Idle Rumors and Restless Hearts: Stop Anxiety at the Habit

by Dave Miller

Anxiety often presents itself as a workload problem. The common prescription is to manage time better, simplify the schedule, or learn to say no. There is some wisdom in those adjustments, but they do not reach the root. Burnout is rarely caused by doing too much. More often, it is caused by trying to control too much.

At the center of anxiety is a quiet exchange that takes place in the heart: we swap what we can control with what we cannot. Then we feel responsible for outcomes that were never placed in our hands. The result is a restless, tightening cycle of thought and action. We feel that if we just learn more, prepare more, and act more, we can secure what is uncertain. But the more we try to manage the uncontrollable, the more unstable we become.

This is why anxiety is not fundamentally a productivity problem. It is a knowledge problem.

William Law captured this insight nearly three centuries ago:

“Hadst thou not gone abroad, and harkened to idle rumours, thou wouldst not have been sensible of thy loss… Thy disquietude of heart arises from thy listening to idle rumours.”

His language feels old, but his diagnosis is strikingly current. Anxiety grows when the heart becomes trained to listen to the wrong voices and to treat the wrong information as essential.

The Message That Trains the Heart

Every day, we are being discipled by what we hear. The messages we read, the conversations we replay, the headlines we absorb, the speculation we entertain — all of it forms a curriculum for the soul. These inputs quietly train our hearts and ears to decide what is worth understanding.

And once we feel we understand something, we feel responsible to do something about it.

This is the hidden mechanism of anxiety. Knowledge creates a perceived obligation. If I know something might go wrong, I must prepare. If I understand a threat, I must act. If I see a possible outcome, I must prevent it.

But much of what fills our minds is not actionable knowledge. It is speculation, possibility, and noise. We listen to “idle rumours” in modern form: forecasts, opinions, hypotheticals, and fears dressed up as information.

The more we listen, the more responsible we feel. The more responsible we feel, the more we try to control. The more we try to control, the more anxious we become.

This is how a person can be exhausted without ever having done anything meaningful.

Infatuated With the Wrong Kind of Knowledge

Anxiety is an infatuation with the wrong kind of knowledge. It is a fixation on information that enlarges our sense of responsibility while offering no real authority to act.

We become preoccupied with outcomes instead of obedience. We obsess over possibilities instead of realities. We try to manage what belongs to God instead of stewarding what belongs to us.

The heart is not built to carry that kind of weight.

When a person lives this way long enough, reality itself begins to feel unstable. Every conversation becomes a signal. Every headline becomes a warning. Every unknown becomes a threat. The mind begins to spin, not because the world is out of control, but because the heart has taken on a role it was never meant to hold.

Burnout then sets in. Not because the work was too much, but because the burden was misplaced.

The Neglect of the Right Kind of Knowledge

While the heart chases the wrong knowledge, it slowly neglects the right kind.

The Word of God tells us what we should actually know most. It tells us who we are, who God is, and what belongs to Him. From that foundation, it becomes clear what we should be doing and, just as important, what we should not be doing.

Right knowledge does not expand our anxiety. It narrows our assignment.

It reminds us that we are not responsible for outcomes. It reminds us that we cannot control tomorrow. It reminds us that faithfulness is our role, not mastery.

But right knowledge does not help unless it becomes habit.

This is where many people falter. They agree with the truth in principle but live as though the rumors are more urgent. They know what God has said, but they react to what they have heard. Over time, their habits are shaped more by speculation than by faith.

Anxiety grows in that gap.

Habits of Faith vs. Habits of Rumination

Faith is not simply believing the right things. It is living daily in alignment with what is true.

That requires habits.

Habits of returning to what God has said. Habits of releasing what does not belong to us. Habits of obedience in the small, clear responsibilities in front of us.

Without those habits, the mind fills the space with something else. It defaults to scanning, anticipating, and rehearsing scenarios. It tries to solve problems that do not exist yet. It carries burdens it cannot lift.

And because these burdens cannot be resolved, the heart never finds rest.

Reality Has a Way of Correcting Us

If we step back and listen, reality itself begins to expose the illusion.

There are arenas of life that we can influence. There are arenas we cannot change. There are outcomes that will unfold regardless of how much we think about them. Yet anxiety pushes us to treat everything as if it is ours to manage. We go crazy trying to hold together what was never ours to hold.

If we would listen carefully, reality would tell us something freeing: there are things we can never change and should never try to.

When we accept that boundary, the soul begins to settle.

The Heart at Rest

William Law’s observation still holds. Disquietude of heart often comes from listening to the wrong voices. When we fill our minds with noise, we begin to feel losses that have not even happened. We carry grief for imagined futures. We mourn outcomes that never arrive.

But when the heart is trained by the right knowledge, something changes.

We begin to act where we are called to act. We begin to release what we cannot control. We begin to live within the boundaries God has set.

And slowly, the spinning stops.

Anxiety loses its grip, not because life becomes predictable, but because responsibility becomes clear.

We return to faithfulness instead of fixation. We return to obedience instead of obsession. We return to trust instead of control…

And in that place, the heart finds rest.