Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough?

These questions plague us. We ask them about how we’re doing as parents or about our performance in school. We ask them about our careers, our efforts to be healthy, to save for retirement, to recycle, to shop local, to cook whole, to resource responsibly, to seek social justice.

These standards—being right, doing enough—feel unreachable. We give it our best and then scroll to social media to see friends doing it better or headlines demanding that we try harder.

So much is up to us; so much is riding on our best. In every sphere we wonder, Are we doing it right? Are we doing enough?

AGE OF ANXIETY

And the answer is usually no. We could do more. We could give it a little extra oomph, another fifteen minutes, or just one more try.

In this do-it-yourself age when autonomy is king and self-help is the preferred pathway to success, we’re left breathless in our efforts to reach the ever-elusive gold star in every area of life. Someone else is always faster, higher, better.

It’s not just you, and it’s not just anecdotal. Anxiety is at an all-time high in the West. In 2017, nearly two-thirds of adults were extremely or somewhat anxious, and in 2018 that rose by another five percent.[i] Not only that, but anxiety is the leading mental health condition among youth and has risen by twenty percent in the recent past.[ii]

We, at least here in the West, are an anxious people.

OUR ANXIOUS FAITH

Christians are not immune to the rollercoaster of anxiety. In fact, we ask the same questions of our faith: “Am I doing it right? Am I doing enough?”

We crane our necks on Sunday morning to see if our worship is as sincere as others. We make mental lists of who’s serving in children’s ministry and who’s going on mission trips. We tally our attendance at small group and feel relief when others miss, thinking, Phew . . . we’re not the only ones who can’t get it all done.

In the quiet, we wonder: Do I really believe? Is my faith genuine? Why do I have doubts? Why do I waver? Where have my emotions gone? Why don’t I have that thrill that I used to? Shouldn’t I be sharing the gospel more? Maybe I’m not even saved . . .

The anxiety and doubts and fear that we experience at work, at school, and in relationships is the same anxiety we experience in our Christianity. But this should not be so. 

GOD KNOWS US

Here’s some good news for anxious hearts: God knows us.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he says, “You have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal. 4:9). With his “or rather,” Paul is not correcting himself—the Galatians do know God. He’s saying, “Not only do you know God, but better yet, he knows you.”

The unchanging God of the universe knows us. The all-knowing, all-powerful Creator knows you and me. Our God, who does not waver, who does no wrong, whose mercies endure forever, knows those who know him.

This mid-sentence shift is not just semantics; it’s our hope.

The strength of your faith and mine shifts with our mood and circumstances. Some days we feel full to the brim and other days not so much. Some days our hearts are overflowing with belief and joy and a deep, abiding trust in the Lord. But other days we are clouded with doubt. We mistrust what’s happening around us. The Lord seems distant and cold.

But the object of our hope is not the strength of our faith. The object of our hope is God himself.

Our hope does not rest in us. Our hope is not in how good we feel about God, in how well we know him. Our hope is in the reality that God knows us. He who does not change knows us. He who is all-good and all-powerful and all-merciful and all-knowing knows us.

So we place our faith in him knowing us, rather than our knowing him. What joy! What relief!

FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS

When the focus of our faith is ourselves, we will be riddled with anxiety. When we stare at ourselves and focus on the strength of our belief, how well we perform, or the depth of our trust, we will panic. We know we fall short. We know we are restless and nervous and slow to surrender.

But rather than obsessing over the strength of our faith, let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Let’s remember that God knows us—and not only that, but he loves us and gave himself up for us (Gal. 2:20). He is enough.

The answer to the questions, “Am I doing enough? Am I doing it right?” will always be no. That’s because we are limited, fallen, finite creatures. Until we get to heaven, we will sin; we will remain imperfect; our efforts will never be enough to bridge the gap between us and our perfect God.

But that’s okay, because our hope is in Jesus, and he is enough. In Christ alone, it is finished, and our anxious faith can melt away.

Yes, we know God, but more importantly he knows us.

[i] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322877.php

[ii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/why-kids-and-teens-may-face-far-more-anxiety-these-days/

Author’s Note: This article first appeared at GCD in October 2019.