Category: Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

Allen Reding sitting at a desk in a dimly lit office, staring seriously at the camera, representing the universal feeling of being "stuck."
Living FaithOvercoming Anxiety & Fear

Observing the Wind

The cursor blinks on the white screen with a rhythmic, judgmental pulse while the dryer hums in the distance. This simple electronic heartbeat feels less like an invitation to work and more like the sheer, smooth wall of a deep pit I cannot climb out of. You can spend your whole life analyzing the wind for the perfect conditions, or you can trust the Master of the Harvest and just start sowing.
a grandfather talking to his grandson about two wolves
Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

Breaking the Anxiety Loop (Again)

As I type these words on a laptop with a dying battery, I recognize the familiar warning signs of a spirit running on empty. The headlines may have changed since the pandemic, but the anxiety we feel is just the same old song playing a different verse. We can continue to drain our energy on fear, or we can choose to plug into a source that actually sustains us. It all comes down to deciding which wolf you are going to feed.
A metaphorical recreation of Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Tell-Tale Heart" in a modern professional setting. A glowing, realistic human heart pulses beneath a gap in weathered floorboards. A man in a dark suit stands over the hole with a cane, while two other men in suits sit comfortably in the background, smiling oblivious to the secret beneath them.
Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

Tear Up The Planks

I spent many nights trying to smile through pleasant conversations while a thumping anxiety beat like a drum beneath the floorboards of my life. Just like the killer in Poe’s famous story, we often exhaust ourselves trying to keep a calm surface while a hidden fear or secret screams to be let out. If the internal noise is driving you to the brink of madness today, come read why the only way to find real peace is to finally tear up the planks.
Man sits at a kitchen table staring at his phone beside a laptop and bills, looking stressed, with a glowing nativity silhouette in the background.
ChristmasOvercoming Anxiety & Fear

The Worst News Isn’t on TV

I have started watching the news like a child watches a scary movie, peeking through my fingers and dreading what comes next. Between the government shutdowns and the violence in the streets, it feels like the whole world is anxious and exhausted. But I’ve learned that the headlines don’t actually contain the worst news—or the best news—that affects our lives. Real hope is found when you realize that grace is the only gift that doesn't come with a hidden price tag.
A contemplative man sits at a dining table with an open Bible and a cup of coffee, looking out a large window at a rainy, overcast day.
Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

The Interest Rate on Worry

I’ve heard it said that worry is just interest paid on trouble before it’s even due. My father, a child of the Great Depression, carried invisible scars that made him approach every day like a burn victim eyeing a flame—always bracing for a disaster that rarely came. If you’ve spent your life "catastrophizing" small setbacks into imaginary wars, come read why borrowing peace from the future only leaves you bankrupt today, and how to finally silence the whisper that asks if God is really going to take care of you.
A narrative collage showing a distressed man in a hospital waiting room, a figure standing in a coastal storm, and an older couple walking hand-in-hand down a peaceful wooded path.
Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

When the Doctor Closed the Door

I sat alone in a cavernous surgery waiting room, watching a cheerful episode of I Love Lucy that felt like a cruel joke against the silence of the hospital. I was only twenty-one years old when the surgeon finally walked in, his face tight with the kind of news that shatters a young man’s world in a single sentence. If you’ve ever felt the "mud and mire" rising around your feet, come read how a Gideon’s Bible and a steady hand helped me find solid ground when I had no strength left of my own.
Two plastic-wrapped bouquets of tulips and daisies on a wooden table next to reading glasses and a handwritten note on a yellow legal pad that reads "For Becky & Kelsey - Love you, Dad."
Overcoming Anxiety & Fear

Sticker Shock & Flowers

I walked up to the pharmacy counter expecting a routine twenty-five dollar transaction, only to be handed a total of three hundred and fourteen dollars. That three-digit number felt like a direct threat to my future, launching me into a spiral of anxiety about health, finances, and how much time I had left. It turns out that when the cost of staying alive goes up, the only rational economic response is to buy flowers for your wife and remember that peace is free.