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Anxious About Everything

What's on Your Mind?

When I was in high school, my friends and I mostly worried about boys, where we would go to college, and our lack of spending money.

When I attended college, my friends and I stressed about boys, where we would get jobs, and our lack of spending money.

When I started working, my friends and I — all right, I'm going to trust that you get my point.

As far as I can tell, most girls worry about a lot of the same things at some point or another. There's the ever present concern about men and everything that comes along with them. There's always the future to obsess over — a major to choose, jobs to apply for, internships to excel at.

Self-image is a big one, since almost every woman thinks the girl sitting next to her in class is prettier, skinnier and much more confident than she is. And usually when one worrisome problem gets worked out, a fresh one presents itself, huge and unsolvable. Whenever that happens to me, I am known for saying, "Sweet! This is another chance for me to get better at trusting God. Awesome!"

I am also known for being a liar.

I'll Take My Glass Half Empty, Please

I don't want to talk so much about the problems God allows (or has planned out for us; I'll leave the predestination debate up to you guys for now), as much as I want to talk about worry. Personally, it's one of the biggest things I struggle with.

Worrying is one of my best skills. Half the time, I don't even realize I'm worrying until I've been doing it for a good hour. It is that engrained into my thought pattern. I worry about the big things I mentioned on the first page, but I also manage to concern myself with things like the effects rainy weather has on my hair or the fact that, now that I live in Colorado, I don't get channels that carry Timberwolves basketball games. You know, deep things like that.

But that's the way I am. I'm a pessimist. I like to expect the worst, because then I am usually pleasantly surprised when things turn out well. That is what I naturally tend to do. But why shouldn't I live my life with worry and pessimism? It usually works for me, since things never turn out as badly as I plan. Why not stick with it?

Worrisome Worldviews

Although I claim to be a Christian theist, my actions often deny the basic tenants of that worldview. Worry is just one of the examples of failing to follow what I believe. If I didn't believe what the Bible says, I could worry freely without the pesky knowledge that God is in control of things.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What do non-Christian worldviews have to say about the way we let worry invade our lives?

Join the discussion!

If I didn't believe in God, I think I could be much more justified in my worries. Take nihilists, for example. A true nihilist's beliefs are extreme and utterly depressing. They claim that they don't believe in knowledge or values — or anything else in between. In James Sire's book The Universe Next Door, he defines a nihilist's view of humans:

Human beings are conscious machines without the ability to affect their own destiny or do anything significant; therefore, human beings as valuable beings are dead.¹

According to this view, everything that has or will happen to us is completely out of our control, determined by the universe, which acts without the influence of any type of god.

I'm a Christian who believes in a sovereign God, and I manage to worry a lot. Knowing my personality, I am positive that if I decided to become a nihilist, I would end up worrying my head off.

According to the nihilist worldview, this is what I would have to think about myself as a human being:

I do not have the ability to control what happens to me. I cannot determine the actions I take or the actions that are taken against me. I am completely programmed, and yet, through experience, I can feel the negative effects of the natural world acting around me. Because the universe is unthinking, it doesn't care about me at all. Anything horrible could happen to me at any time, and there's no God to help me through it, and no reason it's happening except for the interrelation of the chemicals around me.

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Although the nihilist's worldview states that everything is programmed, and we therefore have no cause for worry, tell that to the person whose car just broke down. Given my natural tendency to worry, nihilism is definitely not the worldview for me — if only for the sake of preserving what little sanity I do have.

Multi-Purpose Deity

But what if I'm not talking about such an extreme case? Since nihilism is so out there, most people don't truly follow its principles anyway, so they probably end up worrying about how they're not being good nihilists.

Most people in our society claim to believe in God. But the God that I hear them talking about is one who would theoretically never allow for bad things to happen. He is a being who is loving and accepting of everyone. He is a God who encompasses all religions, someone who can be worshipped in many different ways.

Although he sounds nice, I must object. The God most people claim to believe in does not exist according to the Bible. If he did exist, it would be really hard to account for all of the junk that goes on in this world. I suppose that if this God was real, people would have no need for worry. This God would never allow anything bad to happen to us.

Unfortunately, that view of God doesn't hold up against the reality of innocent murder victims, starving children and natural disasters. Therefore, the person who believes in this God is forced into a confused type of anxiety. They worry about life because it has proven to be hard, and they question this God who could allow bad things to happen. Their view of God combined with the reality of life makes no sense at all.

What's Next: Part 2

So what does the Christian theist worldview have to say about the issue of worry? And, more practically, how can we conquer our anxiety when nothing in life seems to be working out? In part two, we'll discuss those exact things. (Also, be sure to check out Philippians for some worry-free advice.)