Dealing With Anxiety – Part 1

I’ve battled anxiety my entire life.  I can remember being in Kindergarten and having severe panic attacks.  At some times, the anxiety is minimal, easily manageable and can even be dismissed by giving myself a good, stern talkin’ to.  But there are other times when the anxiety is so great it seems to take over and have a life all of its own.

“Anxiety is a sin.”  I’ve said it myself, to myself and to others.  And while I agree that at the root level anxiety and worry are forms of unbelief, I no longer find this to be a helpful thing to say to people.  Yes, unbelief is a sin.  And yes, anxiety is a form of unbelief and therefore a sin.  To clear up any doubt, the Bible makes things very plain:  “Be anxious about nothing…” (Philippians 4:6)  That is a command.  I should not be anxious.

All who know me and my ministry know (I would hope) that I am not shy when it comes to calling sin what it is.  So why would anxiety be different?  Why do I find it unhelpful in dealing with anxiety?  Simply put, trying to stop anxiety because for the sake of stopping anxiety is impossible.  Severe worry stems from something deeper.  Worry is a fruit, not a root.  The problem is not the just-got-punched-in-the-gut feeling in my stomach.  The problem is in my heart and in my mind.

Secular psychologists have done some excellent work in uncovering the physiological and biological components of anxiety.  One helpful distinction made is between anxiety and fear.  Fear is an instant response to a present situation in which we sense danger.  It is a reaction that God gave us for our good.  It is a good thing that we have physical cues alerting us to a threat.  These keep us safe.  Anxiety, on the other hand, is a future-oriented mood.  To have some heightened sense of drive to accomplish something in the future is okay.  It can even been a blessing.  But too much anticipation of a future event can be distracting and harmful to performance.

Anxiety nearly always begins with apprehension about an uncontrolable upcoming event.  Back in ancient Greece the half-man, half-goat god Pan presided over nature – animals, streams, woods, rivers, etc.  The story goes that he would nap in a small cave or thicket near the road going through the woods.  If a traveler disturbed his rest, Pan would let out a horrific and bloodcurdling scream that would cause the traveler to die of fright.  This unanticipated and immediate reaction became known as panic.

Anxiety and panic set in when a general sense of uncontrollability becomes specific to a situation.  All sorts of physiological alarms go off internally.  Heart rates nearly double within a minute.  Our brains enter a heightened state of awareness to threats, a very primitive reaction ingrained in our biology, and we have a tendency to freeze in anxiety while we make an evaluation as to whether or not danger is present. Psychological and social factors that contribute to anxiety include a dread of not being in control, especially when the concern is interpersonal in nature.

Putting it all together, the formula looks something like this:

Upcoming Uncertain Event + Inability to Cope with Uncontrolability + Social Pressures = Anxiety

Then the debilitating effects of anxiety (lack of sleep, lack of appetite, inability to focus, etc.) feed our inability to cope, thus increasing the anxiety.  Once this cycle starts it feeds on itself.  Anxiety is like the snowball that gathers mass and gains speed the longer it rolls down a hill.  Often people who suffer from severe anxiety get to a point when they aren’t even concerned about the triggering event anymore, yet the pain of worry and fear and apprehension continues.

Why am I sharing all of this?  Well, I know I am not alone in this struggle.  We all experience anxiety at one time or another, though to varying degrees.  And I do believe God has a way for us to deal with anxiety, but it is not found in trying to avoid forever being in a place of uncertainty; that’s impossible in this world.  We’ll always have to deal with situations beyond our control and with social pressures.  We also can’t focus on the anxiety itself.  Rather than try simply to be at peace or just pray that God will give us peace, we must change our attitude about the future such that “peace” is the rational response to the uncertain.  “Peace,” like worry, is a fruit and not a root.  “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

The bottleline is this:  Anxiety is not overcome through focusing on peace, but through focusing on the Prince of Peace.

Sounds overly simple, I know.  But it is simple.  Not easy, but simple.

I am working through anxiety right now.  As I do, I am going to blog my experience in hopes that others will benefit from this.  I’ll be starting in Psalm 116, so if you’re interested you may want to go ahead and start meditating on it.

All praise be to the Prince of Peace.

The Holy Spirit: Humble God

Just want I needed – God is an Encourager.

Our church is helping plant a church in Boaco, Nicaragua.  I went down with a team back in late April / early May, and right now there is another team down there continuing the support work.  Each day, our association’s executive director – Randy Gilchrist – posts updates on the association’s website.  (Click here.)

I’m having a very discouraging week, but God is so faithful.  He used Randy’s update today to help me remember what my life is really all about.  I’m posting his words below.  It was the last three sentences that warmed my heart.

