Living Creatively with Anxiety

Devotional Reflection, Monday, October 2, 2023

Proper 21, the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. . . . . .34‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 986)

AM Psalm 89:1-18; PM Psalm 89:19-52

2 Kings 17:24-41; 1 Cor. 7:25-31; Matt. 6:25-34

David's Reflections

Rollo May describes anxiety as " . . . this nameless and formless uneasiness that has dogged the steps of modern (humankind) man." * In these verses Jesus cautions us not simply about feelings of anxiety but also about an anxious striving and preoccupation that arising from those feelings. Some anxiety is essential to healthy living. A student not anxious about an exam will prepare poorly. A parent not anxious about a crying baby will respond irresponsibly. Meaningful living requires some level of anxiety. Jesus says in the closing verses that we should limit our anxiety to what is most immediate.

In her profound work, Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction, Linda Leonard argues that humans are dogged by anxiety because of the tension between our God-given potential and our human frailty and limitations. She argues that addiction has been one of our chief strategies for numbing out the anxiety. Reinhold Niebuhr said it well: "Man may, in the same moment, be anxious because he has not become what he ought to be; and also anxious lest he cease to be at all.” +

Reflection on my own experience and what others have shared with me convinces me that we can be filled with anxiety and not recognize it as a profound issue, because it always has been there and we did not understand how pervasive it was. It could dog our steps so consistently that we no longer recognized its distinctive bark, something like the background noises we tune out in our homes.

Such profound anxiety leads to striving, striving for security, for acceptance, for possessions. It leads to attempts to numb ourselves through addiction, recreation or relationships. We become self referenced and preoccupied; we invest less energy in self giving, worship, witness, and service.

What can we do? We can assume from Jesus' teaching on the subject that he was well acquainted with anxiety. Here he normalizes it as a part of the human condition. As his followers, we have the freedom to practice a radical emotional honesty by naming our anxiety and admitting its presence. Then, we can begin to ask questions about what is creating the anxiety. We may have to have the assistance of a counselor or spiritual director to get at it.

Jesus' strategies in this text include an invitation to radical trust in God's goodness. One way to do that is by taking our anxieties to God, naming them in prayer. Our anxieties will not block the inflow of God’s love and goodness. Some of them may persist, which will require persisting with God in prayer and additional strategies. One such strategy that has helped me involves listing all the sources of anxiety, putting at the top the most crucial sources, and addressing them one or two at a time. It’s a version of Jesus’ statement in the last verse of today’s reading, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

A related strategy Jesus offers calls on us to disidentify from what we are striving for. “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing,” Jesus asks (v. 25)?. We can practice detaching from those things, people, and pursuits that our anxiety has driven us to cling to. Imagine that your house has burned down or your best friend has died. Would you still be here? Would you have a future? It takes practice, like occasionally giving away something you treasure, a sort of emotional muscle building if you will.

One thing for certain. If we medicate our anxieties with addiction, they will continue to dog us and the addictions will render us less fully alive, because we will not be experiencing our own emotions. Better to be alive to God, ourselves, and others with all our emotions than to be numb and unaware.

* Rollo May, The Meaning of Anxiety, rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1977), p. x.

+ Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, vol. 1, (New York: Scribner's, 1941), pp. 196f.

COLLECT OF THE DAY, Proper 21, eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 234)

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)

For Those Who Mourn

Merciful God, whose Son Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus: look with compassion on all who are bound by sorrow and pain through the death of N. (or a loved one). Comfort them, grant them the conviction that all things work together for good to those who love you, and help them to find sure trust and confidence in your resurrection power; through Jesus Christ our deliverer. Amen. (Enriching Our Worship: 2, pp. 65-66)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 6:25-34

25 ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?Or add one cubit to your height 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer