As one of the most celebrated faith leaders in America, it might be tempting to think that Pastor Louie Giglio is something close to immune from fear and anxiety. But in his groundbreaking new book , Pastor Louie details a startling trip to the ER and his extended battle with anxiety.
“Several years back, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was having a heart attack, and it ended up turning into some really bizarre physiological symptoms. I ended up in a hospital emergency room at two o’clock in the morning. I walked in the door and said to the lady at the desk, ‘I’m fifty years old. I can’t feel my arms or my face. My legs are convulsing, and I can’t make them stop.'”
“My body shut down. I think they used to call it a nervous breakdown. Now we call it an anxiety attack or a panic disorder. My body just shut down. It had been on overload for way too long. And the result of that was it put me in a hole. I was out of commission for months.”
He paints the picture of just what that looked like.
“I didn’t leave the house most days for months. I didn’t go to meetings. I didn’t go out to dinner with friends. I didn’t feel like I could cope, or even make normal everyday decisions. And it was a long process which I can’t give a simple answer to. You get into those things over time, and you get out of them over time.”
Pastor Louie explains how God has been there for him every step of the way, and where he’s at today.
“Here I am all these years later. Mostly in my right mind! I am filled with life and hope, and the light of Jesus! I’m functioning in my gifts. Pastoring a church. I’m on the radio for crying out loud!”
“This book is a real journey. It’s coming from somebody who actually has been down to the bottom of brokenness, weakness and desperation, and called out to God. Sought the help of medical professionals. Did everything I knew how to do, but ultimately it was the grace of God and the spirit of worship that began to crack through that darkness. And to lead me into the light again.”
“So I’m a survivor of a massive anxiety breakdown, and I still wrestle with it on some level in different seasons of life. But that giant is not the dominant story in my life anymore, and I know that all of us can be free from the giant of fear, and the giant of worry and the giant of anxiety.”
Louie Giglio leads Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He founded the Passion Movement & is a much beloved speaker and author. His newest book is called
On the Road with Louie Giglio
