Blog

The Tempest – Anxiety, fear and faith

Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25

“Where is your faith?” – as the boat the disciples had embarked on was about to sink, so they thought, Jesus woke up from his siesta and asked them this simple question: “where is your faith?”.

For those of us with anxiety disorders, learning to restructure thought patterns and realising that we are fully capable to cope with life on a daily basis is key to liberating ourselves from these “demons”. But, as could be argued, there is no actual need for faith in this process – a combination of medication and determination is in most cases sufficient.

In this story of the Bible however, Jesus challenged his disciples to face a real threat, death, not just something they perceived to be a threat. He did not only ask them to believe that “things would be ok”. He actually called on them to contemplate the fact they could die at this very second. No determination (and no sea sickness medication) in the world would have helped them in this situation. Faith, when faced with imminent death, is the conviction we shall overcome this very threat although the odds would be against it. God wants us to go through.

We thankfully do not realise this on a daily basis but we constantly face death. Yes God protects us, but we really do not know our day and hour. We can learn to overcome anxiety on our own. But in the case of real threats, God is ultimately in control, and only faith can overcome fear, and eventually death.

POSTED 25.05.10 BY: Nicolas | Comments (2)

2 Responses to “The Tempest – Anxiety, fear and faith”

  1. On May 26th, 2010 at 10:13 pm artbizness said:

    Thank you for writing this. I can completely relate. My experience is that anxiety prevents me from engaging in any form of spiritual meditation or stillness activities, and is a real obstruction to my listening in the presence of God. I found that the only way to deal with it was to use straightforward therapeutic techniques, almost like “clearing the crap away” before I could hear the “still small voice”.

    Your post also highlights the difficult balance to be struck between legitimate things that are within our control, and things that are very much outside our control. Carpe Diem and all that. Very thought provoking and salutary writing from all as ever, Nick. :-)

  2. On May 26th, 2010 at 10:15 pm James said:

    Reading this made me wonder then at what point faith moves into simply letting go. My (somewhat limited!) experience as a Christian seems to this as a paradox: letting go of many problems and committing them to God, and taking control of things again, namely by living, or trying to live, in a Christ-like way. I agree with artbizness: very thought-provoking…