The dizziness of freedom
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said ‘Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom’ as he explains how in Genesis 2 Adam and Eve can eat of all this fruit, but this one fruit. Anxiety slipped itself into our lives with freedom to choose to obey or not obey, we can call it the genesis of anxiety in our lives. We see this develop with relational anxiety. Jacob is anxious about meeting Esau again. We see anxiety about the transition of the children of Israel especially in the exodus for Egypt. We see the anxiety in Gethsemane anguish when Jesus asks ‘if the cup can pass before him. Anxiety is part of our journey of faith as Simon Peter was told that one day your arms will be outstretched led to places you don’t want to go. What Christ teaches is that on the one hand we have anxiety and on the other hand we can have anxiety transformed. We find we can use anxiety as an opportunity to grow. Our job is to help people reframe their anxiety into life giving opportunity. Invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.
