Nonfiction Sample: "Anxious for Everything"

It’s interesting because I would never have categorized this year of my life as one where I actively noticed that I was anxious. And whenever people would suggest that to me when I shared that I was struggling it felt offensive. My personality was coming apart seam by seam, my mind felt like a separate being that was intentionally fighting to destroy me, and relationships were breaking on my own account in ways I never intended to cause. So no, I didn’t think that I was anxious. And I especially wouldn’t have said that was the root of my problems. If anything, to me, my thoughts and emotions were the root of the problem.

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Which brought on a whole new level of pain: guilt. There are many verses in the Bible that discuss self-control of some sort, especially when it comes to thoughts and actions. Two in particular played on repeat in my brain. First, 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Second, a verse which anybody in the Church who has ever been anxious about anything has probably had thrown at them, Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”