July 7, 2009, Tuesday:

We woke up early and had everyone at breakfast by 7 AM. This was necessary since we had to have the team at the 3 Day VBS in the south of Boaco. The team was divided into two groups. The first group was the VBS Team. This consisted of  Terry, Debbie and Tim Thurman, Ginny, Samantha and Ruben. The other team consisted of Mary, Rhonda, Tom, Donald and myself.  A lady in the south part of town offered her business, which was a Cantina from 8 to 10 Tuesday through Thursday for the VBS. This seemed a bit unusual for Gringos but not to the Nicaraguans. Day 1 started slowly but eventually there were 10 children, our team and the owner of the business and her family  in attendance. The topic of the day was Jesus’ Birth. The team was great as they planned the three day VBS and also created projects and games. When we arrived the pigs were nowhere to be found. It’s possible someone could be eating organic pork. Once the VBS, place and materials were ready, I left the team to meet the other team members in the park to do street evangelism. The morning was great as ten people prayed to receive Christ today. We went to the Pizza Place where we ate pizza and some other things.  David Morgan was right, it is great Pizza. The team wanted to practice the ancient art of siesta, so while they rested we went to make sure the place was secured for the North side VBS. While the VBS team set up, the other team went through the neighborhood (Barrio) to find children. Unfortunately there were no children except those at our host house. After waiting an hour we went back to the Hotel for some rest. Dinner tonight was great as we had strolling Mariachis. After dinner we all went to the park for another shot of excitement. I had the privilege to talk with a nine year old and his six year old sister who took the evangel cube away and explained it to me. Later he asked me if I knew Pastor Jake. He told me to tell him hi and to come back soon. Another great day. We will see what tomorrow holds.

Randy Gilchrist
Executive Director
San Jacinto Baptist Association

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!  Save (and use) a wretch like me!

Sorry, Sarah… Goodbye, Governor Palin

Well, Sarah Palin is done with elected political office.  She’s resigned.  I’m not happy about it, but I can understand why.

Before I go there, let me first say that I do not think Sarah Palin would be the best GOP presidential candidate in 2012.  I’m no longer starstruck by her.  I see that she had some real deficiencies as a running mate for John McCain (though I still would have rather had her than any of the three other names on the major party tickets).  She was ill-prepared for international issues.  She was handled very poorly by staffers.  Yeah, yeah, yeah…

I think she’s been a good governor for Alaska.  I think she’s a smart woman.  More than that, I believe she is incredibly principled.  I love her values, and I don’t even mean that in the “crazy-religious-right” sort of way.  Palin has been able to articulate a vision for a limited government and preservation of liberties better than most politicians today from either side of the aisle.  Though she would not be conservatism’s best hope in 2012, she could have been by 2016 or 2020.

But that’s not going to happen.  She’s done.  From the first day she was introduced to the nation as McCain’s running mate, the media has been out to slaughter her image.  She was immediately branded as dumb, cheap, and incompetent.  She was held to a standard that no one else was.  Since the campaign has ended, her political enemies have continued to press the attack against her (I believe because of the threat she represented).  She and her family have had to fight dozens of ethics investigations – all of which have proved her innocent – and this has led to the amassing of more than $500,000 in debt for the legal fees.

I wasn’t going to blog about this because (you may have notice) I am trying to do less political blogging.  BUT, you can thank the pompous jerk Anderson Cooper for this little post.  He just confirmed for me exactly why I can understand Sarah Palin wanting to bow out of the public view – at least for a little while.  After replaying large portions of her press conference today, his first words of commentary were:  “A stunning announcement, not just grammatically, but politically.”

If I were not a pastor, I’d use language to express just how I feel about that statement.  First of all, it was a fine speech.  NO ONE speaks with perfect grammar.  The spoken word and the written word are handled and composed differently.  It is not as if Gov. Palin was dangling her prepositions.  She was just talking.  And Anderson Cooper makes that cheap shot comment, blindly following the asinine storyline that’s been developed around the caricature of Palin that is purely fiction.

How can anyone take the media seriously?  I mean, they talk about Sarah Palin’s speaking abilities as if she is a bumbling idiot.  But then they turn around and call the Messiah Obama some great, tremendous orator?  I just went to youtube for a random sample of our fabulous Golden Mouth President, and here’s what I got.

Far from impressive, both in terms of content and presentation.

That’s it.  I’ve made my statement.  I hope I’m wrong.  I hope that a decade from now Sarah Palin will reemerge and continue to serve our country.  But I think she’ll probably now be on the sidelines, fund-raise, comment, cheer, and so on.  And I trust that she and Todd know that is what is best for their family.

Summer Reading – 2009

It is not too late to do some summer reading!  AND, if you order books during the month of July, our friends at monergismbooks.com are offering FREE SHIPPING!  Woohoo!  Here’s how to get the free shipping:

1. Registered users place at least $25 worth of merchandise in your shopping cart.
2. During checkout type the text July2009 in the Coupon or Customer Code box.
3. Select Economy Mail as your shipping method.
4. Shipping charges will automatically be removed from your order.

