There is a kind of stress that comes from real situations we are walking through. Bills need paid. Diagnoses happen. Relationships get strained. Life can genuinely feel heavy sometimes.
But there is another kind of stress we often create ourselves — the stress of “what if.”
What if this goes wrong?
What if they are upset with me?
What if I fail?
What if something bad happens?
What if I’m not enough?
We can spend so much time worrying about possibilities that we begin suffering through situations that have not even happened. Many times, the things we feared the most never come to pass at all. Yet the fear still steals our peace, our sleep, our joy, and sometimes even our ability to be present with the people right in front of us.
A friend recently shared a devotional thought with me that I have not been able to stop thinking about.
In photography, negatives are developed in the darkroom. The darkness is necessary for the negative to fully form. But if the door opens and light shines in, the process is interrupted.
Fear works much the same way.
Fear loves darkness. It grows in isolation, assumptions, overthinking, and silence. The more we sit alone with our fears, the more our minds begin developing negatives — negative thoughts, negative outcomes, negative expectations, and negative views of ourselves and others.
But Jesus is light.
When we let His truth, His presence, and His promises into the dark places of our minds, fear loses some of its power to develop those negatives inside of us.
Scripture reminds us in John 1:5 that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
That does not mean we will never feel afraid. It does mean we do not have to live trapped by fear. We do not have to rehearse worst-case scenarios over and over until they become heavier than reality itself.
Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is pause and ask:
Is this actually happening right now?
Or am I living inside a “what if”?
Then we bring that fear into the light.
We pray.
We speak truth.
We lean on scripture.
We talk to trusted people.
We remember who God is.
Fear develops in darkness, but the light of Christ changes what can grow there.
Let’s be people who open the door and let His light in.