The Anxiety Formula is this :
Anxiety = Loss × Avoidance
According to this formula , the level of our anxiety is the product of two variables — loss and avoidance . Start with the first half of the equation :
Anxiety = Loss × Avoidance
Anxiety = Loss tells us that anxiety is generated by loss or , more specifically , by our fear of loss . Every anxiety is the fear of some future loss .
This is true of every type of anxiety . In health anxiety , we are hijacked into concerns about the future loss of bodily function . In financial anxiety , we fret about the future loss of money . In interpersonal anxiety , we fear the future loss of the regard of some person . In performance anxiety , we are concerned about the future loss of some aspect of our Ideal Self , such as being seen as competent or successful .
The Anxiety = Loss half of the equation reminds us once again that some level of anxiety is unavoidable . Anxiety is unavoidable because loss is unavoidable .
Why is loss unavoidable ? Because it is the inescapable conclusion derived from calculating the most elemental realities of God , time , love , and especially death . Let ’ s briefly summarize these calculations :
God : God is revealed most accurately in the person of Jesus . The gospel stories of Jesus confirm for us that God gets present with us in our anxiety , helps us recognize our anxiety , and lovingly accepts our anxious selves . But God does not prevent all loss in our preresurrection lifetime . The decisive evidence for this truth is that Jesus himself lost his life , showing that Christianity as a blueprint for avoiding loss during our lifetimes is simply false .
Time : Instead , God promises to restore all our losses in the final resurrection , the final feast . Until then , we live in the “ Now and Not Yet ” time . The time gap between the Now and the Not Yet inevitably exposes us to loss .
Love : We suffer anxiety because we are vulnerable to losing what we most love . This further explains why anxiety is unavoidable for anyone who is truly human . To be free of anxiety is to be free of any love ( which is capable of being lost ), which in turn would mean becoming inhuman . Sociopaths and psychopaths typically feel little anxiety because they feel little love and attachment to anything they might lose . But humans were made to love this world , with all of its experiences , things , values , and , above all , people . Anxiety thus can never be reduced to zero because to reduce the possibility of loss to zero is to reduce our humanity to zero . In the “ Now and Not Yet ” time , all human beings will lose their beloved objects .
Death : We all will lose our beloved objects because we are mortal human beings . We all will die . And in our death , we will lose every single beloved thing , experience , value , and person .
Pause for thirty seconds and ask yourself , What 11