Struck Down but Not Destroyed: Living Faithfully with Anxiety

by Pierce Taylor Hibbs

The voice of the world is not your true North.

As a follower of Christ, your ear should be bent toward the good book.

if you listen to the voice of Scripture amidst your anxiety, God will change you in ways you couldn’t even dream of; he’ll build the muscle of your soul, increase your mustard-seed faith, and give you compassion that runs deeper than the Atlantic.

To be okay is not to be free from all pain and suffering; it’s to be free in all pain and suffering because you’re indwelt by Christ. In fact, you’re indwelt by the Father, Son, and Spirit (John 14:23; Rom. 8:11). God, my dear reader, lives in you and is going to use your anxiety to do great things—not good things, great things. Don’t ever loosen your grip on those words. Clench them with white-knuckled fists. In the torrents and hurricanes, in the swells and the storms, hold fast.

God crushes those whom he calls. He breaks the ones he beckons.

To be destroyed is to be dissolved without hope of recovery or resolution. To be destroyed is to be no more. But to be crushed is to be reduced, to be emptied of all the false hopes of self-sufficiency. To be crushed is to realize that you’re thoroughly dependent.

when you hit rock bottom, your ears and eyes begin opening. You hear and see more than you ever have before: too much.

God has a purpose for allowing us to be crushed by anxiety, and that purpose is helping us to hear his call.

God is always calling; we’re just not listening. My reader, we are crushed so that we can listen. We are crushed to be called; we are brought low so that we can hear the high things of God.

When the waves of anxiety are crashing over us, when the white-water seems to be choking out our life and breath, we are not alone. We are with the God who knows. We suffer with Christ, not apart from him, because he knows.

God laid on his own Word “the iniquity of us all” (53:6). And in what is likely the greatest irony of history, Christ did not defend himself. “He opened not his mouth” (53:7). The speech of God himself remained silent so that we would be able to speak in the glory of God’s salvation, that we would be able to worship before the throne of God forever. He was silent so that we might sing.

Weakness and Suffering as Opportunities for Christ-Conformity

Now, given that God works through process and relationship, we need to view our physical and spiritual hardships—our weakness and suffering—not as travesties but as opportunities. Opportunities for what, exactly? Opportunities for profound spiritual growth, profound shaping to the image of Christ.

Weakness is an opportunity for relational growth. But for Christians, this weakness is always tethered to hope. That’s why Paul can “boast” about his weaknesses. No one would boast about weakness without any hope of redemption. To do so would be quasi-sadistic, evoking a strange love of affliction. Instead, Paul is lifted up by hope.