God’s smoke detector

Anxiety is like smoke. When anxiety comes into your life, follow it to its source in the way you look for the source of smoke. Anxiety comes when we take something that is good, and we put that in the place of God. We take a good gift from God – our vocation, our children, a hobby – and we make that the thing that we look to for happiness or fulfillment. When that good thing we’ve put in the place of God is in jeopardy or is removed from our life, it makes us anxious.

So, any time you have anxiety, follow the smoke. More than likely, you will find the source in that which caused you to move God out of the center of your life and put some ‘good thing’ there instead.