Under the Influence of Worry

Photo Credit: Kim William

(by Christina Bailey)

Is it possible to be drunk with worry?

“Be on guard,” Jesus told His followers that Tuesday of Holy Week, “so that your hearts will not be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life” (Luke 21:34).

I would have never put drunkenness and worry in the same category, and yet Jesus seemed to suggest that they should be. Why? What could He mean?

The phrase “weighed down” in the original text is a translation of the word bareo. It means “to burden, weigh down, depress.” This single verb also pinpoints the cause of this stress: “oppressed with external evils and calamities.” 

What was happening to bring such a word of warning?

It was the day after Jesus turned over tables at God’s house of prayer. He and His followers returned. There was more that needed to be said. More they needed to hear.

Despite all they had learned over their years of following, they were still too impressed by surface things.

“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another,” Jesus said (Luke 21:6).

“How will we know?” They asked Him discreetly. “What signs will we see?” (Luke 21:7, my paraphrase).

So Jesus told them in vivid and harrowing scenes. Wars and rumors of wars. Earthquakes. Famines. Plagues. Persecutions.

“You will be hated. You will be betrayed by those closest to you” (Luke 21:16-17). His words of warning must have filled His disciples with worry. And who could blame them? Certainly not me.

I am all too familiar with what it is to be weighed down and depressed by life’s worries, to lose sleep while my mind races with thoughts of what could happen or what people will think.

Unchecked worry deceives and distracts, leading to despair and defeat.

Peter and the other disciples all stumbled later that week. In the chaos of the Lord’s arrest, when Satan sought to sift them like wheat, panic and abject fear whirled into a perfect storm of worry (Luke 22:31).

And in the tumult, they lost sight of the One who calmed the seas.

It turns out that worry is also, in its own way, intoxicating. Could it be more like drunkenness than I believed? Making lies seem true. Keeping us from standing on our feet.

If so, might we steward our worried thoughts in the same way we respond to any other temptation? In holy fear and humility?

Peter himself later wrote to early believers about this very thing. With Jesus’ words written indelibly on his heart, he shared the secret of holy sobriety:

“With minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13).

“Humble yourselves under the mighty power of God…Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).