Do I Have Enough Time?

Clocks, Anxiety, and Presence

Anxiety, as our negative inner response to the fact of stress, does not address what needs to be done as much as our inadequacies in trying to do it. Certain technologies (e.g., social media) and clock time heighten our sense of the crushing weight of demands, possibilities, and problems. Anxiety is the emotional response that tells us we are not enough.

Rather than allowing you to be honest about your finitude, your anxiety tells you not only that you should be able to do everything you imagine needs to be done but also that you should do it perfectly. Anxiety whispers in your ear not that you are a good creature made by God but that you are insignificant, a disappointment, even a failure. Anxiety confuses limitation with sin, thus convincing us that we are letting God down. It pushes us into self-accusations and unrealistic views of ourselves (e.g., a strange mix of overconfidence and insecurity) and bitterness and anger.

If we are ever going to have a healthy Christian response to the challenges of time, stress, and anxiety, we need not just better time management; we need to rediscover the fear of the Lord—that is, we need to become attentive to the divine presence. What if I told you that the struggle with feeling endlessly exhausted and anxious could be greatly helped by learning to fear the Lord?

The wisdom literature of Israel repeatedly links “the fear of the LORD” with “the beginning of wisdom” (e.g., Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10; cf. Job 28:28). In fact, this literature often contrasts two ways of life: the way of the wise and the way of the fool (Prov. 1:7; cf. Ps. 1). What is the difference? It is not how well you do on a math quiz or how high your IQ is. No, what fundamentally distinguishes the wise from the foolish is that the latter go through life either denying or ignoring God (Pss. 14:1; 92:5–6), while the former live with an active sense of God’s holy presence, good power, and wise provision, an awareness of God’s love, forgiveness, and faithfulness: “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life” (Prov. 14:27).

That is a path of life and wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the recognition of God’s presence, holiness, wisdom, and love. The fear of the Lord is a way of life, living in awareness of the sovereign King who is ever present, ever wise, ever concerned. The fear of the Lord allows us to face stress and the uncertainties of life with confidence, not because everything will turn out as we wanted but because it puts everything in perspective. In the fear of the Lord, we now see everything in light of God rather than trying to make space for God within everything.