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There's no doubt that the COVID pandemic has given rise to a lurking, below the surface current of anxiety.
It has left people with a shorter fuse and a greater readiness to fire their fury from the hip ... both in public face to face and (more commonly) on social media during the last year or so.
Anxiety is that creeping sense of unease, worry or fear ... and it can be anywhere along a gradient from mild to severe and debilitating.
Anxiety UK has even put up a specific page to help people cope with what they have dubbed 'Coronanxiety'.
Now, to be clear, we aren't talking here today about the sort of anxiety that amounts to being a medical issue.
Anxiety that is perfectly normal
Feeling anxious from time to time is, of course, perfectly normal. But the general recommendation seems to be that you should see a G.P. to get things checked out if anxiety is affecting your daily life or causing you distress.
Anxiety issues like that are health issues. They may be caused by external pressures, or they may have medical causes that need to be addressed in particular ways by a medic.
Feelings of anxiety are the main symptom of a number of differnt conditions, including panic disorder, phobias of all sorts, Post-traumaic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety disorder (social phobia). It can also arise from traumatic head injuries and organic brain damage, of course.
What's pretty evident is that we mustn't trivialise anxiety, because it can become a serious matter, leaving life-chaning emotional and psychological issues in its wake.
But we're dealing here today with the sort of anxiety that human's feel under pressure, when over-tired and fragile.
And to that the Book of Proverbs speaks when it says (in our Verse for the Day):
"Anxiety weighs down the heart,
but a kind word cheers it up."
Proverbs 12:25
Proverbs seems to understand pretty well what anxiety feels like.
What anxiety feels like
That Hebrew word “anxiety” combines anxiety and fear—anxious fear.
It's the sort of thing Jeremiah - describing the trauma unleashed by military conquest - speaks about in Jeremiah 49:23-24
Or that Ezekiel describes as the anxiety of living under siege ... spelling it out in Ezekiel 4:16-17.
It's serious but an explicable response to external circumstances rather than due to a medical condition.
What anxiety does to you
The Hebrew word here says that anxiety “bows [a person's heart] down.”
Anxiety weighs heavily on the heart like a load on your back, causing depression.
The spirit is brought low.
What REALLY helps an anxious person
Well, talking therapy probably has a role to play.
But the author of Proverbs does not live in an individualistic, therapeutic culture ... more of a collectivist, co-operative one where responsibility for one another seems to play a large part in perceptions of what is good and right.
He puts the responsibility onto the other person to help the sufferer from anxiety ... which is interesting!
Proverbs 12:25 is saying that what really helps an anxious person is a 'good' or 'kind' word.
That Hebrew word “good” (טוֹב, tov) refers to what is beneficial for life, promotes life, creates life or protects life.
The “good word” here would include encouragement, kindness, and insight—the person needs to regain the proper perspective on life and renew his confidence. A 'good' word is not an empty word of flattery, but one that genuinely builds them up.
What does that do for the anxious person?
The effect of this good word
In Hebrew, the author of Proverbs says such a word “makes it [the heart] glad.”
The similarly sounding terms “weighs it down” and “makes it glad” create a wordplay that dramatically emphasizes the polar opposite emotional states: depression versus joy.
The Point
Proverbs acknowledges that a normal response to the troubles of life may well include periods of natural anxiety.
Human life is fragile and this can make us vulnerable.
But it puts responsibility for dealing with it not simply on the anxious person (the Bible is full of 'fear not' statements, with their accompanying explanations as to why not fear!) but also on the person standing next to them ... on all of us.
Your mouth is not just for putting food into, but it has a role to play in helping other people confront the fears and anxieties of life ... in making a positive contribution to other people's mental well-being.
The Takeaway
So here's the opportunity to do something free, simple and easy to help a person who may or may not be showing signs of OUTWARD anxiety today.
It's going to sound corny, but here it comes:
Find a good word to speak to everyone you meet today ... you may never know how much they needed it, but it could make all the differnce in the world for them.
Let's give it a go!
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