The Gospel Where You Live, Part 2
A Word from Bob: Welcome to Part 2 of a multi-part blog mini-series on The Gospel 
Where You Live: God’s Prescription for Victory In Anxiety. I’m taking these thoughts from my booklet, Anxiety: Anatomy and Cure. You can read Part 1 at God’s Prescription for Victory In Anxiety.
From Vigilance to Stuck Vigilance In Part 1, I explained that:
God placed Adam in the garden to “work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15b). The KJV says “to dress it and to keep it.” The Hebrew word behind “take care of” and “keep” means to guard, protect, keep safe, watch over, keep vigil. God called Adam to be on sentry duty. To fulfill this calling He created Adam (and us) with the mood or emotion of vigilance.
The root “vig” (vigil, vigilant, vigor) relates to a sentry. God built into our brains a sentry, a sentinel. With vigilance, God puts us in fast motion—the emotion urges us to act quickly in response to a life threat. Vigilance is proper, constructive concern for the well-being of others and for the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Vigilance motivates us to implement “tend and befriend” behaviors.
So what went wrong?
In the Garden: The Fall—Mood Disorder
I grew up with an alcoholic father. Sometimes my Dad would come home drunk, be happy, and want to play catch in the front yard. Other times he would come home drunk and if he saw us walking on the lawn he’d go ballistic.
I learned always to be on guard. I experienced hyper-vigilance, stuck vigilance.
Stuck Vigilance—Failing to Guard the Garden
Anxiety is vigilance out of control. You scan…and scan…and scan your environment worried about the “what ifs” of life. Anxiety is toxic scanning.
Anxiety is also vigilance trying to maintain control in a self-protective and self-sufficient way. Anxiety is vigilance minus faith in God.
God called Adam to guard the garden. Yet while the serpent tempted his wife, and Adam was right there with her (Genesis 3:6); he said nothing, did nothing. Failing to trust and obey God, Adam failed to guard the garden—he went off sentry duty.
Anxiety results in flight or fight behavior. After sinning, Adam evidenced both behaviors—hiding in the garden because he was afraid (Genesis 3:7-10—the flight response) and blaming and dominating his wife (Genesis 3:11-16—the fight response).
The Family Tree of Anxiety
Vigilant faith, anxiety, and anger are cousins. Picture their family tree.
- Anger: The Fight Response to Threat—Attack (Vigilante Justice)
Here we take matters into our own hands, in our own power, for our own benefit. Notice that the angry tough-guy is just as fearful and terrified as the anxious person—the response is just different.
- Anxiety: The Flight Response to Threat—Retreat (Vigil without Action)
Here we take our safety into our own hands. “If I worry enough, at least I feel as if I have some control.”
- Vigilance: The Faith Response to Threat—Befriend and Tend/Engage and Protect (Vigorous Response)
Here we take our safety and the safety of others and surrender it to God’s hands, while we take a stand for God’s plan. It is befriending and tending to others even when we feel threatened.
God says, “Be vigilant! Be alert! Take your stand, and having done all, stand firm!”
Anxiety says, “What if I can’t handle this! I have to run. I have to fight. I have to self-protect!” Anxiety is scanning without standing. It is continual worry, a perpetual state of alarm, the constant startle reflex.
Anxiety is vigilance that does not turn us back to trust. Anxiety and anger involve vigilance without faith and without love. They are non-trust, non-relational responses to threat.
Vigilance, on the other hand, is a trust, relational response to threat. It relates to others by protecting the person being threatened. It relates to others by engaging, challenging, confronting (not attacking) the person doing the threatening. It relates to God by trusting that what He calls us to do, He equips us to fulfill.
The Fear Factor
Where does fear fit into the “anxiety equation”? Fear is our response to uncertainty about our resources in the face of danger. We’re assaulted by a force that overwhelms us. The threat drives us to face the fact that we’re helpless and that ultimately our safety is out of our control. Fear compels us to face our neediness. Of course, the core question is, “Where do we turn?”
In anxiety we turn to self instead of turning to God. Anxiety is fear without faith. It is vigilance run amok. We scan the horizon constantly, fearfully, but without ever taking action or responsibility and without clinging to God.
In vigilance we turn to God. Through faith, we face the reality of our neediness by trusting in the unseen reality of a God who cares and controls.
The Rest of the Story
Please join me for Part 3, where we will ask the questions: What difference does the cross make? What does godly vigilance look like as redeemed children of God living in a fallen world?
Applying the Gospel to Daily Life
- How could it help you to see anxiety as “stuck vigilance,” as “toxic scanning”?
- When anxiety attacks, what is your typical tendency: fight, flight, or faith? Where do you think you learned this pattern of response?
