Welcome to our Summer Blog Series examining the impact of anxiety disorders on church participation and spiritual development in kids. In today’s introductory post, we’ll examine a unique spiritual challenge kids and adults with anxiety disorders face.
Now I lay me down to sleep…I pray the Lord my soul to keep…And if I die before I wake…I pray the Lord my soul to take.
Think that prayer may have contributed to at least a little separation anxiety at bedtime over the years? No doubt that more than a few parents have likely had extra sleeping companions after their children prayed that prayer.
If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good possibility you prayed that prayer as a child and emerged from your childhood relatively trauma-free. On the other hand, if you had experienced significant anxiety symptoms while growing up, the meaning you draw from select passages in the Bible, your memory of religious activities, your experience in practicing spiritual disciplines and your reaction to the style of worship and Christian education offered by your church would likely differ from that of other Christians in ways others would struggle to fully appreciate or understand.
Anxiety wasn’t part of God’s original plan for mankind. Anxiety was the immediate result of the separation from God that occurred when Adam and Eve chose to disobey His command in the Garden of Eden.
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.
Gen 3:10 (NKJV)
Fast-forward approximately 4,000 years. Jesus Christ has arrived in Palestine to proclaim the arrival of God’s Kingdom on Earth and to begin the process of restoring creation to the way it was intended to be before that fateful day in the Garden. In Jesus’ most famous sermon, He devoted an entire section to assuring the people that they no longer needed to experience anxiety, since the opportunity for restoration of a right relationship with God was at hand.
“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers-most of which are never even seen-don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”
“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
Matt. 6:30-34 (MSG)
If anxiety was caused by the shattering of our relationship with God and if Jesus, throughHis death and resurrection made possible the restoration of our relationship with God, why is it that our children continue to be so anxious? And why do we, as “mature” Christians, continue to experience such anxiety?
Dave Lynden, Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio answered that question as follows:
“Worry equals practical atheism. Worry states that we don’t trust God for our provision.”
See the unique challenge? More so than any other disability, anxiety is seen as a condition that’s indicative of a lack of faith. That awareness, in and of itself, can produce more anxiety in a child or a parent seeking to follow Christ or grow in faith. We’ll spend the rest of the summer developing an understanding of why kids and adults experience pathologic anxiety and how to overcome the obstacles such anxiety presents to spiritual growth.
Thursday: How common are anxiety disorders among children and teens?
Church4EveryChild 
This is SUCH an important topic, Steve. Thanks for taking it on…I know that churches and parents alike will be fortified as a result!
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Thank you for this blog on an important topic. As a youth pastor I see a lot of students struggle with anxiety. I am glad you have addressed this piece. Your scripture choices are excellent. It is an especially important topic with the rise of helicopter parenting which may root out of worry.
My distress is with the pastor’s comment which I am hoping is out of context. To assert that “worry equal practical atheism” is too strong a statement. Because Paul asserts often that even he struggles with doing the right thing. It is scary to equate worry with atheism. I would not link salvation with worry. My hope is that Pastor’s comment is out of context. The good things I hear about him suggest it might have been.
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I heard a radio commercial on a Christian station that implied that anxiety is a lack of faith. The ad pitched a web site which I ignored.
Perhaps I would have even believed that before watching a child regress into autism following a vaccine. Intense behavioral therapy left my child with intense anxiety (sometimes I think PTSD) that is no lack of faith.
Your topic is an important one and I will watch this series with interest.
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Great topic!
I suffered for over 20 years with what I thought was an anxiety disorder – at least that is what the medical doctors told me. Then a psychologist said, “Wanda, what you are suffering with is physical not emotional.” He sent me to a naturopathic doctor. Bottom line is that I am extremely hypoglycemic – to me it felt like I was continually in a state of panic.
All that to say that I was often told if I would only trust God more then that feeling would go away.
I came across this verse and it ministered to me greatly,
“I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!”
(Luke 12:50 ESV)
I believe that Jesus is saying here that he was distressed through His entire time on earth knowing what He was going to have to endure. So there must be a difference between anxiety and distress – an important difference we must help believers, especially children, understand.
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Thanks for all the excellent comments!
Reverend Jim…I used the quote to illustrate a perception that’s not uncommon among leaders in the church. There was an interesting article yesterday in Leadership Journal on the attitudes of churches toward mental illness…30% of 500 churches surveyed expressed the belief that mental illness is a spiritual problem, while 29% endorsed the view that mental illness is a behavioral problem resulting from a person’s bad choices.
Penny…I saw a kid last week who was traumatized when a therapist who obviously didn’t know what he was doing left a boy outside during a rainstorm as “exposure therapy” before teaching him any skills to manage his anxiety. The skill level and experience of the folks doing cognitive-behavioral therapy is critical.
Wanda…I can’t imagine the distress Jesus experienced as He progressed toward His date with the cross. The difference between anxiety and distress is that what Jesus experienced (distress) didn’t interfere with His ability to do what He needed to do while on Earth, while by definition, an anxiety disorder would interfere with our ability to function in significant life roles.
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I would call Jesus’ s feeling towards his impending death more than distress as he fell to the ground sweating blood asking to be delivered from this fate . Anxiety serves a purpose in tine f ace of danger or tragedy our body responds in a way as to help us these are the the symptoms of panic or anxiety my child was severly abused before her adoption that panic system works overtime some days please do not lable things a lack of faith trials in life are common and draw us even closer to the One
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Hi Tracie…my point in the article was to demonstrate that anxiety is NOT necessarily caused by a lack of faith and to question those in the church who quickly leap to that conclusion without a complete understanding of the situation. Thanks for posting!
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