Faith opposes worry.
∞
We find ourselves worrying about all sorts of things from time to time. Worry appears in many forms. Sometimes it is small and other times it becomes large enough to consume us. This is not a purely individual concept either. Most of the time, our worries actually arise from our interactions with the environment and the other people around us. Add in the uncertain future that is ahead of us at all times and it makes complete sense why worry exists so predominantly in society. I believe that it is natural to worry and we would not be capable of experiencing it if there was no benefit behind it. But at the same time, I also believe that this is not a state that we are supposed to constantly remain in. As I said, it has the potential to consume us. To understand the concept of worry more, let’s start with what worry actually is and why it exists.
So, why do we worry in the first place?
Worry is one of the mechanisms that we use as a response to the uncertainty that life contains. Uncertainty is a boundless concept that continually persists time. There will always be uncertainty in our lives as humans due to the infinite changes that occur with time. This is just the world that we live in. With time comes change. With change comes uncertainty. With uncertainty comes worry. It is a natural response being ever changing, temporal beings both in the body and in the mind. And most of us already have at least a little experience with worry in life, but few try to understand why it happens or where it comes from. Worry manifests itself inside of us as an internal feeling and can then be portrayed or expressed outwardly into interactions within the world. Each individual has different worries because everyone has different experiences and different uncertainties. In order to understand this concept of worry beyond just our personal experiences, we must go beyond the surface of uncertainty and take a deeper look.
But before going further, I would just like to establish something. Generalization will never be able to precisely highlight the intricacies of a complex concept. This is especially the case for something as complicated as worry seems to be. There will be some generalizations that occur here, but I will do my best to utilize them as a way highlight the intricacies. I will do this by diving deeper into the our interactions as humans and then looking at these different interactions to show intricacy. As I said earlier, our interactions play a major role in our worries. So here’s a quick overview of how I plan to break this complex concept down for better understanding.
The first interactions to be looked at will be focused on the world and how it tends to operate. This will be the large scale perspective that is broad and the ideas will trickle down into the smaller interactions that follow. Then we will continue the dive into the interactions that occur between ourselves and others for a more intimate and relational perspective. Lastly, diving even deeper into the sole interaction between ourselves and worry for an individualized perspective. I believe that progressive depth and the establishment of a foundation will enable better understanding of where worry arises and why it arises. Time to dive in.
The world is an inevitable place of worry and we live in it.
The world we inhabit has a strong influence over us. It is also a place that holds immense amounts of uncertainty for this very reason. Uncertainty within society typically arises from financial systems, environmental systems, political systems, social systems or any system where control is involved. The world is constantly changing what can be controlled and what can’t. Technology over nature. Profits over passion. Working over living. The world gains control while we are left to feel as if we are losing control. A false sense of control for the world, all built upon systems that use uncertainty to their advantage. A near-perfect combination for worry to manifest. These systems have the capability to change and control how humans are capable of living. Going further, most of the time we feel that we have little individual control over these complex systems. That lack of control is what worry actually preys on. Feeding on the perceived need of humans to control what occurs in our lives. To control uncertainty.
The world will continue to attempt to control us if we cannot understand or change these systems and it will still leave uncertainty remaining for us to deal with. We will continue to worry about the effects that the world will have on us. About what will be done to us. About what will be done for us. The uncertainty is vast when we have the belief that we lack control. Due to the world and the way it operates, large amounts of uncertainty can be created as a result of this. This highlights the potential to also create large amounts of worry from that uncertainty. Worry doesn’t just exist on the world scale though, it also occurs within the smaller loci of control within the world and these must also be taken into account. Worry often arises from a combination of multiple interactions, not just one. This is also why we must break down worry and go beyond just the surface level of uncertainty. Uncertainty is boundless, but we can understand it better by further looking into its lines of operation. Our personal relationships happen to be one of those lines.
There is a connection between you, me, and worry.
Humans are relational beings. We need interaction in order to sustain ourselves. The relationships that we have with others also have influence over us. This is a different type of influence than that of the world. It is much more personal. We can connect on a much deeper level. As humans, we have a tendency to care for those that we are able to connect with. When we care, there is typically worry that will translate across this connection with the other. When there is uncertainty on either end of the connection, whether it be experienced by ourselves or others, worry often occurs. It is the reason why we tend to worry about others throughout life. Sometimes this worry is perceived across the connection. Other times it is not. This is much different dynamic from the world and the larger scale because the worry can operate through care towards another, rather than just the need to control. It does not mean that the sense of needing control disappears. We still find ourselves trying to control the uncertainty. This can become problematic when we begin to try and limit uncertainty for others, not just for ourselves.
