Max Lucado - Less Fret, More Faith: An 11-Week Action Plan to Overcome Anxiety

2017 by Max Lucado

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Epub Edition August 2017 ISBN 9781400207480

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I ts a low-grade fear. An edginess, a dread. A cold wind that wont stop howling.

Its not so much a storm as the certainty that one is coming. Always... coming. Sunny days are just an interlude. You cant relax. Cant let your guard down. All peace is temporary, short-term.

Its not the sight of a grizzly but the suspicion of one or two or ten. Behind every tree. Beyond every turn. Inevitable. Its just a matter of time until the grizzly leaps out of the shadows, bares its fangs, and gobbles you up, along with your family, your friends, your bank account, your pets, and your country.

Theres trouble out there! So you dont sleep well.

You dont laugh often.

You dont enjoy the sun.

You dont whistle as you walk.

And when others do, you give them a look. That look. That are you nave? look. You may even give them a word. Havent you read the news and heard the reports and seen the studies?

Airplanes fall out of the sky. Bull markets go bear. Terrorists terrorize. Good people turn bad. The other shoe will drop. Fine print will be found. Misfortune lurks out there; its just a matter of time.

Anxiety is a meteor shower of what-ifs. What if I dont close the sale? What if we dont get the bonus? What if we cant afford braces for the kids? What if my kids have crooked teeth? What if crooked teeth keep them from having friends, a career, or a spouse? What if they end up homeless and hungry, holding a cardboard sign that reads: My parents couldnt afford braces for me?

Anxiety is trepidation.

Its a suspicion, an apprehension. Life in a minor key with major concerns. Perpetually on the pirate ships plank.

Youre part Chicken Little and part Eeyore. The sky is falling, and its falling disproportionately on you.

As a result you are anxious. A free-floating sense of dread hovers over you, a caul across the heart, a nebulous hunch about things... that might happen... sometime in the future.

Anxiety and fear are cousins but not twins. Fear sees a threat. Anxiety imagines one.

Fear screams, Get out!

Anxiety ponders, What if?

Fear results in fight or flight. Anxiety creates doom and gloom. Fear is the pulse that pounds when you see a coiled rattlesnake in your front yard. Anxiety is the voice that tells you, Never, ever, for the rest of your life, walkbarefooted through the grass. There might be a snake... somewhere.

The word anxious defines itself. It is a hybrid of angst and xious. Angst is a sense of unease. Xious is the sound I make on the tenth step of a flight of stairs when my heart beats fast and I run low on oxygen. I can be heard inhaling and exhaling, sounding like the second syllable of anxious, which makes me wonder if anxious people arent just that: people who are out of breath because of the angst of life.

A native Hawaiian once told me the origin of the name that islanders use for us non-Hawaiianshaole. Haole is a Hawaiian word for no breath. The name became associated with the European immigrants of the 1820s. While there are varying explanations for this term, I like the one he gave me: Our forefathers thought the settlers were always in a hurry to build plantations, harbors, and ranches. To the native Hawaiians they seemed short of breath.

Anxiety takes our breath, for sure. If only that were all it took. It also takes our sleep. Our energy. Our well-being. Do not fret, wrote the psalmist, it only causes harm (Ps. 37:8). Harm to our necks, jaws, backs, and bowels. Anxiety can twist us into emotional pretzels. It can make our eyes twitch, blood pressure rise, heads ache, and armpits sweat. To see the consequences of anxiety, just read about half the ailments in a medical textbook.

Anxiety aint fun.

Chances are that you or someone you know seriously struggles with anxiety. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are reaching epidemic proportions. In a given year nearly fifty million Americans will feel the effects of a panic attack, phobias, or other anxiety disorders. Our chests will tighten. Well feel dizzy and light-headed. Well fear crowds and avoid people. Anxiety disorders in the United States are the number one mental health problem among... women and are second only to alcohol and drug abuse among men.

The United States is now the most anxious nation in the world.

How can this be? Our cars are safer than ever. We regulate food and water and electricity. Though gangs still prowl our streets, most Americans do not live under the danger of imminent attack. Yet if worry were an Olympic event, wed win the gold medal!

Citizens in other countries ironically enjoy more tranquility. They experience one-fifth the anxiety levels of Americans, despite having fewer of the basic life necessities. Whats more, when these less-anxious developing-world citizens immigrate to the United States, they tend to get just as anxious as Americans. Something about our particular way of life, then, is making us less calm and composed.