Unworried. Dr. Gregory Popcak

      Chapter One

      Have No Anxiety … At All!

       Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.(Philippians 4:6–7)

      Have no anxiety … at all? Yes, Saint Paul said it. But did he really mean it? He was just writing for effect, wasn’t he? Or maybe it was possible to live anxiety-free back then, when things were simple, and the only thing people had to worry about was, well, martyrdom and stuff. But surely, in our extremely busy, hyperlinked, post-modern, post-Christian, post-truth society, we have a right to be at least a little terrified? Surely, we moderns have more reasons than Saint Paul could have ever imagined to find ourselves lying awake in a cold sweat at four in the morning while our hearts beat out of our chest. Saint Paul couldn’t have been talking about us, right?

      In fact, he was. He was speaking to all those who longed to follow Christ, both in his time and for ages to come. As the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, says, “Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2)” (#7). Christians believe that God’s word is true for all times. We know our identity, our purpose, and our path, not by what we feel is true in this moment, but in the truth of the Word of God.

      Saint Paul, both in his writings and in the example of his life and death, lived what he taught, enduring hardship, imprisonment, unjust persecution, and eventually death, not with terror, but with peace and grace. Paul, however, certainly didn’t invent this concept. Jesus constantly reminded his followers, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1) and “do not worry” (Mt 6:34). In John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” In Mark 5:36, Jesus says, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”

      Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, the authors of holy Scripture offer us an ocean of spiritual encouragement:

      Be strong and steadfast; have no fear or dread of them, for the LORD, your God, who marches with you; he will never fail you or forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)

      Say to the fearful of heart:

      Be strong, do not fear!

      Here is your God,

      he comes with vindication;

      With divine recompense

      he comes to save you. (Isaiah 35:4)

      Do not fear: I am with you;

      do not be anxious: I am your God.

      I will strengthen you, I will help you,

      I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

      Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

      I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

      your rod and your staff comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

      The LORD is my light and my salvation;

      whom should I fear?

      The LORD is my life’s refuge

      of whom should I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

      Cast your care upon the LORD,

      who will give you support.

      He will never allow

      the righteous to stumble. (Psalm 55:23)

      The LORD is with me; I am not afraid;

      what can mortals do against me?

      The LORD is with me as my helper. (Psalm 118:6–7)

      For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)

      There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

      Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

      Throughout Scripture, again and again, we hear that we are to not be afraid, that we must surrender our anxieties and worries to Christ, trust in the Lord, and be confident in God’s providence, his deliverance, his mercy, and his constant care. As theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once observed, “When one surveys even from a distance how often and how openly Sacred Scripture speaks of fear and anxiety, an initial conclusion presents itself: the Word of God is not afraid of fear or anxiety.” What a powerful observation. We may fear anxiety and all the pressures that contribute to it, but the Word of God eschews that fear and bids us to do the same. Franklin D. Roosevelt once famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” God, however, wants to help us overcome even this. Yet it can still be hard to square all these scriptural assertions with the “real world,” where anxiety seems like most people’s full-time job.

      Life in the “Real World”

      “God must think I’m a horrible person.”

      Alison, a 34-year-old lawyer and mother of three, was struggling with anxiety that was seriously affecting her work and home life.

      “I don’t get it. I’m so blessed. I have a great job. A good family. But I’m on edge all the time.” Her anxiety, which seemed to come from nowhere, had been building for several months. The last straw came when what she thought was having a heart attack at the office was actually diagnosed as a panic attack after an embarrassing ambulance trip to the ER. “I can usually accomplish anything I put my mind to, but no matter what I can’t seem to power through this.”

      Alison discussed her situation with her pastor, who suggested both counseling and meditative prayer. While she welcomed his suggestions, she struggled with bringing her anxiety to God. “Every time I pray; I just feel so guilty. God’s been so good to me. What kind of a way is this to say ‘thank you’ for all the blessings I’ve been given? My pastor told me that my anxiety isn’t a sin, but it just feels so wrong on every level. I just feel like I’m letting God down.”

      Even if you aren’t among the 20 percent of Americans who, like Alison, experience clinical levels of anxiety and panic attacks, chances are you are no stranger to at least the more common examples of anxiety. A friend of mine describes