Even if it is done because we care, it is still an attempt to seek control over what exists outside of us. It is the false reality that you can control the uncertainty for the other just because of the nature of a relationship. I believe this is one of the problems that occurs within relationships with significant others. We think that we have more control because of the form of the relationship, but the attempt to control ultimately takes away from the sovereign power of our partner. We believe that we can address someone else’s problem that is not ours to address. Often times failing to realize that uncertainty exists differently for each individual. We believe that we can reduce our own uncertainty and this will simultaneously reduce theirs. We believe that we can eliminate worry by controlling the relationship. When the actual reality of the situation is that the connection does not provide us reasoning for more control, but rather increases our potential for influence. Often times the intent behind the control is care, but rarely does the intent get perceived in such a way. There is also those that attempt to control a relationship without the care aspect, which leans much more towards being narcissistic or power hungry. There is a trend being revealed that shows the relationship between control, uncertainty and worry in this life. As we get more personal, we tend to believe that we have more control. More control of uncertainty, means more control of worry. Yet it is our ability to influence and be influenced that truly creates change in the world. Individual influence is a powerful thing.
Hopefully by this point, there is a slightly better understanding of worry and how it operates and arises throughout our lives.
So what happens when it is just ourselves and worry?
This is as personal and as deep as we will get at the moment. As an individual we have the sovereign ability to control much of our life. To control what we do, how we react, and how we influence others. The problem is that we often times try to control too much. We attempt to control the uncontrollable. We attempt to make sure that the unexpected cannot occur. If we can control every aspect of our lives, then there is no need to face uncertainty. There is no need to worry. We see that this thought process also extends to our relationships. This is the narrative that we tell ourselves to avoid the uncertainty that exists in this world. If only it actually worked that way. In reality, we are unable to control everything. In fact, we are actually in control of very little outside of our personal lives. Yet, we still have a way to face uncertainty and eliminate worry.
This is exactly where faith has power.
Up to this point, the focus has been on control, uncertainty, and worry. Worry is often times the result of uncertainty and this results in an attempt to control uncertainty. Faith also relates to uncertainty. Its relationship is different though. Faith does not operate on the basis of control. This is where it develops its power. Faith operates on the acceptance of uncertainty, not the control of uncertainty. When we accept that uncertainty exists, as it always will, there is no need to force control. There is no need to worry if we have faith. It directly opposes the control that we seek so often. It opposes the idea that we must control uncertainty. The need to control the external environment diminishes with faith. But faith doesn’t eliminate the need for control entirely, as we still need some control in our lives. We still need to control ourselves.
The control that we seek to overcome uncertainty is usually misguided. We focus on controlling what occurs outside of us, instead of focusing on the thing that we truly have control of. We control ourselves. We have control of what is internal, but continually try to control the external. Our internal guides the external, but when it comes to uncertainty, we tend to focus on the external. It could possibly be due to the fact that the uncertainty exists outside of us that we look externally first. Uncertainty is an external problem with an internal solution. A difficult combination to realize if we never spend the time to look internally. As I said, the world has large influence on us and we believe that we don’t have influence on the world. We can’t control the world or others, but we can control ourselves. We are in control of what our influence is. The influence that we have on others originates from our internal environment and then exudes itself outward. That influence can then build upon itself to influence the world.
Faith is a wonderful thing to think about because of the effect it has on influence. Its power is often times just overlooked. We actually use it and experience its effects more than we think. The problem is that our concept of faith often has associations with division which distracts one from viewing it and using it in life. Faith is often found in the little interactions that we don’t focus on enough. The interactions we unfortunately get distracted from. Most of the time it is applied to the interactions we actually care about or connect with. Our faith in family. Our faith in friends. Our faith that good things are to come. Our faith that the world will change for the better. So let our worries be a gentle reminder for the value of faith. Our faith opposes worry and allows us to focus more on what really matters. We can enter uncertainty with an open mind, allowing for more possibilities. So much more depth can be achieved with an open mind. A controlled life only allows for so much variance. We are in control of our faith. Faith allows us to embrace the variance within our lives. The world would be an entirely different place with more faith and less worry.
A little faith can go a long, long way.