It’s that simple.  Now, on to the really important stuff… Some recommendations.  I’m not going to give very many.  If you’d like more info on any book in particular, just ask.

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner is one of the best bibilical defenses of the doctrines of grace I’ve read.  It is a classic work of theology already.  It is thorough, but not overly academic.  It may take some work to get through it all, but remember that those who persevere to the end will be saved!

Let the Nations Be Glad! by John Piper is a fabulous book about missions.  This book probably did more to form in me a heart for missionary efforts than any other I have read.  The line I will never forget from this book is something like this:  Missions exists because there are places where worship does not.  God deserves the worship, honor, and praise of all people, so we must take His good news to all so that they might repent, believe, and glorify Him.

Finally Alive by John Piper is a book I have written about before.  You can read what I wrote about it here.  I’ll just say this again…  I think this could prove to be one of Piper’s most important books of his writing career.  In this book, the Bible’s teaching on the new birth – the doctrine of regeneration – is expounded and made clear.  If you don’t want to buy this book, I’ll personally give you a copy.  It is that important.

Living the Cross-Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney is one of the best little books I’ve ever read.  It is 176 pages, but it is VERY small in size.  This is a practical and encouraging book about living a life in which the Gospel is front and center in all you do.

Death by Love by Mark Driscoll is a very unique book on the cross of Christ.  It is not primarily a theological work, though it is certainly theologically founded.  Driscoll seeks to apply the effects of the Christ’s atoning work to real-life situations.  I always enjoy Mark Driscoll.

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller is a book that I have not yet read.  But I hope to read it, perhaps in August.  I’ve heard many good things.  If you beat me to it, be sure and let me know what you think!

Read, read, read!!

A Great Commission Resurgence and the SBC’s decline in membership

Our denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, has a wonderful history and tradition of supporting missions.  In many ways, missions has been a defining mark of the denomination’s work.  Through the Cooperative Program, the SBC has supported perhaps the finest international missions agency in the world.

However, in recent years a great deal of concern has arisen from the fact that, after decades of growth, the denomination’s membership is shrinking.  I must admit that when I first heard about this a couple of years ago, I didn’t necessary think it was a bad thing.  Falling numbers would not be a bad thing if churches were simply updating their roles to be more accurate in reflecting who is an actual, participating member of the church, removing the names of people who have not darkened the doors in five years.  If that were the case, I’d be exciting about this “membership decline.”

Another scenario in which I’d welcome the decline in baptisms would be if large numbers pastors were actually taking greater care in who they baptize.  While I do have respect for Rick Warren and many aspects of his ministry, I was shocked when I read this letter to his church family.  In it, he is promoting a mass baptism.  I think more personal, pastoral care is necessary when counseling a person toward baptism.  But at least Warren was requiring candidates to attend a new members’ class; many pastors and churches are unwilling to even do that!  Fewer baptisms would be a welcome headline if it reflected churches taking greater care to examine the conversion experience of baptismal candidates – you know, like Baptists used to do.

Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios are behind the decline in SBC baptisms and total membership.  The denomination that began largely with a call to missions work, that still today does incredible international missions work, is losing the missionary front here at home.  The political infighting of the denomination over the last three decades — not all of which was unimportant — has trickled down into a malaise in many of the congregations.  Some of us have gotten more focused on “being right” than sharing the gospel.  For this, I have had to repent at times.

This is why I am so thankful for the current movement in the SBC calling for a Great Commission Resurgence.  A declaration of ten articles has been drafted and can be signed by anyone who is a member of a Southern Baptist church.  Though I had heard of it before, I finally read it after Jim Hamilton plugged the document on his blog.  I signed it yesterday, and I hope you will do the same after reading it.  These signatures will hopefully come together as one loud, united voice at this year’s denominational annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

Between now and the SBC meeting in late June, I hope to blog through the ten articles and talk about how they apply to our church.  We at FBCMB have a lot of room for growth — personally and corporately — in having our own Great Commission Resurgence.  But as a pastor, I can think of no group of people I’d rather join with in taking on this challenge.

May the gospel saturate and animate our lives.  May the good news of Christ warm our hearts, shape our minds, and drip from our lips before the lost world.  Amen.

Sermons should be “full of Christ.”

I just found this quote by Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers.  I love it.

Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel.  As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the Apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified… Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in your sermon… We preach Jesus Christ to those who want Him, and we also preach Him to those who do not want Him, and we keep on preaching Christ until we make them feel that they do want Him, and cannot do without Him.

I pray that my preaching will always be full of Christ.

I got 7 out of 10.

More about John Calvin at Calvin 500

Excellent Explanation of Preaching

I love John Piper.  And I love this new video in which he explains his philosophy of preaching.

I pray that when I am his age, I will have remained faithful to this high view of Scripture’s power.

I am not sure if I want to laugh or cry…