Myth of Redemptive Anxiety. Due to the nature of our evolved selves, we have these anxieties.
Food.
Shelter.
Warmth.
They do indeed help a species survive. But we are at a unique stage of evolution and consciousness where we can ask the question, “Yes, this helps me survive, but does it help me live?”
How to live.
How to have life in all moments: eternal life.
Is this not the message Jesus preached?
The good news of Jesus, in part, is this:
No one moment can define you, you are already defined as an image bearer of the Divine.
No one moment can make you unworthy. Worth is not earned or justified it is freely given.
Goodness is happening around you all the time, new life is springing up from the dead. Resurrection didn’t just happen once, it is happening in all moments.
All we are called to do is to widen the scope of our awareness to the Divine pervading every moment, all things, and all people.
So, this is a call to name your reliance on The Myth of Redemptive Anxiety. Through introspection and nonjudgmental self-observance, become aware of how you subtly believe you can save yourself through constant self-judgement and over analysis.
Confess that this anxiety rarely leads to a more present experience of life but rather consumes the present with false recollections of the past and misleading clairvoyant interpretations of the future.
Jesus calls us into a way of living where we believe the truth that has been spoken about us from the beginning. That you are created good, you are worthy, you belong, and you are enough today.
In this moment.
As you are.